Canada's Sex Party, which advocates a 'sex-positive culture', has taken the national postal service to court after letter carriers refused to deliver its sexually explicit pamphlets.
VANCOUVER: Canada's Sex Party, which advocates a 'sex-positive culture', has taken the national postal service to court after letter carriers refused to deliver its sexually explicit pamphlets.
After hearing arguments from both sides in a case that pits freedom of expression with safeguarding children, Federal Court Justice Michel Beaudry on Wednesday retired to reach his decision, which is expected within a few weeks.
The Sex Party took Canada's letter carriers to task when they refused to deliver their four-page pamphlets to households ahead of the 2006 national election. The pamphlet, which the party refuses to sheath in an envelope, is titled 'Politics for a Sex-Positive Future' and includes three images: the nude back of a person copulating with someone whose legs and hands are visible, a photo of a sculpture of a penis and a drawing of two stick people engaged in oral sex.
"The government has no right to prohibit peaceful political expression," Sex Party president and lawyer John Ince told the judge at the three-day hearing. He argued that because the postal service does not censor mail opposing homosexuality, which he called "hate mail," it has no business censoring mail from the Sex Party.
Canada Post officials insisted that Sex Party material was too 'graphic' in nature, and were concerned about children picking it up in the household mail. The Sex Party and its platform advocating a 'sex-positive culture' that includes teaching children to approach sexual activity 'in a gradual and disciplined way', and repealing 'sex-negative laws', raises eyebrows -- and hackles -- but little political interest.
The Sex Party has so far fielded only three electoral candidates, including Ince, who in a 2005 election in the westernmost province of British Columbia captured a mere 0.39 per cent of the popular vote in his Vancouver district. But Ince said the party hopes to run candidates in future federal elections, and Canada Post is crucial in its attempt to get the word out since it has a monopoly on deliveries to apartment buildings.
He said the goal of the Sex Party is to encourage Canadians to 'celebrate and communicate about sex same way they do about God, war, peace or the environment: freely and openly without intrusion by government'.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}