The London Catholic Women's League of Canada urged that videotapes be put under the jurisdiction of the Ontario censor board.

London bookstore owner Marc Emery and Robert Metz of the Freedom party, a new London-based political group, argued passionately against allowing the hysteria over pornography to trample the freedoms of individuals to choose what they will read, hear or see.

"The issue here isn't pornography at all, the issue is censorship," Emery said, arguing that pornography has little effect on the behavior of most people.

"With so many millions of people buying sex books, watching all these so-called violent movies, this violent TV, these degrading billboards, hearing these degrading rock songs, watching these sex video cassettes and sex magazines, the crime rate should be 10 times - no 100 times - worse than it was 20 years ago before all of the degradation and pornography descended on us like locusts. But the crime rate isn't up. It is down. And over 20 years it has merely risen with the increase in population."

He blamed feminists and Christians for pressuring politicians for greater controls because they see such materials as a threat to their lifestyles and morality. "They view everything as male-dominated oppression, they despise capitalism, they loathe free choice and at the root they regard men as mere animals without volition, intelligence or consciousness."

Metz said Canadians already endure controls on what they can see that stretch from a prohibition of cartoon crime comics to television commercials that say drinking beer is fun.

"Yet despite the incredible maze of bureaucracy and legislation that exists to control our freedoms of association, thought, conscience, religion and expression, we are still confronted by various interest groups, politicians and individuals who have reached the remarkable conclusion that what we need in this country is more controls, more censorship."

Eric Rodwell of 200 St. James Street said he didn't know why the committee was "wasting time" talking about licensing because that was akin to giving "permission for this filth to be marketed." He called for fines of $100,000 for importing material.

But not everyone was anti-smut. Robert Metz, president of the London Freedom Party, said he found the nature of the meeting offensive because it was considering putting impositions on personal freedoms. An estimated 55,000 people buy magazines every month in London, he said. He added the vast majority of outlets have already taken precautions to keep magazines out of the reach of children.

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Page last updated on April 28, 2002