The propaganda of pornographers. (News in Brief: Canada).

Toronto-The release of a film entitled Fat Girl was held up by the Ontario Film Review Board in mid-November, 2001, because it contained scenes of girls, depicted as being 15 and 13 years old, exposing their flesh while having sex. The board's panel of reviewers said that these scenes would have to be cut before the movie could be shown.

As one would expect, filmmakers and distributors were horrified. Noah Cowan, Canadian co-president of the distributor of Cowboy Pictures, said the decision was a throwback to the bad old days of censorship "when European masters fell like bowling pins" in the face of the board's rulings. Well-known filmmakers David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan, both of whom started their careers with porn movies, headed a list of moviemakers objecting to the board's ruling.

A letter in the National Post, November 17, 2001, rang up all the charges which are made whenever something like this occurs:

* The law under which the ban was made is "a relic from an age when the state was mandated to pass moral judgment on its citizens."

* "The suppression of art is always the first step in the suppression of a people."

* "It helps no one, protects no one, and, most importantly, offends the intellect of everyone."

Such sloppy thought ought to offend the intellect of everyone in Ontario. The writer is wrong on all three points: the law is not a relic; what was shown was not art; and, yes, it does stop the pornographer from exploiting youth. That's why the Ontario Theatres Act forbids the portrayal of anyone under the age of 18 partially or fully nude in a sexually suggestive context.

When the ban was appealed, lawyer Frank Addario used the same predictable arguments-that the regulations were a throwback to less enlightened times, and were based on arbitrary moral judgments. On the other hand, the Crown argued that the regulations are a measured response based on a desire to protect society from harm, not to block free expression.

On November 20, the appeal panel voted 3-2 to uphold the board's decision. Chairman Robert Warren said, "The portrayal of underage nudity in conjunction with sexual activities contravenes our regulations." Noah Cowan was outraged once more: "The Board has rocketed Ontario back to the cinematic stone age. Canadian distributors will now fear any controversial material after this inconsistent and scandalous ruling by a reactionary censor. Shame on them."

The distributor then decided to market the film with the slogan, "Banned in Ontario" and "Banned in Canada." The Public Library Theatre in Regina, SK, quickly let it be known that they were broadminded enough to accept the movie.