THE UBYSSEY Vol. LXVIII.No. 22 Vancouver, B.C. Friday, November 22,1985 228-2301 Smith favors porn censorship By SUE McILROY Scenes of mutilation, ritualistic slaughter and the ripping apart of human bodies in connection with sexual acts should not be available to anyone, B.C.'s attorney general said Wednesday night. "The majority of people in B.C., even those with strong qualms about it, support censorship of this kind of material," said Brian Smith to 120 people during a public forum at the Justice Institute. The forum, to discuss a proposed video tape classification scheme, was sponsored by the UBC Alma Mater Society and the University Women's Club of Vancouver. Under the new scheme, all videos would be vetted by the B.C. film classifier and some material would be censored. Sara Diamond, speaking for the Vancouver Artist's League, said the proposed act was dangerous and was the wrong solution to the pornography problem. "The material which the new legislation is aimed at, such as violent sex and kiddie porn, is already illegal under the criminal code of Canada but is sold under the table anyway," Diamond said. Smith said he was aware of the problems of censorship, citing past examples such as the banning of D. H. Lawrence's novels. "However, some of the materials in these videos would make D. H. Lawrence throw up," he said. Under the proposed legislation, four types of video material would be banned: explicit sex acts involv ing coersion or violence; extreme scenes of brutality, maiming, torture or dismemberment; beastiality, incest or necrophilia; and sexual conduct with persons under eighteen years of age. Retailers who sold videos which were not approved by the film classifier could be fined or have their licenses revoked. The new act would also require that all films classified as adult be kept in separate areas prohibited to children. Tom Sandborn of Vancouver — istvan pinter photo CREATURE FROM THE black lagoon carries book on black holes to physics class while thinking black thoughts on a grey day. Quebec colleges threatened by book vandals MONTREAL (CUP) — Mutilation of library books is reaching crisis levels at some CEGEPs. According to Arnold Spivok, director of educational support services at Dawson College, tearing out whole sections of library books has become common practice there. "It's on the increase," he said. "The newest books on technology and expensive art books with colour plates are favorites with our blade artists." Sitting in front of him on his desk is what remains of a two week old computer handbook — the front and back cover. "They left it in the back of the library, like they'd just devoured a fish and left us the skeleton." Student strangled A UBC student became the 33rd murder victim of 1985. Police say Linda Ann Winkler, 24 was strangled to death, Monday, Nov. 18. The motive is unknown. Winkler's roommate found the body late Monday afternoon in their apartment at 207—870 French Street in Marpole. Police have laid charges of second degree murder against Richard Lee Michaelides in connection with the death of Winkler. Michaelides, 20, is presently at St. Pauls hospital after jumping from the Granville Street bridge Monday afternoon. He was rescued from False Creek by Laura Anderson, a Vancouver Arts Club Theatre publicist. Last year, one Dawson student stole $5,000 worth of books before he was caught, said Spivok. "It's terrible," he said. "The only thing we are going to be left to do is treat people like airports treat potential terrorists — search them for knives and blades before they enter." Spivok thinks the problem is linked to the ever-rising price of books. He said he understood that students cannot afford many of the books they might want, or need, but he said that students don't understand how much worse the situation is for CEGEP libraries. The Quebec government forces all CEGEP libraries to buy books at fixed prices from Quebec distributers, in order to protect these booksellers from competition from other provinces or the United States. "In Ontario, they would pay 25 per cent less than us for the same book," he said. Universities are exempt from this law. The cost of replacing mutilated books takes money from an already small budget for acquiring new books. Dawson's budget is about one tenth of McGill's. Of the 6,000 books in the photography section of Vanier College's library only two books have not been marked up, or had pages ripped out. Beverley Sandler, coordinator for media resources at Vanier Ste. Croix, said they find about 150 mutilated books a year. "There are probably many more we don't know about." Snuff show seller sued MONTREAL (CUP) — Montreal city police are prosecuting a store that rents a violent pornographic film which purports to show the murder and dismemberment of a woman. The film, Snuff, has been on the shelves of Five Star Video in Beaconsfield for at least three years. It made its way to Concordia University when a member of Concordia University Television rented the video during an investigation. According to Jean-Yves St. Laurent the Montreal police director of the organized crime division, the film has been viewed by the morality squad and several crown prosecutors. "We will proceed with the matter in court on the basis that there is sex and violence," said St. Laurent. "This case is much more violence than sex in the film." According to a May 9, 1985 Supreme Court ruling only three criteria may be used to judge a film obscene; bestiality, sex with children, or sex with violence. Snuff contains no explicit sex but there are many sexual overtones in the film. She gave the example of Canada's Official Atlas which was ruined. "People are hurting themselves," she said. "Many of these books are no longer available. We can't ever get them again." Books usually get destroyed when students need them most. "Exam time, or end of the term assignment time is when the pressure is on and when people get desperate," she said. Students come up to her pointing to ripped out pages in a book they depended on for their course. "Even if we found out right away, even if the book was still in print and even if we could buy it right across the street," she said, "it would still take three days and that's a long time during exams." Forty per cent of Ste. Croix's $25,000 book replacement and updating budget is spent on replacement of vandalised books. "In the old days libraries used to put mutilated books out on display," she said. "It shocked people. It was like seeing a car crash." "Books are not objects of value anymore," she said. "Students today don't rely on the printed word as their sole source of knowledge and information about the world the way I did." "We buy some books knowing they are not going to last a term," she added, "but we hope maybe a few people might benefit." Sandler agrees rising prices have caused more vandalism. She also said once the college got a security system, theft went down but ripping and razoring out parts of books went up. Men Against Rape questioned the motives of B.C. s government in proposing the censorship scheme. He said several government policies, such as the recent funding cuts to the battered women's shelter, discriminate against women or children. "If the government is so concerned about violence directed at women, why are they making a media star of Jimmy Pattison, the fifth largest profiteer from pornography in Canada?" Sandborn said. Other groups had a more favourable response to the new legislation. Kit Stevenson, chair of the national task force against pornography for the United Church, encouraged Smith to "press for action on all levels to eliminate all sexual violence against women and children". She suggested the government tax pornography "one hundred per cent" and use the profits to help victims of sexual crimes. Janis Andrews of the North Shore Women's centre said her group has called for this sort of legislation since 1983. She urged Smith to take immediate action against Red Hot Video. The store's most recent brochure listed films dealing with rape, incest, sadomasochism, and sex with very young girls, she said. "We expect to have a final proposal completed early in 1986 which would be implemented as soon as possible," said Smith. Student urges bus cash wars A UBC student leader plans to pinch Metro Transit with a penny protest over bus fares. Duncan Stewart, Alma Mater Society external affairs coordinator, called for students to pay the $1 fares with pennies beginning in January. Stewart said a similar protest worked effectively in Toronto. "The subway machines blew up, the buses broke down, it was absolute chaos," he said. "The students got a concession fare within 12 hours." The Greater Vancouver regional district transit commission voted to conduct a review of fares to examine the feasibility of reductions for a number of groups including post-secondary students, the handicapped and Unemployment Insurance recipients. A transit commission official said the review will be completed by about May. Stewart said the commission's decision was the easy way out. "The transit commission has members who do not want students to have concession farecards, and they're using everything they can to fight it. I suppose you could call this a compromise, but it's not even that." The commission spokesperson said introducing a student farecard would cost Metro Transit $600,000 to $700,000 per academic year in lost revenues. Terry Hunt, Canadian Federation of Students Pacific Region chair, could not comment on the commission decision but said granting reduced student fares could increase the number of bus riders and increase revenues. Page 2 THE UBYSSEY Friday, November 22, 1985 We've tried gentle persuasion and thinly veiled threats but here's the birdseye lowdown: The Ubyssey can cover more issues better and with less stress with more staffers. You too can help the newswriting cause by storming into The Ubyssey's corner view office, SUB 241k, any old time. Join now or make writing for the paper one of your new year's resolutions. Or we might burst with indignation. 7