New Obscenity Laws in Canada

Once again, Canada leads the pack. Back in 1969, Canada's new prime minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, said that the Canadian government had no business being in the bedrooms of Canadians. Consenting adults -- male, female, straight, gay -- could do as they wished, because where there was consent between the parties, no harm.

That is the prevailing thought behind the some new rulings that will be redefining the parameters of what can and can't transpire due to "obscenity" here in Canada.

The gist of this? Swingers / sex clubs, the Supreme Court of Canada now says, are legal. Why? Basically because by way of entering the swinging establishment, where sex usually transpires quite openly, all those within the premises have essentially consented to the acts being committed therein. Go on ahead and visit Montreal, visit a swingers club, and have a little sex while you're at it. It's legal.

(About Montreal -- the Paris of North America: There's a show filmed here in Canada called Kink, and each season it's set in another Canadian city where it follows the lives of a few participants as they go about their kinky existences in their little kinkdoms-- from boring homosexual sex through to leathers, whips, and all the pain you can eat. Slings, anyone? Easily the kinkiest place in Canada is Montreal, where fetish is a rite of passage. God, I love my French-Canadian heritage. ;)

There are reasons I'm profoundly proud to be Canadian, and the level of personal freedoms is far and away at the top of my list, of which this is simply the latest example -- most recently preceded by the legalization of gay marriages. Whether it's smoking pot anywhere I want in this town (although still illegal, it's largely ignored -- we are this continent's Amsterdam, kids, and owners of the best dope in the world, sez High Times) or knowing that I could perform any sex act I want (except possibly bestiality, which obviously is not exactly my bag, since I can't even handle hairy backs, let alone fur), there is no doubt that the border between Canada and the United States is where my world changes, drastically.

So, here's a thought: Your life is only as good as the freedom with which you live it. Whether you have extreme views on sex, drug use, or just everyday rights for everyday people, voting is crucial to the well-being of your life. It's no secret, I don't like George Bush. At all. I dislike the politics I see coming across the wires from our Southern neighbours, and it saddens me to see what seems to be an erosion of freedoms in a time when "freedom" is what the fight's all about. Ironic, methinks.

But the point is this, your supreme court shapes the land in which you live. Hell, look what it's done for my country.

Bush was elected on a fiscal platform, and because he pulled patriotic strings. I'm not sure many people sat back and thought, "Hmm, will he be the right guy to pick Supreme Court judges that will shape my freedoms for the next four decades?" Well, fortunately/unfortunately, that's the case. Not one judge, but two, and with three years to go, who's to say what's next? You think you have an opinion on his choices yet? How could you, when they've got a lifetime in their offices? Some twenty, thirty, forty years of deciding policy that will impact the lives of every citizen. Food for thought, indeed.

Perhaps this is another fork in the road of our two countries. Now, me, I'm no swinger, and it's unlikely I'll ever be. I'm an old-fashioned romantic with a fondness for orgasms, that's all -- and a fondness for freedom.

So, swing away, kids. Montreal's where it's at. Coming soon to a Canadian city near you, perhaps.