I never knew they had beer in Canada!





Planes, trains and automobiles too

LMAO...I never knew it was illegal
 

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Canadian court lifts ban on ‘swingers’ clubs



Group sex among consenting adults not a threat to society, it says


OTTAWA - Group sex among consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Wednesday as it lifted a ban on so-called “swingers” clubs.

In a ruling that radically changes the way courts determine what poses a threat to the population, the top court threw out the conviction of a Montreal man who ran a club where members could have group sex in a private room behind locked doors.

“Consensual conduct behind code-locked doors can hardly be supposed to jeopardize a society as vigorous and tolerant as Canadian society,” said the opinion of the seven-to-two majority, written by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.



The decision does not affect laws against prostitution because no money changed hands among the adults having sex.

‘Bawdy house’ proprietor's appeal
The court was reviewing an appeal by Jean-Paul Labaye, who ran the L’Orage (Thunderstorm) club. He had been convicted in 1999 of running a “bawdy house” — defined as a place where prostitution or acts of public indecency took place.

Labaye — who is still running L’Orage despite his earlier conviction — said he was relieved, and would now go ahead with a new venture with backing from a group of Florida investors.

“We hope clients will be more calm. This will probably lead the way to a good future,” he told reporters, saying he was looking at adding a Jacuzzi and a swimming pool.

Labaye said he had about 2,000 regular clients who paid around $20 ($17 U.S.) a year for a membership card.





Lawyers for Labaye and the owner of another swingers’ club in Montreal argued that consensual sex among groups of adults behind closed doors was neither indecent or a risk to society.

The Supreme Court judges agreed.

“Criminal indecency or obscenity must rest on actual harm or a significant risk of harm to individuals or society. The Crown failed to establish this essential element of the offense. (Its) case must therefore fail,” McLachlin wrote.

In indecency cases, Canadian courts have traditionally probed whether the acts in question “breached the rules of conduct necessary for the proper functioning of society”. The Supreme Court ruled that from now on, judges should pay more attention to whether society would be actively harmed.

Deviant, maybe, but not dangerous
This seemed to ensure there could be no repeat of Labaye’s original conviction for causing “social harm” by allowing degrading and dehumanizing group sex to take place.

The judges said that just because most Canadians might disapprove of swingers’ clubs, this did not necessarily mean the establishments were socially dangerous.

“The causal link between images of sexuality and anti-social behavior cannot be assumed. Attitudes in themselves are not crimes, however deviant they may be or disgusting they may appear,” the judges said, noting that no one had been pressured to have sex or had paid for sex in the cases the court considered.

“The autonomy and liberty of members of the public was not affected by unwanted confrontation with the sexual activity in question ... only those already disposed to this sort of sexual activity were allowed to participate and watch,” they said.

They also dismissed the idea — raised during Labaye’s original trial — that group sex was dangerous because it could result in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

“Sex that is not indecent can transmit disease while indecent sex might not,” they ruled.

Famous last words..... the in reference disease just might be "close mindedness". We Americans suffer from it in abundance.

More like "NO mindedness"

I'm canadian lol what more is there to say hehe

Canada are the World Junior Hockey Champs! Scooooooooooooooooore!

5-0!!!!!!!!!

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot! :cheers:

Great!!!

Wonder what going to happen with Gretzski?????

(oh look...BIBI is acting like she knows hockey)

Gretzky will be crowned Prince of the World (Bobby Orr will be King)!

Gretzky predicted Canada would win 4-1 so he was pretty close!

Christmas Storm in NB, Canada
 

We went to visit my parents in New Bwunswick over Christmas and got hit with this!
I live in Nova Scotia now, and we dont see ALOT of snow where we are, we do however get alot of rain and ice.

Seeing that our dear friend has never seen a white Christmas, that looks like the perfect place for Alasse to holiday next year. :)

Is that a pic of the enterance to a polor bear cave? :D

They have cheap prescription medicine

Oh man, I DO NOT miss all the shovelling!

Steph, I'm surprised that you are here and not watching the great debate. I love the comment from Gilles, the Liberals talk like they are NDP during the Election, but act like a Conservative when he is in power. I laughted, but its true.

I loved it, too!

I went out for a bit & it's on now. I don't like the fact that the microphones of the other speakers are turned off. It makes it a lot more boring. More civilized sure, but boring!

i learned A LOT into the political workings of your gov't......I must say that only having 2 months for election sounds like heaven, compared to the year of election hell here.

oh and like, ahh, umm, you guys are, ummm, like north, or something, uhh and stuff, right?


ROFLMAO

That's right Lizz.....nord not sud ;)

She's from someplace in Toronto..................Ontario I think.

ROFL :D

Toronto? uhh is that like any relation to, ahh, tornados or, like umm uhh, Tonto?

http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/index.asp?Language=E


Here you go Lizz...knock yourself out :p

awesome! be back here later, i gots me some schoolin' to do! LOL :D:D:D

:bump:
I wonder if anything has happened in the last 3 years?








;)

Well, let's see......got married, had a couple of kids, made my first million and had three birthdays to boot!!!! :wine:


(that BIBI....such a fibber) :)

In MY opinion-One of the best moderators that Pixies ever had & the MAIN
reason that I joined Pixies years ago!She seemed to have a VERY open mind!
My $.02. Irish :2cents: