Commentary By Lou Iacobelli
TORONTO, August 5, 2010 (catholicinsight.com) – It began with the big lie told to Canadians by the Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau who said that the state had no business in the nation’s bedrooms. His government, however, went on to implement the worst laws that have changed the family, sexuality, marriage and the very meaning of the human person.
Trudeau’s deception continues today. On April 1, 2010, the CRTC licensed a pay-TV pornography channel, called Vanessa, to Montreal-based Sex-Shop Television. It requires the programming to include a minimum of 20 percent Canadian content. This means that one-fifth of the pornography on this station must be produced in Canada with Canadian actors. It is sheduled to start broadcasting in October.
So now our own politicians and appointed officials are licensing and encouraging the porn business. Does the CRTC realize the harm that pornography does to lives, families and the nation? Pornography destroys the sanctity and thus the truth about the human person. Canadians must see that our government is bringing its lies into our bedrooms and our private lives. It’s long overdue for Canadians to fight back and reclaim their dignity from all this legislated smut.
The CRTC has also licensed an Alberta based pay-TV pornography channel, called Northern Peaks, for which 50% Canadian content is required. So the liberal agenda marches on to make pornography more readily available across the nation. This pro-pornography policy will undoubtedly destroy scores of marriages, families and individual lives. Our own government is making sure that they continue to feed pornographic addicts and possibly create new ones.
How can individual Canadian citizens build a better society and the common good when they are inundated with material and services that degrade the human person? Where are the voices in the public square speaking for morality, integrity, purity and most importantly, God? How can a nation promote a healthy, family-based environment when it grants a license to broadcast obscenity?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, “Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. If offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.” (CCC: 2354)
As a democratically elected group, our government and our civil servants are not preventing pornography, but are, in fact, responsible for ensuring that these degrading materials are produced, made and distributed all over the country. Those who license the spreading of obscene materials don’t have the best interest of the nation; they are not helping to build the well being of the Canadian family. All they are doing is making sure that the owners of these porn stations make tons of money by poisoning people's minds and hearts with visual sewage which endagers their physical and spiritual lives.
The very people put in place to promote and to protect values on which to build solidarity are instead abandoning their responsibility. Licensing a pornographic channel is not acting in the best interest of Canadian citizens. With complete disregard for the sanctity of core family values and specifically the innocence of youth, the CRTC, a government-funded organization, has made an immoral decision by encouraging public access to pornography and mandating that it include Canadian content. We all know that more pornography on the internet, on television, in movies and in print has the potential to destroy scores of marriages, families and individual lives. Should you know anybody who may be addicted to porn, encourage them to get help.
The pornography channel called Vanessa is the brainchild of Anne-Marie Losique, a French television host and producer whose stated goal is to produce a Canadian version of the Playboy Channel. Dear Anne-Marie, Canada doesn’t need a Playboy Channel. Your service will not help Canadians live better lives, but will only exploit them financially and degrade the value of the human person and family life. The license ought to be revoked immediately.
Is this not the time to let people know about this issue? As Christians should we not demand that the CRTC explain how they can grant licenses to pornographic channels while not allowing a licence to a single Catholic or Christian radio station to broadcast all day programming on regular airways?
Isn’t it time to do away with the CRTC, and let our government know that we do not need more pornographic channels? The government's lies about the human person must stop. Christians must reclaim the truth. Pornography is the illusion which cheats human beings from being the persons God meant them to be.
The CRTC can be reached by mail:
Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission
Ottawa, ON K1A 0N2
By fax: 819-994-0218
Everyday For Life Canada: A Blog of Canadian Life, Family & Cultural Issues
https://everydayforlifecanada.blogspot.com/
This article originally appeared in the July/August edition of Toronto based Catholic Insight Magazine