Grand Prix Week

[gaby]

For second year no F1 in Montréal in June....it was previsible....BUT the good news il y aura des courses en 2030 et 2031...soit un prolongement de 2 ans à l'entente actuelle....finalement not that bad.

 

[CaptRenault]

As has happened frequently in past years during the lead-up to Grand Prix week, anti-prostitution organizations and histrionic feminists have revved up the anti-prostitution propaganda. Here is a link to an article about it in Saturday's Journal de Montreal. I've posted translations of a few parts with my comments below.

Offensive sans précédent pour contrer la prostitution au Grand Prix du Canada

Une campagne de pub sans précédent sera lancée notamment auprès des touristes sexuels avec le Grand Prix.

www.journaldemontreal.com

In an unprecedented advertising campaign, Quebec will for the first time target clients of prostitution, to remind them that they are defying the law by paying for sex.

It is definitely not "unprecedented" because I have seen such campaigns many times during GP week in the past couple decades.

The organization overseeing this first advertising campaign aimed at customers is financed by the Secrétariat à la Condition Féminine [of the Quebec provincial government].

So money for the campaign comes from tax funds and it is given to the feminist organization CLES to organize the propaganda campaign.

The objective is of course to address clients of prostitution, but also sex tourists, who see the Grand Prix du Canada as an opportunity to afford sexual services.

This is just stupid. Those guys who come to Montreal mainly for sex, avoid GP week because hotel prices are wildly inflated. There is no evidence that prostitution in Montreal during the GP week differs in any significant way from prostitution during any other busy summer/tourist week of the year. Most F1 fans have no interest in prostitution and while some do, they are also busy attending the race and various other events associated with the race, so they don't have much time to see escorts. Some girls don't like to work during GP week and some do. Based on my experience, there is no problem booking girls during GP week as long as one makes a plan early and is somewhat flexible.

The organization of the Grand Prix has been trying for years to dissociate itself from what happens outside the circuit, especially in parties, despite everything, prostitution remains an "image stuck to the skin" of F1, believes Mrs. Mourani .

The only reason that the GP is "associated" with prostitution is because of the propaganda distributed by prostitution abolitionists.

"I've never been asked so much if I was underage as during the Grand Prix in Montreal, or if I knew of any," said Tricia Murray, a 29-year-old woman who left the industry. sex more than two years ago.

Guys were asking her if she was "underage" when she was in her mid-20s? I doubt it.

The article makes vague references to cracking down on clients and reminding them that they are breaking the law. Technically, that's true, but unless and until law enforcement sets up sting operations with fake agencies during GP week, there is really no risk to clients.

Even if LE did set up a fake agency for GP week, savvy users of MERB would know not to trust it. In any case, LE has enough problems to deal with during GP week without wasting time setting up low-return sting operations.

The only unusual thing that I have ever seen during GP week was once when cops descended on the Chez Parée strip club and harassed the girls for 30 minutes by checking their IDs. Eventually they left and no one was arrested or stopped from working. The cops got free views of bare boobs while they strutted around the bar. I am sure the operation was organized to show that LE was fulfilling its sacred obligation to "do something" about a problem that concerns only a minority of vocal opponents of any kind of sex work.

 

[Mistral]

The organization of the Grand Prix has been trying for years to dissociate itself from what happens outside the circuit, especially in parties, despite everything, prostitution remains an "image stuck to the skin" of F1, believes Mrs. Mourani .

From what I can tell - the biggest contributor to linking the Grand Prix to prostitution is these articles in the media themselves, that always get published this time of year on how it's a problem and what's being done to "raise awareness".

 

[sene5hos]

For the Indies, I advise them not to receive in the Hotels, if they have an Incall it's much less problematic.

 

[CLOUD 500]

The only unusual thing that I have ever seen during GP week was once when cops descended on the Chez Parée strip club and harassed the girls for 30 minutes by checking their IDs. Eventually they left and no one was arrested or stopped from working. The cops got free views of bare boobs while they strutted around the bar. I am sure the operation was organized to show that LE was fulfilling its sacred obligation to "do something" about a problem that concerns only a minority of vocal opponents of any kind of sex work.

They been doing this for the past few years while leaving MPs alone. I remember in Grand Prix 2019 when the police stormed Vegas, must have been3p officers and they set up a command post. They harassed all the girls looking for tattoos or other possible signs of being pimped. But this was nothing but political theatre to show to the world that they are doing something.

 

[Clara Versailles]

From what I can tell - the biggest contributor to linking the Grand Prix to prostitution is these articles in the media themselves, that always get published this time of year on how it's a problem and what's being done to "raise awareness".

I know, and how unfortunate.

If journalists, media owners and everything in between and besides would face the truth all year long instead of focusing on their own growth only...

 

[CaptRenault]

The director of Chez Stella gave an excellent response to the abolitionist campaign of CLES in this article:

New ads fighting sex worker exploitation during Grand Prix harmful: advocate | CityNews Montreal

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Canadian Grand Prix returns June 19 in Montreal, with festivities beginning Thursday. La Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation sexuelle (CLES) is releasing advertisements said to raise awareness against sexual exploitation. One says...

montreal.citynews.ca

What was your initial reaction when you saw the ads? What message are these ads sending out?

These ads are sending actually a very violent message. What what they’re saying is that they want all of our clients to be arrested. And what they want is more police in our lives. They want to send the police to arrest our clients. And obviously, sex workers become responsible for this. When our clients are targeted by ads, by police, it becomes our responsibility as sex workers to make it safe for them. So this means that they will not comply with any screening procedure. Clients will not be giving us their legal name or even sometimes their phone number if they know that we might be a cop, we might, they might get arrested, they might be under surveillance. They won’t agree to negotiate fully about what services we offer, what protection we’re using, what price we’re charging before actually meeting up with us. So all of that creates a climate of violence and danger for sex workers.

---

What would you have preferred to see or think should be done?

So for us, obviously, we need decriminalization of sex work. The fact that – the ad is true, it is illegal to buy sex in Canada – it’s actually illegal to communicate in any way with a sex worker for the purpose of buying sex. So that is the state of the law in Canada. And I think the public doesn’t necessarily know this. People think that sex workers are somehow decriminalized. They think that something has been done to protect us. But it’s the opposite.

The government has no business telling people, especially women, what we can do with our bodies, and they have no business preventing us from accepting money in exchange for sexual services.

---

What more needs to be done to protect sex workers when it comes to international events like the Grand Prix, where the city is filled with tourists?

Tourists are not usually necessarily problematic clients and there is no actual increase in sex work during the Grand Prix or any other event. So we need to acknowledge that fact and that reality, that sex work happens all the time throughout the year.

Sex workers have bills to pay 12 months out of the year. So there’s nothing special about summer as some sex workers will make more money, some will make less money. But the common factor that is harming all sex workers during the Grand Prix is the police repression. We need to end this. There is no increased safety from police in our lives. There’s only decreased safety. So we need to give sex workers rights. We need to have access to employment standards, to occupational health and safety, to all of the other rights that other workers have in our society. And in order to do that, we need to remove sex work from the Criminal Code and view it as labor and have laws that reflect that.

 

[Clara Versailles]

The director of Chez Stella gave an excellent response to the abolitionist campaign of CLES in this article:

New ads fighting sex worker exploitation during Grand Prix harmful: advocate | CityNews Montreal

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Canadian Grand Prix returns June 19 in Montreal, with festivities beginning Thursday. La Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation sexuelle (CLES) is releasing advertisements said to raise awareness against sexual exploitation. One says...

montreal.citynews.ca

With all due respect, Mx Wesley cannot see the forest for the trees... and is not to blame in such position.

*

For her who sees no wood for trees
And yet is busie as the bees
For her that's settled on her knees
And speaketh not without her fees
(Libera nos)

Adapted from Heywood, 1546... and that was too easy, sorry John!

 

[IamNY]

Glad this thread popped up. The only time I would absolutely say no to going to Montreal is during Grand Prix Week. Too much demand and not enough supply.

 

[CaptRenault]

With all due respect, Mx Wesley cannot see the forest for the trees... and is not to blame in such position.

What does "Mx" stand for? Perhaps you meant "Ms." or "Miss."

If you believe that Ms. Wesley "...cannot see the forest for the trees," then what is your assessment of "the forest," i.e. the workings of the sex business in Montreal during Grand Prix week?

Wesley, others and I have stated our opinions in clear language. Many of us have actual experience with the sex business during GP week. In my case, I have a lot and most of it was good.

What is your experience, if any? As seems to be your habit, you speak in riddles that no one understands and quote poetry that has nothing to do with the topic.

 

[joseph]

Hi Everyone,

Just thought I'd share this.

«Je n’ai jamais vu ça»: l’offre sexuelle explose sur le web... à temps pour le Grand Prix

«Je n’ai jamais vu ça»: l’offre sexuelle explose sur le web... à temps pour le Grand Prix

Les services sont davantage exposés sur de multiples plateformes.

www.tvanouvelles.ca

Regards
Joseph

 

[andrus]

I'm not sure if this is still the case but on F-1 Weekends before the pandemic there were several restaurants / bars "marked" as pickup spots where escorts would try to find clients...

I hope it's still there - the internet removes that romantic aspect of it...

 

[CaptRenault]

The anti-prostitution hysteria surrounding Grand Prix Week/Weekend continues to grow. I have monitored this trend in the media (and in person) over a long time. It is now worse than ever.

It used to be true that the main driver of media hysteria about prostitution during GP Week (and at other times of the year) was La Presse, which is Montreal's traditional, bourgeois francophone newspaper. Here are two anti-prostitution articles from La Presse this week:

Mon Grand Prix | De teen escort à reine des bêtes de foire

Dix ans depuis ma dénonciation du cirque de la Formule 1 qui débarque à Montréal comme un conquérant⁠1 avant les solstices d’été. Quinze ans de : je ne veux pas me vendre à perte d’âme en girlfriend experience sous des drapeaux de course avant la Sainte-Anne. Ni subir le matraquage du profit par...

www.lapresse.ca

Exploitation sexuelle | Le SPVM aura les clients et les proxénètes à l’œil pendant le Grand Prix

Les enquêteurs de l’Exploitation sexuelle et de la Moralité du Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) sont déjà à l’œuvre depuis quelques semaines, et le seront encore dans les prochains jours pour tenter de faire face au phénomène de prostitution qui entoure le Grand Prix du Canada de...

www.lapresse.ca

However, Le Journal de Montreal (JDM) which is more blue-collar class than La Presse, seems to have taken over the role of leading anti-prostitution media voice. Some of their articles have been cited above. Here are three more (!) just from Thursday of this week (translate them with the Google Chrome browser):

Tourisme sexuel au Grand Prix: «On ne peut pas en faire plus», dit Tourisme Montréal

Tourisme Montréal assure que ce n’est pas son travail de se soucier de la prolifération de la prostitution pendant la fin de semaine du Grand Prix.

www.journaldemontreal.com

«J’ai l’impression d’être le pimp numéro 1 à Montréal» - François Dumontier

Le promoteur du Grand Prix de Formule 1 du Canada, François Dumontier, a exprimé son exaspération.

www.journaldemontreal.com

Grand Prix à Montréal: rien n’a changé sept ans après son coup d’éclat

Une Femen qui a protesté seins nus contre le Grand Prix en 2015 dénonce l’exploitation des femmes et la masculinité toxique qui y règnent toujours.

www.journaldemontreal.com

Part of the reason for JDM's melodramatic coverage of the "prostitution during GP Week" story is simple sensationalism--sex sells and stories about illicit sex really sell. There are probably lots of JDM readers who are masturbating to these stories right now.

I fear that the yearly hysteria about "an explosion" in prostitution during GP Week (which is NOT true) is evolving into a full-blown moral panic and that's not a good thing for either providers or clients in the Montreal sex business.

The panic is being spread by an informal alliance of the media (esp. the francophone media), hardcore feminists, bourgeois traditionalists (which includes religious believers and elite professionals such as academics, lawyers and doctors) and lower class parents who fear that their daughters will be kidnapped and forced into "sexual slavery."

I hope that things calm down in the way that they usually do after this year's GP Week hysteria. On verra.

 

[bodick7]

I did a quick look at Indy forum section.
All this sudden offering is telling me that GP is really an indy honeypot.

 

[Skym]

To me, Grand Prix weekend is so overpriced, overrated and douchey as hell. Lol

 

[2fast2slow]

this could also be a self feeding monster....everybody is talking about how there is more sex work during the grand prix (with it's assocaited $$) so more girls are drawn in to try to profit from it, which creates more advertizing, which creates the appearance of more sex work, etc...

I think everybody aggres there is a bump in the number of clients looking for love in the city during GP weekeend, which also result not only from an influx of a few 10s of thousands of tourists, but its a party for locals too, who may also contibute to the bump in the demand.

So there is a bump (not clear how big) in supply and demand. But is there a rise in sexual exploitation? The way the media and abolishinists automatically conflate what i like to call "concensual prostitution" and sexual exploitation is just so depressing.

THe only lobby group on our side are a few sex researchers and organizations like Stella. There are no lobbies representing the clients.

 

[Skym]

I walked around downtown tonight and man....downtown Montreal is a madhouse on Grand Prix weekend.

So many people on Crescent and Peel tonight. It's so many people to the point where it's annoying and douchey as hell. Lol

 

[nothinghere]

Oh yea madhouse Grand Prix weekend. Stripper Christmas!!!! Friday was the blowout at the strip clubs but Saturday many strippers were off duty leaving a lot of frustrated drunk "dudes" roaming the streets late. I felt a little uneasy so evacuated the party hot zones about midnight. I was also expecting more street eye candy but the rainstorms and then a cold Saturday night had people wearing coats. Oh well now for the rest of the year we gonna be guilted for climate change from fossil fuel powered engines, more carbon taxation, banning of sales of gasoline vehicles, etc. It was a good show overall!

 

[Mistervip]

Wow,quelle belle fin de semaine de F1,merci Montréal.
Dommage que la F1 soit relié a la prostitution avant tout.
Voitures luxueuses,hommes très biens nantis, où Chanel,Louis Vuitton et Prada sont a l'honneur la belle vie quoi..
30.000 appels et plus pour rencontrés de charmantes femmes.
Habituellement accompagné d'une très jolie femme pour l'occasion,sans en demandé plus à ma demande, simplement passé une belle journée.
Mais cet année,j'ai décidé d'être non accompagné,je me garde frais et dispos en vue d'une prochaine tant attendue rencontre.
Dans l'ensemble après 2 ans,le grand prix fût extraordinaire,a l'image de Montréal.
A l'an prochain.

 

[Skym]

Just out of curiosity, how many people here on merb actually went to the race? Lol

For me, I didn't go and its too expensive and overpriced with ticket prices, imo