We use cookie and similar technologies in our web sites. For more information see our privacy policy page. We have been championing Canadian lawyers and Canadian law since Register for Section meetings, view recorded meetings and access past materials. Get the latest from the legal profession with our library on on-demand continuing professional development. More than 36, lawyers stay sharp through membership in the CBA. Many people are interested in bondage and discipline, domination and submission, or sadism and masochism BDSM.
A study found that Canadian police have, since the late s, pretty much stopped laying obscenity charges against distributors of adult porn, so even the raunchiest X-rated material is easy to access with a few mouse clicks.
The curious can also seek out the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. They carry them into lunchrooms and onto subways. References to BDSM sexual practices have also been appropriated in fashion, advertising and music. BDSM, or at least the idea of it, seems to thrive without shame in popular culture. While BDSM fantasies may be common, the controversies swirling around legal proceedings against Lori Douglas and Jian Ghomeshi make it clear that engagement in BDSM practices is still on the margins of social acceptability.
The nonconsensual distribution of intimate images only became a criminal offence in Douglas retired from the bench in late , shortly after the inquiry panel ruled that they could view the photos, so the public confidence question was never adjudicated. He was acquitted in early of sexual assault and choking charges because three complainants failed to tell the whole truth about their post-event contact with Ghomeshi. Thus the question of capacity to consent to potentially life-threatening sexual activity—such as erotic asphyxiation—was not one upon which the court had to adjudicate.
Thus the Douglas and Ghomeshi proceedings left important legal questions unanswered. While no legal sanctions were imposed in either case, being publicly associated with BDSM practices had career-ending consequences for both Douglas and Ghomeshi.
