Censorship in Canada
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In Canada the principle of community standards is the primary adjudicant of what may be published or broadcast by the media. In most respects, Canadian law takes a relatively liberal interpretation of community standards, although sometimes the existence of competing interpretations results in controversy.
[edit] Broadcasting
The main body monitoring and regulating broadcast content in Canada is the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, the self-governing association of radio and television broadcasters. The CRTC, while popularly believed to be the primary enforcer of broadcast standards, in fact intervenes only in the most serious and controversial cases.
Radio and television standards are similar, but not identical, to those in the United States. Many Canadian broadcast stations broadcast sexually explicit or violent programming under certain circumstances, albeit with viewer discretion advisories and at appropriate times on the schedule. CTV, for example, has aired controversial series such as The Sopranos, Nip/Tuck and The Osbournes in prime time without editing, and some Canadian television broadcasters, such as Citytv and TQS, have aired softcore pornography after midnight.
Canadian radio hosts are generally not permitted to use swear words on the air. Conversely, however, many radio stations do not beep or edit songs which contain swear words in their lyrics, although such songs are normally restricted to airplay later in the evening.
Though Canadians do file complaints with the Broadcast Standards Council over sexuality, language and violence on television programs, it is topics concerning discrimination such as racial and sexual stereotyping in broadcast content which often receives nation-wide coverage. For example, the council received very few complaints about the violence or harsh language in The Sopranos, as it was aired on CTV during the watershed period and had several "viewer discretion advised" warnings. They did however, receive a significant number of complaints about the potential stereotyping of Italians as being connected to the mafia.
Similarly, after the 2004 Super Bowl, the council received more complaints about an allegedly sexist beer commercial than it did about the controversial halftime show incident involving the uncovering of Janet Jackson's breast. And in one of the most famous recent complaints to the Broadcast Standards Council, the Looney Tunes cartoon Bewitched Bunny featured as part of The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show was criticized — not for its violence, but for a sexist comment made by Bugs Bunny ("Aw, sure, I know! But aren't they all witches inside?")
One of the most notable broadcast censorship issues in recent years has been the broadcast of Howard Stern's radio show in Canada. The show was first broadcast on CILQ in Toronto and CHOM in Montreal in 1997, and complaints were filed with the Broadcast Standards Council — again, these related primarily to the alleged broadcast of ethnic and gender stereotypes. Both stations were forced by the Broadcast Standards Council to monitor the show for offensive content through the use of broadcast delays, and both had cancelled Stern's show by 2001. When Stern subsequently moved to Sirius Satellite Radio in 2005, many Canadians erroneously believed that the CRTC had banned Stern's broadcast on Sirius Canada. In fact, the CRTC made no such ruling — Sirius Canada voluntarily chose not to risk provoking an issue with the broadcast regulator. However, on February 1, 2006, Sirius Canada announced that Stern's show would in fact be made available in Canada as of February 6, 2006.
In another recent controversy, the CRTC revoked the broadcast license of CHOI-FM, a radio station in Quebec City which had been the subject to 27 listener complaints to the Broadcast Standards Council and the CRTC. Most of these complaints were judged invalid because the plaintiffs couldn't be reached, mostly due to hotmail addresses. The official number of complaints is three.
[edit] Print
One of the most famous ongoing censorship controversies in Canada has been the dispute between Canada Customs and GLBT retail bookstores such as Little Sister's in Vancouver and Glad Day in Toronto. Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, Canada Customs frequently stopped material being shipped to the two stores on the grounds of "obscenity" — although in many cases the very same material was not considered obscene when being shipped to a mainstream bookseller such as Coles or Chapters. Both stores frequently had to resort to the legal system to challenge the confiscation of their property.
In 2000, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canada Customs did not have the authority to make its own judgments about the permissibility of material being shipped to the stores, but was only permitted to confiscate material that had specifically been ruled by the courts to constitute an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada.
Canadians can be disciplined by their employers for writing letters to newspapers. Christine St-Pierre, a Radio-Canada television reporter, was suspended in September 2006 for writing a letter in support of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Similarly, school teachers and counsellors have limited freedom of expression and religion regarding certain topics (about homosexuality for example) both on and off the job which can result in disciplinary action by their employer (See related articles, Chris Kempling and Status of religious freedom in Canada).
