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Why Montreal sex workers chose F1’s Canadian GP {Formula One Canadian Grand Prix} to strike: ‘We don’t want to pay to work anymore’
The Athletic (NY Times sports site) ^ | May 25, 2026 | Julian McKenzie

Posted on 05/26/2026 6:35:26 AM PDT by Salman

MONTREAL — As Canadian Grand Prix qualifying took place at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on Saturday, a different kind of rally took place in Montreal’s downtown core.

Sex workers announced they’d be going on strike during one of Montreal’s busiest weekends of the year. Over one hundred sex workers and allies walked the streets and protested in the name of improved wages and working conditions.

“Grand Prix was a good opportunity because our employers make a lot of money,” said Adore Goldman, co-founder of the Sex Work Autonomous Committee (SWAC), established in 2019. “But…often we don’t make that much money because they overbook. They book a lot of girls, and they raise the bar (fees). So, in the end, it’s just a normal night. Sometimes even worse.”

The protest comes against a complex legal backdrop. In Canada, selling sexual services is legal, but purchasing them is a criminal offense under Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, passed in 2014. This means sex workers themselves operate legally, while their clients do not. That leaves workers in a precarious position, unable to fully access labor protections or report workplace incidents without exposing their clients to prosecution.

Protesters are calling for the abolition of bar fees, which sex workers have to pay before working shifts in clubs. Through speaking with numerous workers, The Athletic learned bar fees could range from $15 to $140.

“We don’t want to have to pay to work anymore,” said Goldman. ...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


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KEYWORDS: unions

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Prostitution, legal. Pimping (in effect) legal. Paying for it, illegal.

Some sort of bizarre twisted lefty moralism.

1 posted on 05/26/2026 6:35:26 AM PDT by Salman
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To: Salman

Race Drivers pay in
Hats and ‘T’ Shirts.


2 posted on 05/26/2026 6:37:07 AM PDT by Big Red Badger (Resist Satan's Tyranny )
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To: Salman

WOW! Canaduh government is effed up, eh?


3 posted on 05/26/2026 6:38:41 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization? )
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To: Salman

“””””In Canada, selling sexual services is legal, but purchasing them is a criminal offense under Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, passed in 2014. This means sex workers themselves operate legally, while their clients do not. “””””

A new form of law in our brave new feminized world, the seductive pusher is legal, but the fish is the criminal.


4 posted on 05/26/2026 6:40:56 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: Salman
The Athletic learned bar fees could range from $15 to $140. I wonder what determines which ones get charged $15 vs. which ones get charged $140.
5 posted on 05/26/2026 6:41:59 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: Salman

Alternate headline: “Street Walkers take to the streets.”


6 posted on 05/26/2026 6:42:12 AM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: Salman
It ain't easy being a pimp....On Strike?


7 posted on 05/26/2026 6:44:36 AM PDT by xp38
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To: Salman

I have no pity for these Sex Workers.

Nahh.

They’re always laying down on the job.


8 posted on 05/26/2026 6:45:16 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (Import the third world. Become the second world.)
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

Time to Unionize? Oh, oh, I’ve got it! Union Local 69…..


9 posted on 05/26/2026 6:47:13 AM PDT by Lockbox (politicians, they all seemed like game show host to me.... Sting)
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To: All

Oh no! Not the Montreal sex workers !! I’m canceling my vacation


10 posted on 05/26/2026 6:48:25 AM PDT by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
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To: Salman

is prostitution legal in Canada?Legal in Montreal?

Interesting to see that there will be labor unions or labor actions on part of people who provide such services.


11 posted on 05/26/2026 6:52:24 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Salman

Dont they like being like men?

Men always pay. Men always pay.


12 posted on 05/26/2026 6:55:07 AM PDT by Jonty30 (He spent a week hunting a mammoth, just because I said I was hungry. He's such a good friend. )
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To: Salman

“We don’t want to have to pay to work anymore,” said Goldman

Goldman is an idiot. Anybody who runs a business pays others. Rent, utilities, raw materials, employees, license fees, taxes. If you are a hair stylist you pay to rent a chair at a salon.

Why should whoring be any different?


13 posted on 05/26/2026 6:55:36 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: PGalt

I miss the good old days of the Windsor Ballet when the world was so innocent(?)....🙄


14 posted on 05/26/2026 6:59:16 AM PDT by Nekman (The Dems are SocialistCommunistUtopianMarxists...SCUM for short...it FITS!)
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To: Salman

The prostitutes don’t have to pay to work. They can go back out to the street corners any time they want.

They’re paying the bar for a place to hang out (it sometimes does get cold or rainy in Montreal), a place they’re less likely to get mugged or more, a better place to pick up Johns than hopping into a car with anyone who pauses on the street, a place to sit down and grab a drink or a snack in between jobs, access to a restroom both for personal relief and for professional services.

A restaurant, bar or nightclub can decide for itself if it wants to providing free support services to the whores. That of course will chase out other potential customers, so it’s a matter of the crowd they want to attract. It can hire security to keep them out. It can charge them a fee to stay. But the establishment is indeed rendering valuable service to the working girls.

The girls themselves can head back onto the street. Or do their business online, on their own dime. Or sign up with an escort service (that will also charge them for services rendered).


15 posted on 05/26/2026 7:01:00 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: Salman

There’s a notorious strip club in ATL, Magic City, where the girls can make 25k a night when there’s a big game in town. Pro athletes are big tippers.


16 posted on 05/26/2026 7:03:57 AM PDT by DeplorablePaul
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To: Responsibility2nd
They’re always laying down on the job.

And then they blow their money away.

17 posted on 05/26/2026 7:07:47 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

The laws may have changed but back a while ago sex for money was legal but solicitation wasn’t. How solicitation is defined wasn’t made clear nor did I care to investigate the nuances.


18 posted on 05/26/2026 7:18:11 AM PDT by xp38
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To: Dilbert San Diego
Interesting to see that there will be labor unions or labor actions on part of people who provide such services.

It's the johns who need a union.

19 posted on 05/26/2026 7:18:28 AM PDT by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump )
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To: xp38

Also houses of prostitution are also no nos.


20 posted on 05/26/2026 7:19:58 AM PDT by xp38
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