Legal verdict: no stripping at the Ste. Marthe strip mall

    The lovely folks at the Bar Net will be keeping their clothing on.
   Due to a recent court ruling, there will be no stripping at the local strip mall for the marthelacquois of Ste. Marthe, a fast-growing town of 15,000 between St. Eustache and Oka.
   Sylvie Courville's Bar Net opened on Oka Blvd nine years ago. As well as being a joint to grab a beer and play some pool, it was also occasionally a place to attend such events as fashion shows and karaoke performances.
   She applied for permission to switch those shows to the nude variety in 2009. The provincial RACJ  booze authorities didn't seem to mind and the town told her in writing in 2009 that no bylaw forbade any such transformation.
   But a few weeks later the town passed a new zoning rule outlawing any such peeler clubs in that area, as there are apparently school kids somewhere in the area who might be shocked while looking out the window of their yellow buses.

Sylvie Courville

   So Courville did nothing for the next 31 months. In 2012 she challenged the decision, arguing that her bar had earned acquired right to put on shows. A judge had, after all, sided with a country music club that had a sought to make a similar transformation in another case.
   Courville sued the town for a reversal of the strip club ban, describing it as discriminatory and abusive.
   A judge, after considering all of the evidence, rejected Courville's arguments in a verdict handed down October 15 and now the clothes will have to stay on.