Interpreting Censorship in Canada ed. by Klaus Peterson, Allan C. Hutchinson (review)

292 letters in canada 1999 Canada in the Keegstra decision. The discussion of reproductive rights has similar limitations. The discussion of aboriginal rights fares somewhat better. The Supreme Court's recent aboriginal rights jurisprudence is praised for protecting aboriginal interests in land without supposing that they can be shoehorned into liberal right to private property. Yet even here, Trakman and Gatien's discussion is cast in the liberal terms they reject. They suggest, for example, that aboriginal interests in land can be protected against commercial interests by some combination of prohibitions, conditions on use, and liability in damages. Sound solutions all B but all expressed in Hohfeldian terms. The detailed arguments have little to do with community and connectedness. In so far as they succeed, they show that vibrancy of the liberal conception of rights, by deploying it in defence of interests that liberals have not always taken seriously. (ARTHUR RIPSTEIN) Klaus Peterson and Allan C. Hutchinson, editors. Interpreting Censorship in Canada University of Toronto Press. 438. $70.00, $29.95 This collection comprises nineteen generally strong but overwhelmingly contemporary papers. Through their selection of authors, the editors have sought to present a multidisciplinary approach to censorship in Canada and have largely succeeded. However, a major gap is the lack of historical material. For example, the critical matter of wartime censorship is ignored. Some historical analysis is furnished in a fine overview by political scientist Reginald Whitaker, but far more is needed to provide readers with adequate background to understand and assess recent policies. Also, no attempt was made to group the papers by subthemes. Among resulting organizational problems, theoretical papers on censorship are interspersed throughout the text and essays dealing with censorship in the educational system are separated from each other by papers on other topics. Moreover, the editors should have made a more concerted effort to seek out authors who would have argued on behalf of censorship. Nearly all the essays condemn censorship, and one by Joel Bakin asserts, with no apparent proof, that `there tends to be wide agreement that censorship is bad.' These shortcomings detract from what are generally strong papers covering a wide array of topics. Klaus Peterson, a professor of German and one of the editors, begins the book with a good theoretical discussion of what constitutes censorship. This is followed by Whitaker, who shows that, over the course of the twentieth century, censorship has been pursued less by the state and instead by various citizen groups who have battled to suppress views they consider unacceptable. Political scientist Samuel LaSelva then provides an analysis of the treatment of hate literature in Canada and the United States and shows the Canadian approach as far stricter. Criminologist Mariana Valverde describes the Supreme Court's humanities 293 harsh handling of material considered obscene and demonstrates that the bench has adopted a rather radical feminist perspective and a highly moralistic view of `community standards.' Law professor Joel Bakin addresses the erosion of free speech in schools as they seek out corporate subsidies and how the `street' as a democratic place is being eroded by initiatives such as anti-begging laws. This is followed by one of the few papers that rationalizes restrictions on free expression, as William Leiss, a professor of public policy, argues for a middle-ground approach towards the current ban on tobacco advertising. Law professor Bruce Ryder then provides a fascinating, and refreshingly historical, study on the extensive and largely secret efforts of Canada Customs to ban the entry of certain publications into the country. Shaheen Shariff and Michael ManleyCasimer , who work in the field of education, describe the ways in which public schools have excluded a range of controversial topics for students. Ann Curry, an expert in library, archival, and information studies, details the extraordinary pressure public libraries have faced to remove books from their shelves. English professor Lorraine Weir follows with a sophisticated theoretical paper about the pervasiveness of censorship in English-Canadian literature, while Scott Watson, a professor of fine arts, describes the struggles that often ensue between artists seeking to make a statement and members of the community who deem their work as obscene. Of course, in recent years the Internet...