Sex workers are going on strike in Montreal the day before this year’s Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix to try and get better working conditions.
The strike next Saturday is being organized by the Sex Work Autonomous Committee, which says it is calling for better conditions in strip clubs and massage parlors, official recognition of sex workers as workers and access to government benefits for workers.
“Since we’re not salaried employees, we don’t have access to the protections that other workers usually have,” Montreal stripper Celeste Ivy told the Montreal Gazette.
The group also says on its website that they want an end to the bar fee that strippers and dancers for the right to perform on stage at a given venue, an end to “scheduling discrimination” based on “race, gender identity, age or size,” and the decriminalization of sex work across Canada.
“We no longer want to have to pay to work. … There are nights when we end up in the red,” stripper Adore Goldman, an activist with the Sex Work Autonomous Committee, told digital magazine Urbania as translated from French.
The group also wants strip clubs and massage parlors to be cleaner and for bosses to take action to prevent violence in the workplace.
The group chose their strike date to fall during the weekend of the Canadian Grand Prix because of the amount of traffic the race brings to the city’s clubs — it is “the most lucrative period of the year for our boss,” the Sex Work Autonomous Committee said.
While the race is being held on May 24, the strike is the same day as the competition’s sprint qualifiers, sprint and qualifying race.
The Canadian Grand Prix has been held since 1961, became part of F1 in 1967 and has been held in Montreal since 1978. F1 reached an agreement with the governments of Canada and Quebec last year to keep holding the race in Montreal through 2035.
A record 352,000 attended the Canadian Grand Prix in 2025, according to The Athletic.
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