New Windsor musical chronicles life of famous dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford

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If you’re not sure who Terri-Jean Bedford is, look for the whips.

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Canada’s most famous dominatrix — who waged a successful battle against the nation’s prostitution laws — is back home in Windsor this week for a musical adaptation of her memoir, Dominatrix on Trial.

She’ll be at Kordazone Theater Thursday signing books for opening night.

“I’ll be in my regalia,” said Bedford, who grew up in Windsor before rising to fame as Madame De Sade. “Red leather.”

She wrote the stage adaptation of Dominatrix on Trial with Windsor playwright, actor and director Joey Ouellette. Rebecca Mickle stars as Bedford. Presented by Waawiiyaatanong Feminist Theater (formerly Windsor Feminist Theatre), the play runs for three nights: Thursday to Saturday.

“Featuring a live music ensemble led by Trevor Malcolm, and cigarette girls proffering titillating wares, it promises to stretch and intrigue the senses,” WFT said in a media release. “Grab your feather dusters, bring your imagination and see her story of her come to life!”

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Dominatrix on Trial chronicles Bedford’s life and career, from sessions with clients to her constitutional crusade. It’s a story of pain, pleasure and notoriety.

Bedford was born poor in Collingwood. When she was about five, she said her mother de ella died in a car crash.

“I’m from a mixed race family and both sides had a problem with who was going to take the kids,” she said.

Bedford said a Windsor family adopted her. But they butted heads. She was sent to a series of group homes.

Bedford has stated in court documents she turned to prostitution on the streets of Windsor at age 16 after her much older boyfriend got her addicted to drugs.

She left Windsor behind in about 1988.

“I went to stay at Vanier prison for women,” said Bedford.

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She was sentenced to 15 months behind bars at the correctional facility for female offenders in Milton for running an escort service and keeping a common bawdy house.

After that, Bedford said she stayed in the Toronto area and opened the Bondage Bungalow, offering fantasy fulfillment, but no sex.

“I started a bed and breakfast in Thornhill catering to gentlemen who liked to be feminized,” said Bedford. “I taught them how to walk, talk, act like ladies through petticoat training and discipline.”

Police eventually raided the operation. Despite Bedford’s claims that there was no actual sex going on, she was ultimately convicted of operating a bawdy house.

“We explained why people like to do what they do and why there would be no sex involved,” said Bedford. “Anyway, the judge, I have found myself guilty regardless. He said that the cross-dressers were getting erections in the women’s clothing.”

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Since then, Bedford has been one of Canada’s highest profile opponents of the country’s prostitution laws.

Along with sex worker activists Amy Lebovitch and Valerie Scott, Bedford launched a constitutional challenge of Canada’s prostitution laws. They argued the laws deprived sex workers of their right to security by forcing them to work in secret. It went all the way to the Supreme Court. In 2013, they won.

In a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the existing laws were unconstitutional.

“It was like winning the Stanley Cup,” said Bedford. “It was overwhelming. I felt vindicated. I felt like a champion of the world.”

But the following year, the Conservative government introduced new legislation making it illegal to buy sex, advertise sexual services, communicate for prostitution purposes in a public place or benefit materially from someone else’s sex work.

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Justin Trudeau vowed during his 2015 run for the prime minister’s chair to repeal the law, but has yet to do so.

“These laws have a negative impact under the guise of protecting women,” said Bedford. “The laws that the Harper government wrote are still a violation of human rights.

“These bad laws continue to promote violence against women. They impact in a very negative discriminatory fashion on a narrow segment of society.”

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Dominatrix Tickets

Tickets for Thursday’s Dominatrix On Trial, including an opening night reception and book signing with Terri-Jean Bedford, are $50. Entrance to the Friday and Saturday shows is $27. Tickets are available at eventbrite.

The musical is staged at Kordazone Theatre, 2520 Seminole St., (519) 562-3394.

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