Canada Invites Strippers and Gets Scrutiny (washingtonpost.com)

Nude dancers come here under one of several programs aimed at recruiting foreign workers with specialties sorely needed in Canada. Last year, the country imported more than 19,000 construction workers, almost 5,000 nannies and 1,560 university professors. In addition, 661 work permits were issued or renewed for foreign exotic dancers.

The program has set off a raging debate over whether exotic dancing exploits immigrant women or offers them opportunities they would not otherwise have. Club owners contend there is no link to prostitution. Although prostitution is mostly legal in Canada, soliciting prostitution is generally against the law, and clubs that pressured women into providing sexual services would be breaking the solicitation laws.

The one former exotic dancer I have known was a lawyer who advocated unionization and legal protection for dancers.