Bet you’re looking at the picture above and thinking, “Is he serious? That’s bullshit!” Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not lying, kids. I just discovered this fact, and it’s got me scratching my head. According to the Criminal Code of Canada, everything you did growing up and even now, revolving around owning or selling a comic book in Canada is illegal.
Umm… thanks Canadian morality laws?
So if you’re hiding one of these, you’re a criminal. Off to jail you go!
Here’s the law in question; Section 163, 1b of the criminal code states that anyone who creates, owns, distributes or sells a crime comic is guilty of an offence to morality. Even better, according to the code, comics are grouped in with obscene materials such as pornography and hate speech. Now that’s a little extreme.
What’s even more puzzling is that you’d think that this is an old and outdated law, but it’s not. The most recent update to the criminal code was July of 2015, and this law is still on the books.
This law is valid, but no one really knows that they’re breaking it.
Now, according to the letter of the law, the types of comics you’re not allowed to own or sell are crime comics (so your Archie and Garfield comics are fine).
That means, according to the articles 7a and 7b of the Criminal Code, a ‘crime comic’ means a
“magazine, periodical or book that exclusively or substantially comprises matter depicting pictorially (a) the commission of crimes, real or fictitious; or (b) events connected with the commission of crimes, real or fictitious, whether occurring before or after the commission of the crime.”
So every comic book, ever.
The law is written broadly enough that any popular comic book fits the criteria.
And yes, there is a sentence associated with it; 2 years in prison.
Wow. All that for a Batman comic?
So why so harsh Canada? What gives?
Back in the late 40’s and early 50’s the comic book industry was different. While the major heroes of Superman, Batman and Captain America existed, they weren’t as popular as they are now. A different kind of comic book prevailed in the post-war era.
Back then the comic industry was driven by horror, romance, pulp and crime comics and their reach was significant. There were hundreds of thousands of copies of these books circulating in Canada and being consumed by kids and teens.
There were actual cases of crimes and murder in Canada that were traced back to kids, teens and adults who read these comics voraciously, which led to bills both here in Canada and the US to ban comic books entirely.
There was even a book, published in 1954 called Seduction of the Innocent, by Frederic Wertham, an American psychologist, who connected comics to juvenile delinquency and even went as far to suggest that Batman and Robin’s relationship promoted homosexuality. In his defence though, some of those early Batman comics depicted their relationship as rather odd.
This led to the Comics Code of Authority for publications and the decline of crime books.
As well, both the US and Canada implemented moral decency laws to prevent these books from being sold.
Since then, no one’s changed the law or thought to modify it, so as it stands, it’s still illegal to have all those comic books stashed at your moms house. That also makes every comic book shop in Canada, a den of illegality and criminals, rather than a place to buy figurines, the latest DC comic, or a nifty T-shirt.
But I wouldn’t worry. No one’s gonna come after you for it. Plus remember this post about the comic book Marvel published, where Spiderman came to Toronto. That was commissioned by the Police Services all across Canada, and I’d say there were crimes in that, so I’d call hypocrisy if anyone tried anything.
Just saying. Plus who wants to miss out on quality books like this?
Yep… those are some dangerous comics.
I’m gonna go make a sandwich and break some laws now.
H/T Global News
