Canada Post refuses to deliver sex newsletter

Tim Naumetz
For CanWest News Service

December 8, 2004

OTTAWA -- A Vancouver erotica shop has taken on Canada Post for refusing to carry the shop's admail newsletter because it contains the words penis and vagina and, among other things, offers sex tips.

John Ince, co-owner of The Art of Loving store, calls the Crown corporation a "sex censor" because it won't deliver the store's newsletter in Vancouver apartment buildings.

But, in a dispute that has gone all the way to the top at Canada Post headquarters in Ottawa, postal executives say they have the right of refusal on any material that could be seen by children or offend anyone that receives the unsolicited newsletters.

"It's a business," Canada Post spokesman John Caines said Tuesday. "He can put it in an envelope."

Canada Post delivers admail to households and apartment buildings at a fraction of the cost of the stamp that is required for envelope mail. But, since the admail can be seen by anyone where it is dropped off, the post office screens the literature because it has a policy stipulating it will not "knowingly deliver offensive articles that contain sexually explicit materials," Caines said.

"If people want this material, they can subscribe and then it could not be exposed to children or people who find it offensive," he added.

Ince says the material in the Art of Loving newsletter is candid, but suitable for children.

"Canada Post policy is unreasonable and even harmful to the sexual health of Canadians," Ince said.

He added "not a single complaint" has been received by the store after 25,000 copies of the newsletters were distributed to private homes as an insert in the Vancouver Courier weekly newspaper and by a private delivery service.

Canada Post is the only letter carrier and delivery service that has access to apartment buildings to put either bulk admail or letters in mail boxes.

Ince said the store's efforts to have Canada Post deliver the newsletter, for a fee of 10 cents per copy, have been turned down by local Canada Post management, regional management and now the director of Canada Post's retail product development branch in Ottawa.

Art of Loving is one of only 15 "sex-positive" erotica stores and services in North America, Ince said. He explained the new wave of erotica stores treat sex as a positive activity and force, unlike the traditional "sex-negative" stores that contain "sleazy pornography and sex toys."

The recent newsletter offers seminars on topics including Meet a Madam, hosted by the owner of an escort agency, Strip for Your Lover -- the Basics, The Art of Kissing, and Women's Erotic Video Night.

It also advertises books titled Toy Gasms, Nights of Grrreat Sex and sex-guide videos.

The newsletter is available on the store's website at www.theartofloving.ca.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004