The beginning of the end of hate speech laws?

A federal law governing hate speech violates Canadians’ charter rights to freedom of expression, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled.

Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits communication, including via web sites, that is “likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt” if the persons belong to one of the prohibited grounds for discrimination (eg sex, sexual orientation).

One of the Tribunal’s main objections is that the Canadian Human Rights Commission has the power to investigate and deal with complaints about hate speech on the Internet, and to fine those it finds guilty.

Is it really the beginning of the end? The Tribunal’s power is limited to refusing to apply section 13 in the case before it (Lemire vs Warman). It cannot repeal the section. But, as Richard Moon argued in a report last year, hate speech is already covered under section 319 of the Criminal Code, prohibiting behaviour that “promotes willful hatred against an identifiable group or groups”. The difference is that these prosecutions are made only with the approval of the Attorney-General, rather than instigated by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The tribunal’s decision is at
http://chrt-tcdp.gc.ca/aspinc/search/vhtml-eng.asp?doid=981&lg=_e&isruling=0

There’s an interesting National Post editorial at http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=1957347

To mock a book-banner

Erna Paris, the Chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada, wrote an eloquent article about some recent Canadian examples of book challenges:

In Canada, more than a hundred books have been challenged over the past two decades alone, in schools, in the courts, in libraries and in bookstores, but although they have been removed from classrooms and shelves, they have rarely been banned outright. Today, the stated reasons are usually perceived racism, inappropriate sexual content and, occasionally, political reasons, including one claim that a children’s book misrepresented the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Margaret Atwood’s dystopic The Handmaid’s Tale is a frequent source of inspiration to the censorious class.

Yes, it is all quite depressing, but there is a happy side: Banned books are always so very enticing. We itch to read them – and we usually do, sooner or later. I’m sure I’m not the only one who hid a book my parents disapproved of under the covers to read surreptitiously with a flashlight.

This article also includes some examples of historical censorship:

Long before books were replicated in multiple copies, banning was effected in other ways. In the marketplaces of medieval Spain, political parody and satire were vocalized in verse, to the delight of the townsfolk – leading one beleaguered king to publish an ordinance forbidding “the singing of songs.

Read ‘To mock a book-banner’ in the Globe and Mail

Rude Britannia: Erotic secrets of the British Museum

According to the Times Online The British Museum and British Library have some of the biggest collections of smut in the world. They just published an informative and slightly humorous article on the contents of the so-called Porn Cupboard that begs to be read with your coworkers on your next coffee break:

Most of the Porn Cupboard’s contents today look respectable: here are printing plates for the reproduction of thoroughly decent works by Turner and Dürer. That’s because, since the latter part of the 20th century, a lot of erotic material has been removed from the cupboard and repositioned in the department. “We’ve been integrating the contents of it into the main collection,” explains Sheila O’Connell, assistant keeper of prints and drawings. For instance, there used to be a Rembrandt etching in the cupboard called The Bed, depicting a couple making love, with the man on top of the woman; but that is now with the other Rembrandts in the museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings, on the fourth floor. You can request it and, as long as nobody else is busy looking at it, they will show it to you. There used to be sheaves of banned Georgian cartoons by Thomas Rowlandson in Cupboard 205, but now, providing you have come of age, you can go to Prints and Drawings and study Rowlandson’s images of gentlemen and saucy wenches having explicit intercourse on beds, on road journeys, and beside gravestones.

The process to access these items was quite difficult. It really bugs me when the library catalog is used to impede access.

The books in the Private Case were originally subject to heavy restrictions: you had to write to the keeper, the head of the department, to see any of them and give your reasons for wanting to. “The books were quite difficult to see,” says Goldfinch. “They had a separate catalogue, and the catalogue wasn’t available to readers. So there were two stages: you’d have to ask if the book was in the collection, and if it was, you’d have to ask to see it.”

Does anyone know if Library and Archives Canada has a similar porn closet/cage/room? If so, I wonder what would be inside? Vintage Mountie pinup playing cards?

2024 and the future of book banning

There’s a great article in Slate about Kindle, Amazon’s e-book machine, and the company’s technical ability to remotely delete content on an individual’s machine. The same goes for Iphones, and many of the other technical toys that are becoming part of our lives.

Farhad Manjoo writes, “As our media libraries get converted to 1’s and 0’s, we are at risk of losing what we take for granted today: full ownership of our book and music and movie collections.”

http://slate.com/id/2223214/

Toni Morrison at the Free Speech Leadership Council

Last month a high school in Shelby, Michigan ordered an English teacher to stop teaching students about Toni Morrison’s novel, “Song of Solomon.”

Yesterday, Morrison helped the National Coalition Against Censorship launch the Free Speech Leadership Council, a collection of community leaders working together to combat censorship around the country.

At the event, Morrison spoke to Fran Leibowitz about growing up with censorship. For a video of the even and for background on the Michigan incident and the Free Speech Leadership Council, see
http://www.viddler.com/explore/Mediabistro/videos/351/

@sherbertbc posted this on twitter; Tara Robertson shared it with the IFC.

School locker library

A student at a strict Catholic school has started a library of banned books, which she distributes (with due dates and everything) from her school locker. The student started the library after the principal and school teacher council released a long list of “books we’re not allowed to read.”

See the student’s question and answers at http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoCt3NHGwM8BxD2H1669H3_ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20090305151758AA7dWwd

With thanks to Anita & Deb for sharing.

Beth

Amazonfail

Amazon decided that in order to prevent “adult” titles from showing up on searches, it would remove the sales ranking of “adult” books. In large part, this is simply GLBT titles.

According to Amazon, Heather has Two Mommies = adult. American Psycho is not. Books on queer history and Maurice by E. M. Forster (a fave romance of mine but NOT graphic) = adult. A collection of Playboy centerfolds is not.

Generally, “adult” is taken to mean the work contains sex and/or violent, isn’t it? And obviously it’s abused often as it is now. The Lesbian Parenting Book? Not sexy.

This author of a YA gay romance started much of this and posts the email from Amazon giving the reason this is being done. This blog entry has good links including a list of books that have had this done to them.

Some people have argued that this is no big deal because the books are still available. Yes, the books are still present but Amazon stated that this was done to make these books harder to find! Books on coming out and gay romances. Yet Laurell K. Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry books (aka Faerie porn) are exempt from this “adult” stigma..

Clearly, someone at Amazon made a misstep…

Thanks to Monica for writing this post & for passing it on to the IFC

Amazon has restored these rankings and now claims this was a technical cataloguing glitch. Hmmmm…. See comments for more on this

Freedom to Read Week at the Rhizome

On Saturday, February 28, the BCLA Intellectual Freedom Committee hosted an evening of discussion, socializing, button-making and readings of controversial materials. Penny Goldsmith read from her friend Jane Rule’s testimony at the Little Sister’s v Canada Customs trial, Michelle Miller read from a book of sex advice by and for teenage girls, Jon Scop read from And Tango Makes Three, Beth Davies read from a report on InSite, Aili Meutzner read from Dr Laura!

Thanks so much to everyone who came out for an enjoyable and stimulating evening. We were truly honoured to see old friends like Sylvia Crooks and Lois Bewley, who has inspired so many librarians with her passion for intellectual freedom and who has given her name to the Intellectual Freedom Defense Fund. And a huge thanks to the folks at Rhizome for making this happen!

The wonderful photos are by Miriam Moses.

Bus slogan generator

By now, you’ve probably read about the controversy in the UK about the Humanist bus adverts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jan/06/atheist-bus

Now, you can generate your own….

http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bus/

If you’re stuck for inspiration, see

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/feb/09/religion-atheism-bus-slogan

Happy Freedom to Read Week!

Happy Freedom to Read Week

Happy Freedom to Read Week!

This Sunday marks the start of the 25th annual Freedom to Read Week, which runs from February 22-28 2009.

VANCOUVER EVENT! Come join the B.C. Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee as we make buttons, discuss current events, have a drink, and listen to local authors read from some challenged and banned books. Saturday February 28th, 7pm-midnight at Rhizome Cafe317 East Broadway. Come early for dinner! Rhizome Café has a delicious menu, available throughout the event, and is fully licensed. By donation.  For more info please email bclaifc@gmail.com, or  RSVP on Facebook.  See you there!

NEW T-SHIRTS! To celebrate this year’s Freedom to Read Week, we have re-vamped the ever-popular There’s Something in My Library to Offend Everybody t-shirts. The new design is by James Gemmill, and there are 3 versions, one of which is a limited edition for Freedom to Read Week 2009. $5 from the sale of each shirt goes to the Lois M Bewley Intellectual Freedom Defence Fund. Buys yours today online at http://www.tshirtmonster.ca/designer/gallery.asp?Designer=bclaifc

WHAT ARE YOU UP TO? We’d love to hear what you and your library are doing to celebrate Freedom to Read Week. Please drop us a line at bclaifc@gmail.com, and send us a photo if you can so that we can put it on the blog!