Vancouver strip club banned from X, but not for the reason you might think
Elliott J. Fisher (they/them) // Contributor
Sophia Pan (she/her) Illustrator
What kind of reaction do the words ‘strip club’ elicit? A chuckle? A snicker? Perhaps, a little blush? Some see these places as a home of hedonistic delights, others see a shady shop of shame. However, would you ever consider this kind of establishment to be a mouthpiece for international political discourse?
The Penthouse in Downtown Vancouver finds itself at an interesting place in the ever-polarizing political landscape of the world, due to a message they displayed on their marquee in response to Donald Trump’s recent comments about Canada potentially becoming the fifty-first state of the U.S.A. Trump has been repeatedly saying what a great opportunity it could be to combine the two countries’ economic power. In January of 2025, the X (formerly Twitter) account of The Penthouse was suspended for violating the “Hateful Profile Policy” on the app. The reason? A cheeky message displayed on their iconic marquee, “Forever neighbours. Never neighbors,” was posted to X along with the caption, “U wish #51ststate.”
The nightclub is well known for the tongue-in-cheek messaging on its marquee, the sign above a theatre or venue that typically displays information such as show times. However, this is the first time it’s garnered such attention. But, is all press really good press? Benjamin Jackson seems to think so.
Jackson is the social media manager for The Penthouse and the creator of the sign which caused all this controversy. Jackson gave an interview to the CBC in which he said, “‘You know what, it was the best thing that could have happened. I think [the marquee] would have had the recognition in the city. But the fact is now… it’s a bigger story. And to me, I’m all for it. They can keep the account at this point.’”
As of writing, The Penthouse’s X account has been reinstated, so Jackson has seemingly gotten to have his cake and eat it, too. The Courier was unable to reach Jackson for further comment.
This isn’t the first time that The Penthouse has been in politically hot water. The CBC reported back in 2021 that Danny Filippone received a call from the U.S. Secret Service, asking that he take down a message on the marquee which referred to the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal when the former U.S. president came to Vancouver. In that same article Jackson implied that it was Trump’s first presidency that motivated the swing towards more political messaging after originally being told “no” by Filippone. Jackson said in regards to the owner’s rule against political statements “‘The politics ones were too good to pass up. so, we changed the rule a bit.’“
All of this is well and good, but it gets to a much larger issue at hand. A new age of increasingly divisive politics, with Donald Trump at the front of it, and Elon Musk taking whatever chance he can to thrust himself into the conversation. “I’ve never seen this stage,” said Dr. Kent Lewis, an English Literature professor at Capilano University, when asked if the explicit level of government censorship and authoritarianism in America was truly new.
Elon Musk is the second richest man in the world, and self-proclaimed champion of free speech. While he may not have directly banned the Penthouse account, this kind of behaviour seems to be encouraged by him, and it’s not the first time he’s been accused of slicing his critics, having banned several journalists who had criticized him in the past from the platform. It seems now that Musk has set his sights on being as close to the White House as he can possibly get. It was reported back in December of 2024 that an estimated $260 million was spent by Musk on Trump’s presidential campaign.
When asked about the history behind government censorship of detractors and critics, Lewis said that this was missing the point of a much larger issue at hand. At the end of the day, X is a privately owned platform and it is Musk’s prerogative to ban any account off of his platform. What really concerned Lewis was that this is all that we’re worried about. He says it’s all smoke and mirrors. In fact much of what Musk does, the outrage he stirs up, is good for Trump’s ultimate goals.
Now, the cloak and dagger act seems to be gone. Major channels of communication are all being controlled by the same small number of men—Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk—who were standing next to Donald Trump as he was sworn into office. Meta has already agreed to settle the lawsuit Donald Trump filed against them for a staggering $22 million. Trump was suing Meta for suspending his account following the violent insurrection on January 6, 2021 that Trump helped to incite.
It’s far better for public image if people still remember Meta as the company that took a stand against such political violence, rather than the company that paid that very same man a huge amount of money in order to gain his political favor. Lewis says the goal is clear. To clog up the headlines with outrageous stunts. To create noise. To distract the everyday individual and come at them with moral panic and outrage from both sides of the aisle until they are blinded to the real issues at hand.
The influence of Trump’s inner circle of billionaires was clear from day one. The day that Trump was inaugurated, The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Michael Whitaker, stepped down. Whitaker and Musk had previously disagreed about issues pertaining to Musk’s company SpaceX, and Musk had been publicly calling for his resignation. Whitaker’s post remained vacant for nine days. During that time, 67 people were killed in a crash between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines commercial flight. Following the incident Trump appointed an interim FAA director, but in the weeks following there have been two more back-to-back aviation disasters—a plane crash in Philadelphia and a missing plane in Alaska—resulting in major fatalities, some of the worst U.S. aviation disasters in recent memory.
Elon Musk has already proved that he will silence whoever even slightly criticizes the ideology he believes in without a second thought. While the Penthouse incident is a seemingly minor issue, it speaks to his character and mindset.
On the dangers of a never-ending and sometimes contradictory news cycle, Dr. Lewis had this to say: “Confusion is eminently politically useful. The confused person does not protest. The confused person does not fight. The confused person goes home and makes dinner.”
