[URBAN NOTE] On controversy in Vancouver around sex parties and public art

[rfmcdonald]

The National Post's Brian Hutchinson reports on odd happenings at a sex party in Vancouver, involving a business competitor's photographing of the activities. That, certainly, is a massive violation of privacy.

The manager of a prominent Vancouver gay nightclub admits he hired private investigators to infiltrate a crowded sex party organized by a rival and leaked their findings — including shadowy images of participants — to a local newspaper, in an attempt to publicize what he says is an “inconsistent enforcement of liquor regulations and capacity laws in the city.”

Bijan Ahmadian runs the Odyssey nightclub, which is bankrolled by media-shy entrepreneur Peter Allard, son of the late, legendary media magnate Charles “Doc” Allard. The pair reopened the Odyssey this year, after the club’s original premises were torn down.

Business at their new location was good, until the Vancouver Arts and Leisure Society (VAL) began hosting “no-holes-barred” sex parties at informal venues, under the auspices of a new city of Vancouver “arts events licence” program.

[. . .]

Ahmadian, a young lawyer, took his concerns to the city, arguing the “arts events licence” program was being exploited and as a result, legitimate, fully licensed gay nightclubs were losing business.

The arguments failed to sway city authorities, so he hired private sleuths to infiltrate a VAL party held on Oct. 30. Three weeks later, images the investigators recorded at the event were published in The Province newspaper, under the headline “Did Party Go Too Far?”

The private investigators claimed they “observed smoking, drug use, a variety of sexual acts and alcoholic drinks being over-served,” according to the newspaper, which agreed not to identify the person who hired the investigators.