Montreal sex workers march for stronger labour rights on F1 weekend

MONTREAL —

A group of sex workers and their supporters marched through downtown Montreal on Saturday to demand better working conditions, as hundreds of thousands of tourists converge on the city for Grand Prix weekend.

Some 200 people joined the demonstration, waving signs and chanting slogans such as “No dancers! No dollars!” and “Bad girls like good workers’ rights!” as they marched through crowded streets.

Adore Goldman, a member of the organizing Sex Work Autonomous Committee, said the workers want an end to the nightly fees that dancers are forced to pay to work in clubs, as well as the full decriminalization of sex work and access to better labour protections.

“What we are asking for is rights for sex workers,” she said. “We want better working conditions, we want safety at work, we want hygienic workplaces, and we want to abolish the bar fee, which is a fee we have to pay to work in strip clubs.”

Goldman said that dancers in strip clubs are generally considered self-employed workers, which means they’re not covered by Quebec workplace safety regulations. That means, for example, they don’t get paid time off if they get injured, or parental leave if they become pregnan.

However, she said many are treated as employees, and are given rules around when to start and end their shifts and what duties to perform.

The committee asked that none of the interviewees be identified by their real names over concerns for their safety, including the risk of stalking, doxxing or violence.

The demonstration takes place during Montreal’s Formula One Grand Prix weekend, which is one of the busiest tourist events of the year.

The committee has also called on strip club and massage parlour workers, as well as other sex workers, to go on strike on Saturday.

A strip club worker who gave her name as Harriet said she was taking the day off to join the strike, even though she risked her job by doing so. Harriet, who wore a black mask and a veil over her face, said she was there because “the business relationship between strippers and bosses doesn’t make any sense.”

She said strippers get the “worst of both worlds,” with neither the protections of being treated as an employee nor the freedoms that are supposed to come with being an independent contractor.

She said strippers sometimes pay club managers more in bar fees than they earn, meaning they lose money some shifts.

“It’s not guaranteed pay every time you show up to work,” she said. “But we can still be told what to do, sort of arbitrarily penalized for how we’re dressing, how we look, how our body looks. We can be fired for being too, quote-unquote, old or fat, and we don’t have any of the protections of employees.”

Harriet said she would like to see the bar fee abolished, as well as recourse for dancers who are mistreated.

She said Grand Prix weekend is very lucrative for club owners, but no so much for strippers. Some managers raise bar fees, while many book as many dancers as they can, she said.

“We’re competing with maybe 30 other women to sell dances, and you might not actually sell any,” she said. “So you might be paying $100 to work on Grand Prix weekend and go home with minus $100.”

Those going on strike also want to call attention to the fact the federal government hasn’t fully decriminalized sex work. In Canada, it’s not illegal to sell sex, but purchasing sexual services and running brothels are criminal offences.

A participant, who gave her name as Rebaynia, said she supports decriminalization because it will help end human trafficking and give sex workers “a chance to be more safe,” even as she worried that those without the ability to work legally could be deported.

Goldman said that not every sex worker supports the group’s goals, but believes enough have walked off the job to send a message.

“We are already having an impact on the clubs,” she said. “The clubs are less busy. They have less girls. So even though we cannot quantify it, we see it has an impact.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2026.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press