Club HERS Nightclub

Club HERS Nightclub, which operated at 3166 Lake Shore Boulevard West on the northwest corner of Kipling Avenue in the Etobicoke-Lakeshore district of Toronto, permanently closed in 2008 and never re-opened at any verifiable address. In the summer of 2008 the club's own website announced it had closed for the season and would reopen at a new location; no subsequent reopening was ever documented in any source. Within months of that announcement, Humber College acquired the property—along with the adjacent building at 3170 Lake Shore Boulevard West—for expansion of its Lakeshore Campus across the street, conclusively ending any prospect of the club's return to that site. During its brief mid-2000s operation, Club HERS promoted itself as a private lifestyle club for consenting adults, charging tiered admission of $5 to $60 per visit depending on the event. Its website invited customers to 'get away from the hypocrisy and double standards of the outside world and come live out sexual dreams and desires,' positioning it unambiguously as an on-premise swingers venue. The club occupied a heritage-listed older commercial building—noted locally for its long succession of short-lived pub and restaurant tenants—and drew its legal standing from the Supreme Court of Canada's 2005 ruling in R. v. Labaye, which established that consensual adult sex in privately accessed venues did not violate community decency standards. The club became a flashpoint in June 2008 when Councillor Mark Grimes (Ward 6, Etobicoke-Lakeshore) tabled City Council Motion MM22.26 on June 23, 2008, which passed 33 votes to 2 on June 24. The motion directed the City Manager—in consultation with the Chief of Police, City Planning, Toronto Buildings, Public Health, Fire Services, and Municipal Licensing and Standards—to act on the mechanisms available to stop the establishment of entertainment facilities and private clubs whose main focus of business is operating a swingers club. The motion named Club HERS alongside Menage a Quatre and Jay Jay's Inn strip club, and cited proximity to Father John Redmond Catholic High School, Lakeshore Collegiate Institute, an Early Childhood Learning Centre, and a seniors' residence. The club announced its own departure before formal enforcement was brought to bear.