Wednesday, June 9, 1993

BLACK ORCHID:  Reports of a prostitution service operating on campus
hit the local media yesterday, and the university's news bureau issued
a brief official statement about what's being done.  The news of the
"Black Orchid" operation, apparently based in the Married Student
Apartments, broke in Friday's issue of Imprint, the student newspaper,
after hints in the engineering paper Iron Warrior the previous week.
Purple flyers offering sex for fixed prices had been circulating for
some days in student apartment areas.  (There's nothing in today's
Gazette about the matter because we were short on facts, and also short
on time to deal with the story.)

Here's the text of the official UW statement, issued late yesterday:

  Proceedings will be completed by 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 9, to
  evict an unwanted individual from the University of Waterloo's
  Married Student Apartments.

  The individual, a male, is a former student of the university and
  has been linked to advertisements offering sex services by appointment.
  The man obtained the apartment under false pretenses, UW spokesman
  Martin Van Nierop said.

  In addition to misrepresenting himself, the individual also was trying
  to operate the illegal business from the apartment, Van Nierop added.

  As of 4 p.m. Wednesday the apartment's locks will be changed and the
  individual served with the notice to vacate.

  Married Student Apartments are normally reserved for married students
  and their families, although exceptions are made from time to time for
  unusual circumstances, Van Nierop said.  Those might include a
  visiting scholar at UW for legitimate academic purposes.  Part of the
  lease agreement also forbids operating a business of any kind.

  The individual was last registered as a student at UW in the spring 1992
  term.

  In the meantime, the police investigation into the operations of the
  so-called Black Orchid Escort Service will continue, he said.

SOCIAL CONTRACT:  So far, everything is rumour rather than fact.  No noose is
good news, as the condemned man said when the reprieve arrived.  News reports 
say informal talks between the Ontario government and major public service 
unions are continuing.  Premier Bob Rae was expected to make a statement 
this afternoon, with legislation coming next Monday. 

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs
credmond@watserv1    ext. 3004