(Toronto, Ontario) A gay bookstore in Toronto has won a landmark legal decision that sweeps away the last vestige of Ontario's Victorian era censorship laws.
Though most censorship had long disappeared a little section in the Theaters Act required that all films be rated before they could be viewed in theatres or purchased as videos for the home. While Canadian films are rated without charge, the Ontario Film Review Board imposes a fee of $4.20 per minute.
Because of the classification law and the large amount it costs to have a film rated some distributors of LGBT films do not sell their products in Ontario.
In 2000, police charged Glad Day Bookstore with selling a video of the gay adult film Descent that had not gone through the classification process. Glad Day, Canada's first gay bookstore, and the second oldest in the world faced a fine of up to $100,000 and it's owner could received an additional $25,000 fine.
Friday, a Superior Court judge ruled that the review board's "extremely broad" powers violate the rights and freedoms section of the Canadian Constitution.
"The mandatory submission of films and videos to the board for its approval prior to their distribution and exhibition infringe on the fundamental freedom of expression guaranteed by ... the charter,'' Justice Russell Juriansz said in his ruling.
He also criticized the board's ability to order cuts or edits in films to be distributed in Ontario which could leave the impression that the final product was what the producers intended or could even alter the intent of the film.
Juriansz stayed his ruling for one year to allow the government to amend the law. If it does not, or decides in the next 30 days to appeal, the ruling will go into effect.
Gay films and books have the subject of fines and seizures, most often by Canada Customs, for years. In 2000 Vancouver's Little Sisters bookstore won a Supreme Court decision involving the seizure of gay books. Since then Customs agents have continued to seize books and magazines on various grounds.
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