:Adult Entertainment Association of Canada
{{Infobox organization
| name = Adult Entertainment Association of Canada
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| type = NGO
| status = Coalition
| purpose = To promote the interests of 53 strip clubs
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| location = Canada
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| region_served = Ontario
| services =
| membership = Strip club owners and agents
| language = English
| general =
| leader_title = Director
| leader_name = Tim Lambrinos
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| website = {{url|http://www.adultentertainmentassociation.ca/}}
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{{Portal|Sex work}}
The Adult Entertainment Association of Canada (AEAC; also called the Adult Association of Canada{{Cite news|work=The London Free Press|title=Thumbs down on stripper fingerprint plan|author=Tom Godfrey|date=November 7, 2011|url=https://lfpress.com/news/canada/2011/11/06/18932416.html|access-date=November 7, 2013}}) is a coalition of strip club owners and their agents{{Cite book|page=183|title=From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights|editor=Neve Gordon|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2004|isbn=0739108786}} that represents 53 of the 140 strip clubs in Ontario, Canada.{{Cite news|work=Toronto Star|title=Stripper ban called 'unconstitutional'|author=Lesley Ciarula Taylor|date=September 5, 2008|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2008/09/05/stripper_ban_called_unconstitutional.html|access-date=November 5, 2013}} Tim Lambrinos is the organization's director.{{Cite news|work=National Post |title=Exotic dancers protest immigration crackdown |date=August 15, 2007 |url=http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=3ee9daf8-f7e9-46e8-9a8c-7f102f091ee1&sponsor= |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131106010037/http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=3ee9daf8-f7e9-46e8-9a8c-7f102f091ee1&sponsor= |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 6, 2013 |access-date=November 5, 2013 }}
History
The Exotic Dancers' Alliance (EDA), a collective that was founded in 1995 to bring together both former and current strippers and their supporters, sought to establish minimum employment standards for strippers in Ontario by contending with the AEAC, but the EDA ceased to exist in 2004.{{Cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/agencyoftheirown0000gall/page/50 50]|title=An Agency of Their Own: Sex Worker Union Organizing|author=Gregory Gall|publisher=John Hunt Publishing|year=2012|isbn=1846942543|url=https://archive.org/details/agencyoftheirown0000gall/page/50}} Also in 2004, Ottawa instituted a law against lap dancing, and the AEAC unsuccessfully attempted to have the law overturned in 2007.{{Cite news|work=Bloomberg News|title=Ottawa Strip Clubs Lose Appeal on Lap Dancing Ban|author=Joe Schneider|date=May 24, 2007|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aTdNpuNIFg1o&refer=canada|access-date=November 5, 2013}} Starting in 2004, the AEAC and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada became embroiled in a long-standing controversy about work permits for foreign workers to be hired for the purpose of striptease.{{Cite news|work=United Press International|title=Foreign stripper shortage in Canada|date=June 10, 2008|url=http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/06/10/Foreign_stripper_shortage_in_Canada/UPI-87231213102284/|access-date=November 5, 2013}}
In 2008, when Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley allegedly received threats from sex industry officials in relation to her support of Bill C-17, which sought to allow immigration officers to deny temporary visas to prospective strippers if they were suspected to be sex trafficking victims, Lambrinos said that "it's not plausible" that any of the AEAC strip clubs were responsible for the threats.{{Cite news|work=Postmedia News |title=Immigration minister threatened over strippers legislation |date=April 24, 2008 |url=http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=25529326-7db2-49f3-9df6-2538bc5dc95a&k=22757 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131106010110/http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=25529326-7db2-49f3-9df6-2538bc5dc95a&k=22757 |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 6, 2013 |access-date=November 5, 2013 }} In 2009, the AEAC invited Toronto City Council members to attend a free lunch at a strip club in the city, and three councillors accepted the invitation.{{Cite news|work=United Press International|title=Toronto councilors scope out strip club|date=March 27, 2009|url=http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/03/27/Toronto_councilors_scope_out_strip_club/UPI-13241238171561/|access-date=November 5, 2013}}
The AEAC released a statement in 2010 that the government's crackdown on sex industry worker visas had resulted in a stripper shortage, and Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews responded by saying that the strip clubs that were short on strippers because of the crackdown were engaging in human trafficking.{{Cite news|work=Maclean's|title=Ottawa cracks down on stripper visas|date=November 29, 2010|url=http://www.macleans.ca/2010/11/29/ottawa-cracks-down-on-stripper-visas/|access-date=November 5, 2013}} Toews then ordered the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate the relevant strip clubs in order to determine whether or not the strippers working there were illegal immigrants or sex trafficking victims, and the AEAC launched a campaign to deny these allegations.{{Cite news|work=Toronto Sun|title=Rub parlours the problem: Strip club owners|author=Tom Godfrey|date=November 26, 2010|url=http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/11/26/16335426.html|access-date=November 5, 2013}}