# Canada believes in censorship **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497 "2011-01-13T18:59:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/21 "2011-01-13T22:12:57Z")
I presume TV networks can still broadcast the “Kids in the Hall” sketch where Scott Thompson is wondering why the word “faggot” is so offensive: > [@](#): > > You know what? I bet–I bet it’s that evil “T,” because it reminds people of Christ’s agony on the cross. > > Well, I’ve got the perfect solution. Let’s get rid of the “T” and all the hate that goes with it. So, come on faggos, let’s sing! Everybody! Come on all you faggos! ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/22 "2011-01-13T22:26:56Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Thanks nitpicker, i should have reviewed my comment. Anyways there’s no cunt in Fairytale of New York, I think you’re thinking of A Cunt Tree Christmas by HR Hackensack. ETA: Wait am I allowed use cunt I forget? No offence intended… I thought the line was ‘Yer an ol’ slut on junk’, not anything harsher. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/23 "2011-01-13T22:59:00Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Canada just banned Dire Straights’ “Money For Nothing” because it has the word “faggot” in the lyrics. > > [Link.](http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/01/13/dire-straits-money-ruled-offensive-canada/?test=faces) > > So much for being an enlightened, First-World nation. 😃 It’s a decision by an industry association, not by “Canada”. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/24 "2011-01-13T23:06:40Z")
There is no such thing as “Canada.” It’s all a conspiracy. Shhhhh! ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/25 "2011-01-13T23:10:41Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > The radio station has to announce, over the air, that they breached the code of ethics. One announcement must be made within three days of the decision and another a few days after the first; and the station must prove to the complainant and the CBSC (via copies of station logs) that the announcements were made. Like I said, that’s it, that’s all. I see nothing in the decision that mentions fines or similar punishments. > > If the decision demanded no Timbits in the broadcast booth, I think we’d see a severe backlash against the CBSC. 😃 You mean that the media–gasp–blew this out of context?? Surely you jest! ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/26 "2011-01-13T23:28:45Z")
The Bare Naked Ladies were once banned from performing in Toronto because their name was deemed sexist. IMHO they deserved the ban, because their music was crap and their name _is_ sexist. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/27 "2011-01-13T23:30:00Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > You mean that the media–gasp–blew this out of context?? Surely you jest! Yep, the media blew it out of context. And stop calling me Shirley. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/28 "2011-01-13T23:40:23Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > The Bare Naked Ladies were once banned from performing in Toronto because their name was deemed sexist. IMHO they deserved the ban, because their music was crap and their name _is_ sexist. I don’t know about sexist but it’s definitely misleading and I want a refund on these concert tickets. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/29 "2011-01-13T23:47:56Z")
This explains why I never heard the _real_ versions of these well known folk songs while I was in Canada. “goddamn them all, I did hear we’d cruise the seas for American rears, we’d sneer at girls, boys get leers, now I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier, the last of Barrett’s band of queers.” “oh, the girls are playing bingo, and the boys are wearing lingo, and they’ll think the more of kinko, 'cause they’re Sudbury tranvestites.” ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/30 "2011-01-14T00:21:20Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > This explains why I never heard the _real_ versions of these well known folk songs while I was in Canada. > > “goddamn them all, I did hear > we’d cruise the seas for American rears, > we’d sneer at girls, boys get leers, > now I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier, > the last of Barrett’s band of queers.” > " I always understood it was ‘last of the bare-ass privateers’. ---
**Author:** ![Tanaqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/31 "2011-01-14T00:28:16Z")
**Spoons** makes many excellent points. Also, do you seriously think this kind of “censorship” doesn’t happen in the United States? 😕 You realize there are some words you “can’t say” on the radio? That there is a reason that all those rap songs have so many bleeps? Hint: it’s because radio stations in the US “censor” words that are considered racial slurs even when they are clearly not being used in that way. For chrissake, this is the country that had a national panic attack over a bare nipple and you want to get all indignant over this? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/32 "2011-01-14T00:28:54Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > This explains why I never heard the _real_ versions of these well known folk songs while I was in Canada. And “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” can be sung to the tune of “Mary Ellen Carter”. It’s uncanny. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/33 "2011-01-14T00:43:17Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > The Bare Naked Ladies were once banned from performing in Toronto because their name was deemed sexist. IMHO they deserved the ban, because their music was crap and their name _is_ sexist. No, a staff member of then-Mayor June Rowlands declined to let them play at a New Year’s Eve event the city was putting on, based purely on their name. The Toronto Star ridiculed the decision, and everyone agreed that it was a silly call. They weren’t banned from playing in Toronto ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/34 "2011-01-14T02:05:54Z")
I just emailed a complaint CBSC. I think I might send one to my MP also. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/35 "2011-01-14T02:41:31Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Canada just banned Dire Straights’ “Money For Nothing” because it has the word “faggot” in the lyrics. > > [Link.](http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/01/13/dire-straits-money-ruled-offensive-canada/?test=faces) > > So much for being an enlightened, First-World nation. By their logic, we should ban every song that is gramatically incorrect because it could offend English majors. And every song that celebrates hetero love must go because gays might feel discriminated against by the lyrics. Og only knows what the First Nationers will have to say about a song like “Indian Giver” or “Indian Reservation.” > > What say you, fellow music listeners? Good idea, or a giant step backwards? Gee, it only took them 26 years to figure out the lyrics? Couldn’t they find their album jacket. Of course, 26 years ago the members of the CBSC were probably thinking, “what a cool song!” ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/36 "2011-01-14T02:43:10Z")
Perhaps now they’ll work on banning all Queen songs, because “queen” is offensive to faggots. 🕶 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/37 "2011-01-14T02:52:47Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > Gee, it only took them 26 years to figure out the lyrics? Couldn’t they find their album jacket. > > Of course, 26 years ago the members of the CBSC were probably thinking, “what a cool song!” Read the posts, …marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so. ---
**Author:** ![Incref](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@Incref](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incref)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/38 "2011-01-14T04:12:01Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > bolding mine > > So… homosexual is a race now? > **[Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_and_Lesbian_Kingdom_of_the_Coral_Sea_Islands)** > > The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands (also known as the Gay Kingdom of the Coral Sea) was a putative micronation established as a symbolic political protest by a group of gay rights activists based in Australia. Declared in June 2004 in response to the introduction of a government bill to the Australian Parliament in May 2004 (and passed in September that year) that codified the heterosexual definition of marriage, the Kingdom was founded on Australia's external overseas territ... ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/39 "2011-01-14T14:26:04Z")
I’m very happy my country regulates hate speech, even if it sometimes mean they look foolish. Besides didn’t y’all just remove the word ‘nigger’ from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn? I’ll take a little censorship, of song lyrics, over the free spreading of hate that is Westboro Baptist Church any day of the week. The willful spreading of misinformation for the promoting of hatred has become a cornerstone of your political discourse, from what I can see. Where there are hate laws, the focus shifts to is this/or is it not, hate speech. Putting, front and centre the accuracy and intent, shining a light on misinformation dismisses it, if it comes up again, begins to get recirculated then the hate law comes into play, as it’s already been established to be inaccurate. Thanks for your concern, but we’re just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497/40 "2011-01-14T15:05:01Z")
You guys are missing the point, if you are taking this seriously. It’s an industry association complaint process. “Canada” did not “ban” or “regulate” _anything_. Industry self-governing association complaint processes have one goal - to avoid having the government regulate their industries, by pacifying complainers with a show of due process. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-believes-in-censorship/567497.md?page=3)