Weep

It all started at a club called L’Orage in Montreal, Canada. Jean-Paul Labaye ran the club, and was fined because of the indecent acts that went on there.

This went all the way to the Supreme Court. And yesterday, the Supreme Court came out with its ruling – clubs like this are perfectly legal. This means that in Canada, where the age of consent is 14, 14 year olds can now be involved in group activities that I won’t describe. Legally. So, Dad and Mom, don’t try to stop them.

It could be argued that this isn’t the worst part of the story. This wasn’t just a ruling on a specific club, or even all clubs of its type. This ruling actually struck down the legal understanding of decency.

Now as far as law in Canada is concerned, there really is no absolute morality (in practice, anyway. Actually, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms clearly says that “Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law”). So how could we know what decency or morality is? Well, you look at the community and see what may offend them. If the community doesn’t like people running around wearing only their red socks, then the law bows to the community’s standards.

But the Chief Justice, Beverley McLachlin, took it all a step further. Who cares what the community thinks? It’s only a matter of what harms people.

So it looks like this:

Harm? What’s that? Physical? Spiritual? Mental? Who is being harmed? How much? Does long term harm count, or only short term? Good questions, but unanswered ones. Although we have heard that this includes harm to society. Pretty open ended.

This is a huge shift in how we understand morality in the law in Canada. It will drastically change how the courts rule – especially when it comes to sex issues.

Two out of 9 Justices dissented, and wrote a lengthy explanation of why. An article in the Vancouver Sun says: In a biting dissent, justices Louis LeBel and Michel Bastarache accused the majority of turning their backs on public morality and the established legal order. The majority decision could lead to “anti-social behaviour,” they wrote. “This new harm-based approach strips of all relevance the social values that the Canadian community as a whole believes should be protected,” said the lengthy dissent.

The news is getting world attention. In the USA, CNN informed their readers about the lift on the ban on Swinger’s clubs in Canada. In the UK, as in New Zealand, the news made it to the Oddly Enough file. And in places like India, the news talked about Canada’s nod to such indecency.

Of course, bloggers are picking up on this one as well. While some are booking their flights to Canada, others are shocked. Today, here there be walruses writes on the USA’s Intelligent Design ruling as well as Canada’s decency ruling. North Western Winds has some thoughts on causing harm.

Meanwhile, with funding from friends in Florida, Jean-Paul Labaye is planning to expand his business. And he won’t be the only one.