Remington’s is guilty

The manager of the gay Toronto strip club Remington’s is guilty of indecency and bawdy house charges because he knew his dancers were jacking off.

However, it’s now perfectly fine to fondle the breasts and bums of naked ladies at straight exotic dancing establishments across Canada.

In a ruling this week that’s yet to be released in writing, Ontario Court Judge Bruce Young found Remington’s manager Kenneth McKeigan guilty of allowing an indecent performance, keeping a common bawdy house, and allowing the club to be used as a common bawdy house.

While Remington’s brass hasn’t yet huddled with lawyer Eddie Greenspan, a club source confirms that the decision will be appealed.

Until sentencing, however, neither is commenting.

“Greenspan’s office just didn’t think we should inflame the situation until after the sentencing hearing,” the source says.

McKeigan will be sentenced on Jan 19. He faces a maximum of two years in jail.

Despite the convictions, similar charges against co-manager Daniel Potts were thrown out.

Prosecutor Calvin Barry deems the Dec 13 verdict a precedent-setting community standards ruling.

Meanwhile up in Ottawa, Supreme Court Of Canada judges were holding fistfuls of tens.

Squashing a 1998 court of appeal decision that found a Quebec strip-club manager guilty of keeping a common bawdy house, the Supreme Court release a three-to-two ruling that’s sure to bolster a lap-dancing revival.

Speaking on behalf of the deciding threesome, Madam Justice Louise Arbour said the Quebec strip club hadn’t messed with community standards by allowing patrons to feel up peelers.

Toronto Crown Barry says there’s no double standard.

“Basically,” says Barry, “I had used an Ontario Court of Appeal case where a woman who had inserted her finger into her vagina and was masturbating herself to orgasm. That was found to be equally indecent, so I was making no distinction whether you were male or female, just that that type of activity would be indecent.

“And if it’s in a public place, it’s a criminal offence.”

Bathhouse owner Peter Bochove, who was in court to hear the Remington’s ruling, is pissed.

“It’s fucked up,” says Bochove.

Remington’s, a Yonge St club, was raided after a three-month police undercover operation in February 1996 about Sperm Attack Mondays, where dancers jacked off on stage.

Undercover officers testified that dancers were jacking off customers in cubicles, too.

But police admitted that they didn’t actually negotiate such a deal for themselves, which likely had something to do with the decision this summer to drop 12 bawdy house charges against dancers, customers and another employee.

Although the club could have made everything go away by pleading guilty and paying a fine, owner George Pratt refused to deal and has covered the legal fees of his staff.