Following the outrage sparked by Canadian border guards' decision to seize three gay-themed films (Shamim Sarif's I Can't See Straight, Adrian Shergold's Clapham Junction and Ella Lemhagen's Patrik, Age 1.5) headed to Ottawa's gay film festival a couple of weeks ago, Jenn Ruddy reports at xtra.com that another gay-themed film was held up by Canadian authorities for more than a month. That's Dinx, a short film directed by Edmonton-based filmmaker Trevor Anderson.
According to Ruddy's report, when Anderson called the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to ask why his film had been held up, "he was told that a customs official at the border in Emerson, Manitoba[,] had not known what it was and decided to investigate it."
And what would the prudent customs official have found? A comedy about an unhappy bartender at a men's burlesque club who relives a day from his childhood. Last year, Dinx won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at Fairy Tales, Calgary's international gay and lesbian film festival.
"I guess the fact that it was called Dinx and coming from the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival was enough for them to check the obscenity box," Anderson told xtra.com. "… It concerns me that the determination of what gets into our country is in the hands of individual border guards."
In other words, any CBSA agent in uniform is apparently allowed to seize a film, a book, a magazine at will. And gay-themed materials, whether coming from or going to gay film festivals, gay bookstores, gay individuals, clearly make for some very attractive targets for border cops who dislike, fear, despise, hate — or simply are ignorant about — gays. And who have both way too much time and way too much power in their hands.
Either Canada should give up its progressive credentials — with Stephen Harper in power that shouldn't be too hard — or Canadians, gay or otherwise, should make sure they're protected from their obscenity-crazed border cops.