FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 25, 2021
Naomi Sayers, Barrister/Solicitor & Notary Public
Christopher Folz, Barrister/ Solicitor & Notary Public
me@meetnaomi.com / christopher@folzlaw.ca
WORK SAFE TWERK SAFE –
STRIPPERS APPEAL DOUG FORD’S DECISION CONCERNING STRIP CLUBS
Ontario: Naomi Sayers and her co-counsel, Christopher Folz, represent the above group, Work Safe Twerk Safe in a recent urgent motion filed today to challenge Doug Ford’s decision to continue to target and exclude strippers, discriminatorily and unfairly, in the Province’s reopening plans.
Our client is a peer-to-peer group that is based out of Toronto, Ontario (Canada), made up of current and former strippers who came together to fight for strippers’ safety, dignity and rights on the basis that exotic dancing is real work. Our client’s mandate, among other things, is to resist against unsafe work practices implemented by owners and the failure of policy and law makers to ensure policies, practices and procedures centre the health and safety of strippers.
Our clients wish to share with the general public the following:
As strippers in Ontario, we are concerned that the government will continue to exclude us on matters of public health and occupational safety. In the previous round of strip club openings in the pandemic, the regulations did not adequately consider our perspectives and safety. In this context, those of us who returned to work worried about our health, safety, and bodily autonomy. We do not want this round of pandemic public health measures to be based on stereotypical assumptions about strippers as vectors of disease – assumptions that other sex workers have also been subjected to during the pandemic. We feel we, like sex workers in other sectors, have been left out of decisions that affect us.
From what we understand about the province’s reopening plans, strippers could return to performing in Stage 3, which could happen as soon as July. It is imperative that we be consulted about reopening plans for strip clubs. We are experts in protecting our health and safety, and demand to be heard!
Contact WSTS: worksafetwerksafe@gmail.com
Donate to the legal fund here: https://ca.gofundme.com/f/work-safe-twerk-safe-legal-action