L'Orage Club

L'Orage Club is a private, members-only on-premise swingers club located at 7700 12e Avenue in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1996 by Jean-Paul Labaye, it operates as an open-concept venue featuring a bar lounge, a discotheque with resident DJs, and two floors of open-plan play areas. The club holds a Quebec liquor licence and describes its format as European in style, with an emphasis on exhibitionism and voyeurism; there are no private or closed rooms. The club gained national legal significance after a 1998 police raid triggered criminal proceedings against founder Jean-Paul Labaye. The case proceeded through the courts for seven years, culminating in December 2005 when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Labaye's favour in R. v. Labaye, [2005] 3 SCR 728. The ruling established the legal standard — the harm-based test — by which consensual adult sexual activity in a semi-public venue is assessed under the Criminal Code of Canada, effectively providing a legal framework for the operation of such clubs across the country. L'Orage Club continues to operate as of 2026, running events Thursday through Sunday. It describes an international clientele drawn from Canada, the United States, and Europe, and describes itself as one of Canada's longest-continuously-operating clubs of its type. The website and all public communications are exclusively in French.