Brandon, that was pretty fucking funny.
Let me apologize in advance for the Burglarian nature of this post.
Canada Customs is supposed to make a determination on each item it suspects of being over the line. In some cases, distributors send product to them ahead of time to get a pre-determination. In other cases, items which have been determined to be criminally obscene (by Custom's in-house team of non-legally trained blockheads) are put on a "cannot import list", such as the one you mention. If your item is not on that list, it does not mean it will get in.
Sometimes, Customs will simply target a store or distributor and block ALL of their product to force them out of business. This happened in Vancouver with the Little Sisters Bookstore - a gay and lesbian shop in the west end. One year, customs held all of their product, including heartsmart cookbooks and the like for 6 months so they had nothing to sell over the Christmas season.
One example of Canada Customs' idiocy is that anal sex has not been illegal in Canada in about 30 years, neither has the depiction of it; however, Canada Customs routinely denied importation of books containing images of anal sex - including drawings of anal sex.
The store sued the gov't and the case went up to the Supreme Court, which decided the store was being discriminated against by the government. For those of you with a deeply held interest in Canadian constitutional law, or a sleep disorder,
CLICK HERE From the Supreme Court's summary of the Trial judgment (reversed on appeal, and partially re-instated by the Supreme Court):
Quote:
After a lengthy trial the trial judge found not only that the Customs officials had wrongly delayed, confiscated, destroyed, damaged, prohibited or misclassified materials imported by the appellant bookstore on numerous occasions, but that these errors were caused by the “systemic targeting†of the store’s importations. He concluded that the Customs legislation infringed s. 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but was justified under s. 1. Although he denied a remedy under s. 52(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982, the trial judge issued a declaration under s. 24(1) of the Charter that the Customs legislation had at times been construed and applied in a manner contrary to ss. 2(b) and 15(1) of the Charter.
An excerpt of the majority decision of the Supreme Court on discrimination in the law:
Quote:
While here it is the interests of the gay and lesbian community that were targeted, other vulnerable groups may similarly be at risk from overzealous censorship. The appellant bookstore was targeted because it was considered “differentâ€. On a more general level, it is fundamentally unacceptable that expression which is free within the country can become stigmatized and harassed by government officials simply because it crosses an international boundary, and is thereby brought within the bailiwick of the Customs department. The appellants’ constitutional right to receive perfectly lawful gay and lesbian erotica should not be diminished by the fact their suppliers are, for the most part, located in the United States. Their freedom of expression does not stop at the border.
For general articles about the laws and the bookstore's fight Click here
Not only is our Supreme Court a lot wiser and more compassionate than the US "Brotherhood", our Chief Justice is smoking hot.
Here is a picture of her dressed for play, in front of a picture of her in her "work clothes"