London County Council bared Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit trom London schools be it thought the story showed only middle-class rabbits. Inthe 1950s Mickey Mouse comes were banned in East Berlin because Mickey was seen as “an anti-Red rebel.” Until 1959, Victor Hugo's classic Les Miserables was on the Catholic Index. Also in £959, the White Citizens’ Couneil in Atubamit got a book pat Doug Collins exists 40 promote lesbianisit and homosestalinv, and PT bet that the sisters would have their throats cut before they carned taets denounemnyg queer lifestyles. But that’s a matter of personal choice. They are not government, deciding what is fit for public con- sumption, The same can be argued for Duthie's. As for our official watchdogs, i they can'E keep guns out of the hands af criminals they surely curt keep books oul of the hands of people Wednesday. October 26, 1994 - North Shore News - 7 ters’ rescue who want then. ‘Then there's the question of inaterial “deemed to be seditious or reasonable,” whieh al under the Customs 7 But what about the Bloc Quebecois? [and ils propaganda are legal even though the party is unashamedly seditious and treason- ible. Did} say Pam miclincd to a spot of censorship, tae? Absolutely. When we are baby siting our grandchildren we make sure they don’t watch any violence on televi- sion. So do their parents. The point is that all censorship should be a matter of personal taste, not a matter of government edict. That's why Lam in favor of let- ting The Little Sisters Bookstore go its own way, No one is forced to buy what #1 offers. Can't wait to see a letter to the editor from my new friend, Svend, telling the world Pim not such a bad chap after all. ON THE OTHER HAND SVEND ROBINSON, the Little Sisters Bookstore and the homo hordes will be pleased to hear 1 am on their side, even though they see me as the worst of homophobic wretches, Yes. the Beast of B.C. agrees that Customs and Excise and zovern- ments in general have no business banning books, not even homo books. For one thing. many of the cen- sors can’t read; for another, they often make fools of theniselves even when they can. Example: when the Islamic aya- tollahs of Iran sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for the sin ut writ- ing The Satanic Verses, OWawa banned the book because it was offensive to Muslims. Then a god- awful row broke out and it was let in. Pressure groups are always get- ting books banned, None Dare Call it Conspiracy was tabooed even though it had sold about five inillion copies in the U.S. Conspiracy spent many years in the wilderness before being cleared as being fit for our tender Canadian eyes. But Professor Arthur Butz’s Hoax of the Twentieth Century is still seen as the work of the devil. So is something called The Pope's Secrets. I wonder what the Pope's secrets are? Remind me to find out. Censorship is not confined, of course, It is popular with leftists, rightists, centrists, the sane and the insane. In short, there is a censor hid- ing in most of us, including me. But censorship does sometimes make for laughs. in the 1980s the Trotskyite-ridden BAXTER LAWYER 24 Years Experience onthe “reserved” shelves of the pub- lic libraries because it way deemed to Promote nickil tegration, Atthe other end of the race scale. Latte Black Sathe isa no-no despite his iaving been loved by all the kids. Whether he is officially banned 1 don tknow, Bathe mightas well be because you never see hin around Politically invarreet. you know. Ina tewn in California copies of Liule Red Riding Hood were putin the closet because there were objee- tions to the idea of Grindiia drink- ing wine. [recall, too, that the manly fens of Media Watch got ads yanked from buses in Vancouver and tram Metro Transit in Toronto because they were too feminine. You might think that bookstores and book publishers would be against censorship, but you would think wrong. Duthie’s bookstores refused to carry William Gairdner’s The War Against the Family, a literate exposé of how government and its minions are helping to destroy the oldest grouping known to man. The Duthie woman was quoied as saying it was full of “dreadful red- neck clichés and attitudes.” Not true. But it did show that 66% of Canadian women reject fem- inism, that an equal number of Canadians oppose racial hiring quo- tas and that most of us think homo- Sexuality is wrong. My own modest /mmigration: The Destruction of English Canada, published in 1979, ran into difficul- ties with many bookstores. You can bet The Little Sisters bookstore itself acts as a censor. It LONSDALE QUAY NORTH VANCOUVER 988-6321 DRAPERIES BY S. 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