Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/268

256 I won’t read the introductory words, except as follows:

His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

Subsection 1 of section 207 of the Criminal Code, chapter 35 of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927. is amended by adding thereto the following:

“(d) prints, publishes, sells, or distributes any magazine, periodical, or book which exclusively or substantially comprises matter depicting pictorially the commission of crimes, real or fictitious, thereby tending or likely to induce or influence youthful persons to violate the law or to corrupt the morals of such persons.”

Section 207 in its introductory sections provided that:

Every person shall be guilty of an offense who

and then the introductory sections (a), (b), (c), cover obscene lilerature, obscene exhibitions and I was adding section (d) to make it a violation to print, sell, distribute a crime comic as a crime.

I would like to read an explanatory note which was submitted at the same time and forms part of the printed material with the bill;

This act is designed to amend the Criminal Code to cover the case of those Magazines and periodicals commonly called crime comics, the publication of which is presently legal, but which it is widely felt tend lo the lowering of morals and to induce the commission of crimes by Juveniles.

The purpose is to deal with these publications not by imposing a direct censorship or by blanket prohibition, but rather by providing in general terms that the publication and distribution as defined in the act shall be legal and thus leaving it for decision by the court and/or jury, in accordance with the normal principles prevailing at a criminal trial to determine whether or not the publication in question fulls within the definition,

That bill was introduced as a private member's bill and given first reading on September 28, 1949. Th the debate which followed, after I had outlined my argument in support of the legislation, the Minister of Justice, speaking for the Government, stated that the Government was anxious to take effective action to deal with this problem, they welcomed the introduction of the bill.

However, it raised certain questions with respect to enforcement and, therefore, they asked if it might be stood for the time being while they communicated its contents to the provincial attorneys general to get the benefit of their views as to whether it was necessary; if so, whether it was enforcible in its present suggested form, or whether they themselves would like to see some amendments to make it more workable.

That was done. As a result of the views and opinions offered by provincial attorneys general when the debate was brought on again in committee the bill as introduced was quite extensively amended and in effect given the form of a complete revision and reenactment of the whole of section 207,

In other words, instead of just adding a new clause they incorporated the suggestion into the clause and made it a more workable whole.

It had one more effect which I would like to mention. The amendment to the bill, in that under section 207 in its previous form it was a defense to anyone accused of committing the crime of printing or publishing any obscene literature or crime comic after the amend-