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December 07, 2004

Canada Post Censors Sex Information

Canada Post is a sex censor. Words such as “penis” or “clitoris” in an admail newsletter are unacceptable to the national postal service even when contained in a non-offensive newsletter advertising sex education programs.

“Canada Post policy is unreasonable and harmful to the sexual health of Canadians,” says the editor of the newsletter.

Canada Post’s unaddressed admail program is the only delivery service that has access the post boxes of apartment dwellers. Post Office regulations prohibit “offensive articles that contain sexually explicit material.” No guidelines govern what is “offensive”.

The newsletter, which can be viewed at http://www.theartofloving.ca/newsletter2.pdf, describes the services and products available at The Art of Loving, an innovative sex center in Vancouver. Senior postal officials have said that they do not find the newsletter offensive.

Yet Canada Post bureaucrats refused to accept the newsletter for the admail program. The reason? John Swettenham Director of Canada Post’s Retail Product Development says: “Unaddressed Admail is a product that reaches the general public on an unsolicited basis. As a result, it must accord with community standards expected by the public in connection of media distributed on a generalized basis. Words such as "penis", "clitoris" and "ejaculate" do not accord with such standards.”

Canada Post refuses to provide reasons for its determination that mere sexual words in a non-offensive newsletter, violate community standards.

In fact and to the knowledge of Canada Post, the newsletter has been distributed to 25,000 homes (not apartments) via an insert into the Vancouver Courier newspaper and via a private delivery service. Not a single complaint has been recorded. “Twenty-five thousand deliveries without a single complaint would appear to be conclusive evidence that the newsletter does not offend community standards, “ says John Ince, editor of The Art of Loving newsletter.

Ince says that Canada Post officials are acting as censors, and without any clear guidelines or rationale for their decisions. “Prohibiting a newsletter just because it has sexual information is as wrong as banning a newsletter because it contains Jewish information or gay information. It reflects a prejudice – about sex,” he says.

“Policies controlling the way Canadians communicate with each other through this vital service must have a reasonable basis. Squeamishness about honest sexual discourse is not a proper rationale for this public policy, ” she adds.

Ince says Canada Post’s decision sends an unhealthy message about sexual information. “Canada Post’s ban suggests that there is something wrong with sexuality that information about it deserves to be hidden. Such a message is unacceptable in the 21st century. If Canada Post was sincerely interested in protecting society it would stop advertisements for junk food, not information on innovative sex education programs.”

Vancouver sex therapist Dr. Pega Ren objects to Canada Post’s policy: "Sexual education is not the culprit....ignorance is. Canada Post has made a grievous error with this decision."

Contacts:
John Ince 604-688-4810
John Swettenham, Director, Canada Post 613 734-3163
Dr. Pega Ren www.smartsextalk.com