11110 104 Ave NW Roundhouse, Edmonton, AB T5K 1M9
Learn about the evolution of Canadian obscenity law within 1980s Alberta from Ph.D. Candidate Kyler Chittick.
While Towne Cinema Theatres, Ltd. v. The Queen (1985) and R. v. Butler (1992) are often treated as milestones in obscenity law, Chittick argues that both emerged from a provincial climate marked by moral conservatism, rights-based legal challenges, and intensified anxieties about sexuality.
Alberta’s distinctive legal and political climate has been overlooked in accounts of obscenity law. By recovering this context, Chittick demonstrates how Towne Cinema informed LEAF’s intervention in R. v. Butler and how a “feminist” legal framework came to reinforce conservative sexual morality and disproportionately target queer sexual expression.
Come dive into queer history!