Obscenity Butler FACTS Appellants charged with selling obscene material, possessing obscene material etc. ISSUE Does s.163(8) of Is it justified under the CCC—the s.1 definition of obscenity—breach s.2(b)? HELD Yes Yes First need to Object RSNS interpret the The object of the act is definition. avoidance This is of harm to problematic b/c society. the Court goes Problem is: on to interpret this seems the definition in like a a way that WILL shifting pass s.1… so it’s meaning… a bit of a sham. at the time The old test of which defined enactment this definition the focus was the was more community on Morals. standards test. Court This has shifted now into the this by degradation or saying that dehumanization the test… which avoidance would of harm necessarily be was against ALWAYS a community purpose, standards. and they Therefore, the are just CCC bans expression that that now degrades or and dehumanizes in a sexual context. the moral purpose. Is Pornography a The Court form of expression? does say Yes. They have the to edit the film,
Obscenity Butler FACTS Appellants charged with selling obscene material, possessing obscene material etc. ISSUE Does s.163(8) of the CCC—the definition of obscenity—breach s.2(b)? Is it justified under s.1 HELD Yes Yes RSNS First need to interpret the definition. This is problematic b/c the Court goes on to interpret the definition in a way that WILL pass s.1… so it’s a bit of a sham. The old test which defined this definition was the community standards test. This has shifted now into the degradation or dehumanization test… which would necessarily be against community standards. Therefore, the CCC bans expression that degrades or dehumanizes in a sexual context. Is Pornography a form of expression? Yes. They have to edit the film, Object The object of the act is avoidance of harm to society. Problem is: this seems like a shifting meaning… at the time of enactment the focus was more on Morals. Court this by saying that the avoidance of harm was ALWAYS a purpose, and they are just that now and the moral purpose. The Court does say the
Thomson-Law_100-Final.docx