To urge continued and strengthened support for the arts and culture sectors, with particular emphasis on the development of queer culture, and its appreciation rather than it being targeted for censorship or prosecution. 

Queer works of art and cultural expressions depict queer realities, fictions and fantasies. It is essential for queer communities to keep queer culture through the arts alive in order to tell our stories as well as to counter the historical marginalization and demonization queers have experienced, particularly in mainstream culture.

In Ontario and across Canada there has been a history of targeting the artistic and cultural works produced by queers about queers.  Books, magazines, films and videos have been seized, investigated under ‘obscenity’ suspicions, sometimes withheld and even damaged sparking a number of court cases that were argued all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada.  Nevertheless, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) continues to act as censor of what is permissible or not for Canadians to see.  As recently as the fall of 2009, three films were detained by CBSA that were destined for Ottawa’s Inside Out film festival.

In difficult and uncertain financial times, such as we are currently experiencing, it is often the arts and culture sectors that are targeted for funding cuts as they are deemed non-essential government expenditures.  What this fails to recognize is the economic hit those employed in these sectors will feel, not to mention how it undermines strengthening the economy when limiting Canadians’ choices in engaging in artistic activities and cultural events.

The queer arts and culture world is particularly vulnerable to this, as Canadian governments and mainstream society do not necessarily have a queer sensibility.  Queer works of art and cultural expressions at minimum may be unfamiliar and not readily understood or be outright challenging and/or unsettling in what it is communicating.  In either case, such depictions are taking on the responsibility of educating and moving the public beyond the ‘familiar’, ‘acceptable’ or ‘norm’.  This is not to mention the importance of keeping queer culture via the arts alive for queer communities who continue to be marginalized.

Queer Ontario is calling for the development of clear legislation or regulations that outline an efficient administrative and structural process with which CBSA operates towards developing a more accountable mechanism in dealing with materials crossing the border.  Recommendations include clarifying definitions of ‘obscenity’ based on most recent court decisions, educating CBSA officials about queer sensibilities, and requiring more efficient investigative turn around times so as not to hamper film festivals.

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