OTTAWA — As predictable as a gonzo porn plot, the Canada Family Action Coalition (CFAC) has sprung into action, demanding that the Harper government block the launch of the Northern Peaks adult film network. According to The Ottawa Citizen the faith-based conservative organization wants the Conservatives to rescind the broadcasting license that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) had recently granted to the homegrown erotica network.
Part of what infuriates the morality group so much is that Canadians would be hired to work both behind and in front of the cameras in at least 50-percent of the content featured on the channel, thus encouraging the nation to indulge in unacceptable sin and vice.
“It is to the public detriment to fuel an industry where women are degraded and treated as sex objects,” insists Charles McVety, president of CFAC, who feels the higher than required amount of local content will result in an unacceptable amount of pornographic presence in the economy.
“If private companies want to engage in such activity,” he admits, “it’s not criminal in this nation, and they’re free to do so. But for the government to use a public resource to promote such degradation shows how detached the bureaucracy is from the Canadian people.”
In addition to feeling insulted by the very notion of publicly provided sexually frank entertainment, McVety insists that cable companies treat pornographers better than religious programmers. Fears that Northern Peaks might be offered as a free trial channel has him especially unnerved, insisting that to do so would be “corrupting minds and getting them hooked on this material.”
Pundits doubt that even though the Harper government has attempted to cut back on funding for film and television productions it considers offensive, it will reverse its earlier ruling, although CRTC decisions can be appealed. To rescind the license now would require the government to make official determinations about the morality of legal sexually explicit materials.
The cabinet has 45 days to act upon the CFAC request for review, but even McVety isn’t expecting a victory.
“We would be happy if they did,” he admits, “but we understand the parameters in which they operate and we don’t anticipate they will make such a move.”
