This is because the rules for what is “obscene” are so broad that they can fit almost any preconceived perception of a Canadian Custom’s official (under 1993 bill C-128 which includes not only anything perceived as “sexual” to those 18 or under, including kissing, but anything, including what is NOT in the picture/book, which is considered “harmful” to society: age of sexual consent in Canada is 14). What I did know was that Canada Customs officers have a 20 year history of targeting and labeling “obscene” anything either with gay or lesbian content or simply owned by gays and lesbians. Huh? Can someone please go get my next issue of the romance manga Tokyo Boys and Girls from the US? I’m too scared. Except the exact same phrase “That stuff from Japan.” was used two weeks earlier on my last trip through Customs and my manga examined for the same reason because Japanese manga is “really filthy stuff.” The reason I was so heavily raided this time, I found out afterward, was one of the manga titles had the word “boy” in the title, which “alerted” them to pedophile materials. So I stood there and watched my previously new books get examined page by page, thumbed through and pressed open because it was assumed if I read manga, that I was a sex offender.
I was informed that I could have put different covers on or done anything else I could to get the pornography in and that if I spoke anymore, the books would be seized. “The age rating is on the back of each book.” (each manga book has ratings like 13+ or 15+ - mine were 13+). They were looking, they told me, for pornographic, obscene and adult material. As more and more officers were called in, the six manga books I had were examined in detail. As soon as I declared that I had some of the japanese inspired comic books called manga, a Custom’s officer said, “That’s the stuff from Japan there is some really obscene and filthy stuff.” No, I pointed out, these was printed in America and very mainstream. How did this happen? I said a word which Canada Customs considers dirty: Manga. Saturday, I was surrounded by six officers, two watching me as the four others went page by page through my books looking for pornographic images and other evidence I was a sexual predator. While many of us have been treated like criminals going through customs, this is the first time I've come across scum treatment for possession of comics.