From: mnorth@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu
Newsgroups: alt.censorship
Subject: Bookbanning in Canada
Message-ID: <1994Nov17.120159.14010@guvax>
Date: 17 Nov 94 12:01:59 -0500
Organization: Georgetown University
Lines: 64


This story on the continuing court proceedings is from _The Globe and
Mail_, Wednesday, November 9, 1994.

* * * * *

Customs defends procedures
Gay bookstores not targeted, B.C. court told
by Chris Dafoe
Western Arts Correspondent

VANCOUVER -- Canada Customs has not targeted gay and lesbian bookstores and
officials do not have to work under time constraints, the B.C. Supreme
Court was told yesterday.
     Linda Murphy, director of Canada Customs' Prohibited Importations
Directorate, defended the department's procedures for detaining and banning
books, saying that Customs officers are more concerned with making the
correct determination rather than a quick determination.  She said time
constraints are not an issue.
     Murphy was testifying for the government in a Constitutional challenge
of Custom's censorship powers by Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, a
Vancouver gay and lesbian bookstore.  She said that if a Customs officer
didn't have time to thoroughly review a book, it would be passed to a more
senior official.
     Murphy stuck to that position even when presented by Little Sister's
lawyer Joseph Arvay with correspondence between Customs officials and
Lawrence Boyle, manager of L'Androgyne, a Montreal gay and lesbian
bookstore.  In a letter to Boyle concerning the seizure by Customs of Kathy
Acker's _Empire of the Senseless_, a Customs Tariff and Values
Administrator said he was releasing the book and explained its detention by
saying the Customs Officers were "caught up in the bustle" of the job and
faced "severe time constraints."
     Murphy said that was only the official's opinion and not a fact.  She
said the fact that the book was released, albeit after two months of
detention, shows that "checks and balances are built into the system."
     She said that Customs does not target gay and lesbian bookstores,
although she said bookstores that have attempted to import prohibited
material are subject to "heightened scrutiny."  Asked by Arvay if she could
name one bookstore other than a gay and lesbian bookstore that had been
subject to heightened scrutiny, Murphy said she could not.
     She also discussed the mechanics of the pre-approval process whereby
foreign publishers can submit material before publication and importation.
She said her office reviews the material and notes "areas of concern."
Asked by Arvay if the office told the publisher what to delete, Murphy said
no.  "We point out areas of concern and publishers may do as they wish,"
she said.  "We wouldn't say it should be deleted.  We would say it may
cause material to be prohibited."
     As part of the pre-approval process, Murphy said Customs satff would
occasionally meet with foreign publishers.  For example, she recalled
travelling to New York at government expense to address the editorial staff
of Penthouse magazine.  "It is part of our role to provide advice and
guidance," she said of the trip.
     The government also introduced as evidence a series of pornographic
videotapes that had been prohibited by Customs.  The tapes included titles
such as _Total Restraint_ and _Shit for Dinner_.  They were banned because
of depictions of sex with violence and pain, including a woman sticking
needles through a man's penis and driving nails through his scrotum, and
degradation, including the use of feces as part of sexual arousal.
     None of the tapes were taken from gay or lesbian bookstores, but Judge
Kenneth Smith allowed them to be screened to show the kind of material the
Prohibited Importations Directorate must deal with.  Ironically, among
those able to see the tapes were a small group of students from a Vancouver
girl's school, who sat quietly in the back of the gallery as the tapes were
played.