Strippers haven't had the easiest time taking off their clothes across Canada lately.
Fredericton City Council recently voted to purchase the only peeler bar in town to help improve the north side neighbourhood, which is now being gentrified.
A sale price of $500,000, which was nearly 40 per cent higher than the property's assessed value, is hoped to be recouped through more tax revenues in the area. But five dancers and 25 other staff will have to find a new job soon.
The prohibition against people removing their clothes in any place where alcohol is served has continued to be skirted in Saskatchewan, through old-fashioned burlesque shows that keep the nudity under control, although six bars have been fined or suspended in the past decade for breaking the rules.
Would a licensed strip club really bring out a more unsavoury clientele? A feature story that ran in Postmedia News newspapers across Canada drew attention to the arguably antiquated law.
Yet the provincial government in Saskatchewan responded by saying it has better things to worry about.
Six dancers from the Bare Essentials club took to the streets this week, clad in shorts and tank tops, to get people to sign a petition to have the rule overturned.
They argued the law is actually unsafe for women, since the lack of drinkers has led some of the strippers to turn to private shows or prostitution instead.
Conversely, politicians in Kelowna, B.C. refused to intervene when a bar in the uptown Rutland neighbourhood announced it would introduce female dancers whose talents weren't found at the traditional ballet.
The business association appealed to the authorities they could think of, but the request to keep the strippers away fell on deaf ears, since the liquor license allowed for adult entertainment.
Some locals countered the attraction would actually add to the area's unique character compared to the more sterile downtown Kelowna.
None of these stories have been as dramatic, though, as an incident earlier this month outside a strip club in Carignan, Que., north of Montreal, where a man decided to fly his ultralight plane into the parking lot before stepping inside. Police found him, then let him go.
The pilot could face federal transportation charges.
And he didn't even take off his clothes.
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