Toronto strip club owner will refuse people entry if they're not fully vaccinated

TORONTO -

A strip club in downtown Toronto says that it will require its patrons to be fully vaccinated once it reopens on Friday.

Ford government officials have insisted that they have no plans to introduce a vaccine passport that individuals would have to produce to partake in non-essential activities but Filmores on Dundas Street East has decided to take matters into its own hands by asking patrons their vaccination status as a condition of entry.

The club says that all of its employees have also been fully vaccinated. 

“The biggest problem is there is no vaccine passport and the onus has been put on to us to provide the safest possible workplace for not only our staff and dancers and entertainers but also the patrons as well,” Kasper Cameron, who is the entertainment manager at Filmores, told CP24 on Wednesday morning. “It would have been a lot nicer if there was a vaccine passport, that would have made things a lot easier and we wouldn't have to do what we're doing on our own but in the interim we're just going to take the necessary steps so we don't get shut down again and so that anybody who does come in to Filmores is going to have a good time and not have to worry about concerns of safety.”

The Ontario government ordered the closure of all strip clubs in September and they have remained shuttered since then.

Prior to their closure officials with Toronto Public Health raised concerns about contact tracing at adult entertainment facilities after discovering that hundreds of people who attended a strip club on Bloor Street West had given incomplete and, in some cases, bogus information.

Speaking with CP24, Cameron said that he believes strip clubs have been unfairly “targeted” in the past and have faced particularly prohibitive restrictions.

For that reason, he said that all adult entertainment facilities in the city held a joint discussion on reopening and agreed to put an identical policy in place requiring that patrons be vaccinated under the belief that it will give them a better shot at remaining open. 

At this point it remains unclear how the clubs plan to ensure that patrons are vaccinated, though in an interview with CP24 on Wednesday Canadian Civil Liberties Association Executive Director Michael Bryant said that they ought to proceed with caution.

“Businesses can exclude people from their businesses,” he said. “But the risk a business runs when they put a sign up saying you can't come in here unless you're fully vaccinated is number one that you might be discriminating against people and then they would be subject to either a lawsuit or penalties under the Human Rights Code and number two is that they are going to be driving customers away who decide they want to go somewhere else.”

Strip clubs are among a host of businesses that will be allowed to reopen when Ontario enters step three of its reopening plan at 12:01 a.m. on Friday.

Their capacity will be limited to ensure two metres of distance, at all times.