'Get Vaxxed': COVID-19 vaccination clinic to be held at Toronto strip club on Yonge Street
Maggie's to host low barrier clinic on Friday for members of marginalized communities
An advocacy organization is hosting a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at a Toronto strip club on Friday in the hopes of providing first doses to sex workers.
Maggie's Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, which bills itself as an organization run for and by sex workers, is hosting the "low barrier" community clinic at Zanzibar Tavern, 359 Yonge St., one of the last strip clubs still standing in Toronto The clinic is set for Friday, June 4 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
No appointment, identification, heath card, proof of address or postal code is necessary.
Usually, the marquee at Zanzibar advertises exotic dancers, but this week, it reads: "Get Vaxxed With Maggie's Toronto!"
Ellie Ade Kur, a board member at Maggie's, said on Tuesday that the clinic is open to anyone who needs to get vaccinated in a surveillance free environment. That includes sex workers and exotic dancers.
"I'm excited. It's also a really interesting moment for exotic dancers and sex workers to be teaming up with a club like this through the pandemic," Ade Kur said while standing underneath the neon Zanzibar sign.
Maggie's is working with Unity Health Toronto, a Catholic health care network, and Sherbourne Health, an urban health agency in downtown Toronto, to host the clinic. Up to 400 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech will be available.
Ade Kur said the clinic is important to the organization, given that sex workers at strip clubs have been out of work for more than a year. Strip clubs were among the first businesses to be closed by the province when the pandemic hit in March 2020.
"It's an interesting circumstance just because the city has really targeted our community specifically," she said. "The city should be working with us to try to get as many people vaccinated as possible."
She said Mayor John Tory and Premier Doug Ford made negative comments about strip clubs, exotic dancers and their clients when the pandemic began. Maggie's believes sex workers are workers and are entitled to workplace protections. Governments have marginalized and stigmatized sex workers, their clients and work spaces, she said.
Maggie's, which has existed since the 1980s, got its start as an organization that challenged the "really degrading narrative of sex work as something that's dirty," she said. It has continued to work to keep sex workers safe, she said.
"I think, over the years, we've really demonstrated that sex workers are some of the most invested in public health, especially workplace health and safety, when your livelihood literally relies on that," she added.
She said Maggie's chose Zanzibar because it is a central location, a safe space and a way to "speak back" to the harmful narratives about strip clubs.
Mayor 'focused' on getting people vaccinated
Tory's office, for its part, said in an email on Tuesday that the mayor was clear in his comments last year that he was not passing judgment or stigmatizing people in any way.
"Mayor Tory is absolutely focused on getting as many Toronto residents vaccinated as possible," Lawvin Hadisi, spokesperson for the mayor, said in the email.
"He has said that his concern with the two strip club outbreaks we saw in the city last year was the amount of time that public health officials were tied up trying to track down hundreds of people, the vast majority who had provided false contact information. The province made a decision to close strip clubs based on public health advice and the Mayor supported that decision."
WATCH | CBC's Alison Chiasson reports on the vaccine clinic to be held at Zanzibar:
Natalie and Allen Cooper, the owners of Zanzibar, said they were pleased when Maggie's asked if the venue could host a vaccine clinic.
"A lot of people in this industry have been unfairly blamed for spreading illness for a long time and we just wanted to make it very clear that we feel very strongly about stopping the spread of COVID," Natalie Cooper said.
"If you can help, you should help. We have a closed business. We were more than happy to offer it up to be a vaccination clinic."
Allen Cooper added: "Maggie's asked us: 'Can you help with the clinic to help marginalized people?' And we were on board right away. I think it sends a message that everybody should be helped and marginalized people especially during the pandemic."
For its part, Unity Health Toronto says it is pleased to support the clinic.
"The clinic is important and necessary to ensure people feel safe while getting their vaccine and to eliminate barriers that dissuade people from getting vaccinated, and Unity Health Toronto is proud to support this initiative along with our partners," Jennifer Stranges, spokesperson for the health care network, said in an email.
Stranges added that there is the potential to add another day or book appointments for people at other clinic sites if there is demand.
Toronto Public Health 'encouraged' by vaccine demand
Toronto Public Health said in an email on Tuesday that it is encouraged to see that there continues to be "great demand" for the COVID-19 vaccines.
"Toronto Public Health (TPH) is supportive of the vaccination efforts of our health-care partners and community organizers in helping Toronto residents get vaccinated," the public health unit said.
"As old and new variants of concern continue to circulate in the community, it is more important than ever to get fully vaccinated to protect yourself, your loved ones and the community, and to reduce and prevent COVID-19 spread."
People who go to the clinic will be required to provide a name of their choice and birth date on a consent form. After they receive the vaccine, they will be given a paper certificate. It can be taken to any other clinic for a second dose when such doses become available.
With files from Ali Chiasson