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| "That's all part of proving your bona fides." by Ice Cream Jonsey 10/07/2004, 1:53pm PDT | ||||
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Immigration officers seek bare facts on work visas for strippers July 27, 2004 - 19:04 OTTAWA (CP) - Foreign strippers who want to work in Canada are being asked to prove they're qualified for the job - sometimes by stating the facts in pictorial form. "We don't ever ask for nude photographs," insists Maria Iadinardi, a spokeswoman for the federal Immigration Department. But visa officers do sometimes ask for "stage photographs" as proof that women seeking employment as exotic dancers in Canada have experience at the trade in their home countries. "Stage photographs could be wearing a number of things," said Iadinardi. "They could be wearing their full outfit or their costume of the day." They could also be wearing a lot less. Mendel Green, a Toronto immigration lawyer, says he once had a client from Romania who was denied entry to Canada because she produced only a picture of herself dancing topless. The visa officer at the embassy in Bucharest concluded that wasn't good enough to prove she could work in the nude. Green appealed to Federal Court but the judge sided with the Immigration Department. The case wasn't as bizarre as it seems, Green said in an interview Tuesday. Although Immigration may have gone too far in this instance, its overall goal in screening would-be exotic dancers is laudable, he said. It's to ensure foreign women are not being exploited by the club owners who hire them in Canada. "To be very frank, from a practical standpoint, it makes sense if the young lady hasn't ever danced in the nude, to protect her," said Green. "It's merely to ensure she knows what she's getting herself into." Iadinardi said the visa policy must be seen in broader context as part of an international campaign against efforts by organized crime or human trafficking rings to lure would-be dancers into prostitution or other unsavoury professions. "They're told they're going to do one thing and then they're brought in to do something else," she said. "We've been very concerned about this . . . . We're committed to protecting women from trafficking and exploitation." In part that means the usual security and criminal record checks on exotic dancers entering the country. But it also means requiring proof of past experience. That can involve letters of reference from employers or other documentation. But another common method of proof is for the woman to produce a photographic portfolio. Lorne Waldman, a Toronto expert in immigration law, said the key question is whether it's mandatory or voluntary to hand over the photos. "If a woman voluntarily decides to give (a visa officer) pictures of her dancing, and the pictures happened to show her naked, there would be nothing objectionable about it," said Waldman. "But I don't think it would be appropriate to require that the woman present pictures of herself without clothes on." A memo from a visa officer at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City, obtained by the Toronto Sun under the Access to Information Act and made public Tuesday, appeared to state that "stage photographs" are indeed mandatory. But Iadinardi said the decision is left to the discretion of the officer in each case. Green said that's been his experience as well, but the discretionary decision is often to ask for pictures. Strippers aren't the only people asked to provide evidence of their profession when they seek a work visa, said Derik Hodgson, an aide to Immigration Minister Judy Sgro. In fact, the practice is common in the entertainment industry. "You have to prove that you do what you say you do," said Hodgson. "If you're a singer you're expected to bring tapes, or a model show (your) portfolios. "That's all part of proving your bona fides." |
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"That's all part of proving your bona fides." by 10/07/2004, 1:53pm PDT  Re: "That's all part of proving your bona fides." by 10/07/2004, 3:20pm PDT |
