In the summer of 1999, police arrested its staff and customers for indecency and repeatedly visited until the place closed. The indecency charges were eventually withdrawn by the crown, but it hurt the business. Bijou owner Craig Anderson got rid of the bar, installed lockers and a wet area, got a bathhouse licence and the police stopped going though the purpose of going to the Bijou is likely to be more about sex since the repositioning. The police visit to the Pussy Palace lesbian bathhouse night, held at Club Toronto in September, seems also to have focussed on whether booze and sex mingled too closely. The charges laid were against two organizers for liquor licence infractions.
Critics say the police had other motivations, like their own titillation.
But it was the alleged technical factors that gave them the opportunity. The steam bath licences, the separation of booze and sex, the private cubicles all these things are worn like talismans to keep 1981 from happing again. It s worked so far. If they decide to do it again, they can do it. What stops them is the politics.