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Transcript: Penthouse photos draw ban
By SHEILA BEAN
The December issue of Penthouse
magazine is being pulled off newsstands
across the Prairies.
After federal customs officials
barred further importation of the
issue into Canada, provincial attorneys-
general in Saskatchewan,
Manitoba and Alberta took steps to
have the magazines removed from
store shelves.
In Saskatchewan, police are instructed
to charge the magazine's
distributors with distribution of obscene
materials if copies are found
on sale anywhere in the province.
In Manitoba, the attorney- general's
department has charged the
distributor, but store owners may
use their own discretion in removing
the magazine.
Alberta's attorney- general department
has " invited distributors
to volunarily remove the issue,"
according to Angus Fraser, director
of cofnmunications for the department.
Fraser said no criminal
charges will be laid against offenders
but he is confident that all of the
offending issues are off the
shelves.
The magazine entered the
country about a month ago after
passing inspection by a federal
customs official, said Tom Greig,
assistant deputy minister of customs
programs for Revenue Canada.
When the issue hit the newsstands,
the customs branch heard
many complaints from the public
about a bondage segment. The
issue included photographs of " a
female dangling, suspended from a
tree," Greig said.
" We concluded that the original
classification was not an appropriate
judgment."
The customs tariff contains an
item " prohibiting immoral or indecent
material," Greig said.
hi
Kathryn Habber-field
of the Alberta
Women's Institutes.
File photo
Customs then advised the publishers
that no more shipments of
that issue would be allowed into the
country. That's all the federal department
can do, Greig said. The
provincial attorneys- general then
decide whether the product should
be removed from the shelves.
Happy with response
Kathryn Habberfield, president
of Alberta Wo'men's Institutes
( AWI), said she's " delighted thai
the issue has been pulled."
She hasn't seen the issue yet, but
she said she's heard it contains
degrading pictures of women in
bondage.
" That's the type of thing we're
objecting to," she said.
Habberfield is satisfied with the
way the federal department handled
the issue, but she said it proves
that the public has to keep alert. It
has to show the government what it
will or will not tolerate.
" This is a good example that we
can't expect the government to do
everything," she said. " The public
has to do some testing ourselves."
The National Action Committee
for the Status of Women saw the
magazine, and president Chaviva
Hosek directed all of the member
organizations to complain to their
local attorneys- general and police.
Saskatchewan Action Committee
president Palma Anderson said,
" We were simply horrified. We
couldn't believe it."
Anderson said the magazine contained
an eight- page photo feature
of " beautiful Japanese settings."
But in those settings were " women
tied in heavy ropes to trees — some
wearing death masks."
The pictures are not just obscene,
Anderson said.
" They're really frightening," she
said. " They're terrible. They're
hate literature."
The federal and prpvincial governments
acted very quickly to take
the magazines out of circulation,
Anderson said, but a public outcry
had to be heard first.
" Had we not been looking at the
magazine . . . it may well have
passed."
Anderson said there should be
more decentralized control over
pornography.
" There is a need to make sure
that the municipalities have more
control over what is distributed on
the newsstands in their cities," she
said.
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