Canada's history with book-banning

This is (in the end) a moderately inspiring triumph of common sense over catch-all legislation, Bean:


1982
Jean Chretien, as Justice Minister, introduces a child pornography bill that would have made it a crime, punishable by up to ten years in jail, to produce a "visual representation" of any one who "is or appears to be" under 18 engaged in "any sexually explicit conduct." Under opposition ridicule, particularly from Ray Hnatyshyn who got him to admit that a photo of a child eating a popsicle "in a suggestive way" would be an offense, and having been unable to produce a single pornographic scene involving children that couldn't be prosecuted under existing obscenity law, Chretien withdraws the bill.


The case against the new bill is probably worth remembering.