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254 censorship. That was my feelinh with regard to the matter, not only my individual feeling, but it was my impression of the stated public opinion and, therefore, I felt if we were to get anywhere wilh ib the approach should be by way of legislation to amend the criminal] law so as to ereate an offense on the basis ihat society regards the con- tinued publication of this material as a danger to society itself, and that society, therefore, through ils instrument, its elected representa- tives, taking cognizance of the problem, ts entitled to decide whether it is of sufficient seriousness and danger that the problem is to be dealt with in the usual way under our principle of justice by the elected represeniatives defming the problem constituting the offense, pro- viding the penaliy, and then leaving it te the individual who knows the Jaw, knows what is there, to decide whether he wishes to rum the risk, if yon like, of continuing in that course of action with the knowl- edge if le does he may expose himself to ihe penalty.

In other words, to some extent you might say it is the process of imposing on the individual the obligation of self-censorship instead of imposing it on hum by direction from above.

Sa that was the course that was followed in Canada,

T should perhaps mention one other feature which we have. That is a measure of control at the customs points, I don’t know whether rou have it, or not. I don’t want to go into this in any great detail

ecuuse T know you have a busy session before you. I will try to summarize it.

Tn onr customs law, and under the tariff items which are approved by Parliament. to apply thai law there is an item 1201, tariff item 1201, which reads as follows:

It prohibits the entry into Canada of books, printed paper, drawings, prints, photographs, or representations of any kind of @ treasonable or seditious or immoral or indecent character, on the grounds that or criminal code makes those un offeuse in the country; therefore, we are not going Lo permit them to come into the country while it is an offense under our law.

That tariff item has not been amended with respect to erie comics, but, by and Jarge, Iam wformed that. the officers of the border points, if they are of the opinion that a particular comic magazine would be an offense under the new revision in the criminal code, they will exer- cise their awn diserction in prohibiting its entry, or, if they are in doubi, they will refer it to the department at Ottawa fora ruling as to whether it is admissible or not.

Mr. . Are the crime comics which go into your country printed in this country, or are the plates sent to Canada for printing?

Mr. Fuvron. Lam informed it is done in both ways. In some cases the finished article is imported. In other eases the plates are sent over and they are printed in Canada,

Mr. . You do not know which method predominates, do you?

Mr. Fuiron. My impression is that the finished article predomi- nates, Perhaps we could go into that a little more fully later, There is a real problem confronting the customs officials in that we have not had yet very much jurisprudence built up. There have not been many actions in our courts under ihe new sections with regard to crime comics and the customs officials are loath to set themselves up as censors. They have no hesitation if a particular subject. or arcele has been declared offensive by a court decision in prohibiting its entry, but they find themselves under great difficulty when 11 comes to saying as