Strip club owner takes on Sgro  
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch Posted 2:40 p.m. December 3, 2004]

The view from across the street from Parliament Hill was obstructed by a billboard on wheels on Friday .

OTTAWA —Pedestrians and motorists passing by Parliament Hill on Friday may have been distracted by a large billboard across the street asking for strippers.
         
The billboard is a form of protest by Peter Psihogios, the owner of the Airport Strip Club in Toronto, who says the government's recent decision to close a loophole making it easier for Romanian strippers to enter Canada will hurt his business. 

The billboard mounted on the back of a flatbed truck reads "Airport Strip Club; Exotic Dancers Wanted; Call Judy Sgro, MP."

Sgro is the Immigration minister who is under fire in question period each day for signing a ministerial permit giving a temporary resident permit to a Romanian dancer who worked on her election campaign. 

Psihogios, who says his club has 500-seat capacity and 100 employees, says he has had "hundreds" of dancers from Romania work at his club in recent years. He currently has 20 to 30 Romanian dancers at his club now.

"We've got 500 seats and 100 employees. Where are they going to go?"

He said clubs like his who employ Romanian dancers are being made scapegoats for a scandal which he says is not about strippers but preferential treatment for campaign workers.

"They dropped the ball - the government - and they're taking it out on us. We're the whipping boys. And what for? What did we do?" asked Psihogios. "This program has been working good for five years."

He said there is no prostitution in the strip clubs and if there was then the police should deal with it.

"None of this stuff is going on and 99 per cent of those people have never been to a strip club," he said while pointing at Parliament Hill. "They don't know what it's all about, have never seen or witness a strip show. I dare them to come to any of the strip clubs."

Sgro has asked Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro to investigate the the controversy surrounding the Romanian dancer and her staff and is waiting for his advice.

Meanwhile, the Sgro controversy was front-and-centre in question period again on Friday as Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay led off  with a call for Sgro to resign or be dismissed.

According to media reports, Sgro's chief of staff, who met with a club owner at a Toronto strip club to discuss including women from other countries in the program, has taken a leave of absence. 

MacKay noted that action has been taken on Sgro's staffer before Shapiro has released his findings.

"The prime minister may be vague on missile defence, he is firmly committed to ministerial defence," he said.

"A bunker mentality has taken hold in the PMO if they drop the strategy for its embattled minister of Immigration. In fact, the Prime Minister is not waiting for the ethics commissioner's report at all. He is moving in the human shields right away, under the radar."

Conservative MP Helena Guergis suggested the protest by the strip club owner outside the Parliament buildings was a sign it was time for Sgro to leave.

"With immigration staff who do business in strip clubs, an immigration minister who misleads Canadians and with this minister now being reduced to public ridicule on billboards, will the prime minister finally do the right thing, restore integrity to this ministry and fire the minister?"

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