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From: clewis@mnetor.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.games.trivia
Subject: Re: Genus II Edition banned in U.S.?
Message-ID: <585@mnetor.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-May-85 14:04:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: mnetor.585
Posted: Mon May 13 14:04:32 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 13-May-85 15:35:18 EDT
References: <451@mnetor.UUCP> <14@aquila.UUCP> <358@unm-cvax.UUCP> <10306@brl-tgr.ARPA> <483@usl.UUCP> <1233@ecsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: clewis@mnetor.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Organization: Computer X (CANADA) Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Xref: utcs net.followup:4757 net.games.trivia:1630
Summary: 

In article <1233@ecsvax.UUCP> dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady) writes:
>> A better example is: the movie "If You Love This Planet" was banned (in
> 
>The film in question was not "banned" in the US.  It, and a film on
>acid rain, offended the Reagan administration which, in its typically
>inept way, chose to resurrect an old, unused law and require that (1)
>whenever one of the films was shown, an announcement be made to the
>effect that it was "foreign [i.e. Canadian] propaganda", and (2) a
>record be kept of the organizations exhibiting the film and the persons

My recollection was that it was indeed banned, and that after strenous
protest, the ban was removed in favour of the "propaganda" disclaimer.

>An interesting breed of logic, there.  I am not aware of anyone
>claiming that the US has totally free speech, just freer political
>speech than one is likely to find in most countries (including, alas,
>Canada, Britain, and France).

The original poster did claim just that.  I wouldn't have responded
otherwise.  Regarding "freer" than "Canada" etc.  Maybe, but a good
point can be made that this only applies domestically - what about
US policies w.r.t. CIA covert activities in Chile?

>illegal to differ with the official government line concerning certain
>historical events (in particular the Holocaust).  

There is no "official government line" on the Holocaust or anything
else.  He was convicted of uttering statements that he *knew* were
false intending to incite hatred.  The jury was satisfied on all
points (that they were "false", that he knew it, and that he was
doing it to incite hatred).  This was also brought out in another 
posting.  You could do with some similar laws yourselves.

If you still consider our law to be a violation of freedom-of-speech
what about McCarthyism and the blacklists?  That alone has ruined more
lives than any restriction of freedom of speech that this country has
ever had (except for the Japanese internment which the US had too).
Wasn't being a member of the Communist party illegal during the 40's
and 50's?

> Would you approve of the law in the (admittedly
>unlikely) event that a right-wing government took over Canada and
>promulgated its own version of, say, the history of Quebec?

No such law exists.  Besides, the only right-wing government in a
position to take over Canada is the States! (*grin*)

On a more serious note, if through some fluke the Communist Party of
Canada (CPC) or the Trotskyites or the Marxist-Leninists (or even the
NDP!) or whomever ever managed to win a federal election in this
country (or, if our country just did something that was sufficiently
contrary to "US interests" like blocking off the St. Lawrence Seaway,
Alberta Gas and Oil, or shipments of Canadian Bacon, CC, and
Molsons/Labatts) what would your freedom-loving country do?  The same
thing as in Chile or worse (full-scale invasion)?  Probably not - but
the U.S.A. *has* done it before.

>Furthermore, the banning of fruit-loop books claiming that the
>Holocaust was a hoax only serves to bring publicity to a nut group that
>would otherwise be ignored by everyone with an IQ outside the single
>digits.  But let's not get into that again...

Absolutely true.  Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of single
digit IQ's in both our countries.  The KKK was ignored and see what
happened - a lot of people were killed or were "deprived of their
civil rights".  How I love that phrase!  It is quite amusing to
see that charge when the charge should be "murder".
-- 
Chris Lewis,
UUCP: {allegra, linus, ihnp4}!utzoo!mnetor!clewis
BELL: (416)-475-8980 ext. 321