List of films banned in Canada

This is a list of films that have been or are banned in Canada.

List

Release Date	Film	Notes
1916	Damaged Goods	Banned in Ontario.[1]
1918	Manitoba institutes a ban (since lifted) on all comedies, due to the belief at the time that they would lead to frivolty in real life.
1931	Little Caesar	Banned in Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.[2]
1937	The Life of Emile Zola	Banned in Quebec.[3] Available in Quebec since 1997 with a "G" rating.[4]
1939	Thugs with Dirty Mugs	Banned in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1939, because censors "felt the film was just an excuse to show criminal activity."[5]
1946	Scarlet Street	Banned in New Brunswick.[1]
1946	Wicked Lady	Banned in New Brunswick.[1]
1947	Forever Amber	Banned in Quebec.[1] Available in Quebec since 1994 with a "G" rating.[6]
1953	The Wild One	Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec ban the film.[7] Available in Quebec from 1968 to 2013 with a "14+" rating and since 2013 with a "G" rating.[8]
1963	Tom Jones	Alberta bans the film. After two years, the decision is reversed and it is allowed to be shown.[9]
1967	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Nova Scotia censors ban the film, describing it as "obscene and blasphemous". After an appeal from the distributor and media coverage, the decision was later reversed and the film was released with a "Restricted" rating[9][10]
1967	Warrendale	Manitoba bans the film due to the language. However, due to public outcry, the decision was reversed.[9]
1968	Romeo and Juliet	Banned in Ontario.[1]
1970	On est au coton	The National Film Board of Canada blocks the release of Denys Arcand's controversial documentary. An edited version is released in 1976, but the original unedited version was not released until 2004.[11][12]
1970	Women in Love	The Alberta censors ban the film due to nudity.[13]
1971	A Clockwork Orange	Alberta and Nova Scotia ban the film.[1] Alberta reversed the ban in 1999. The Maritime Film Classification Board has also reversed the ban.[14] Both jurisdictions now grant an R rating to the film.
1972	Pink Flamingos	Edited in several provinces, with Nova Scotia banning it outright until 1997.[14]
1973	Heavy Traffic	Banned in Alberta.
1974	Last Tango in Paris	Banned in Nova Scotia, leading to the landmark Nova Scotia (Board of Censors) v McNeil court case.
1976	Blood Sucking Freaks	Banned in Nova Scotia[14] and Ontario.
1977	In the Realm of the Senses	Banned by all provinces except Quebec. In 1991, the ban was overturned by most provinces.
1978	Pretty Baby	Banned in Ontario by the Ontario Censor Board. The ban was repealed in 1995.[15]
1979	Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens	Banned in Nova Scotia.[14]
1980	Caligula	Banned by all provinces except Quebec, which gave it an 18+ rating. Edited versions were later passed. The 156-minute "unrated" version has subsequently been reevaluated and approved with an R rating in the Maritimes.[14]
1980	The Tin Drum	Edited, and later banned outright as child pornography by the Ontario Film Classification Board.[16]
1981	Not a Love Story	The feminist documentary critique of the pornography industry was itself banned in Ontario for its pornographic content, although that decision was ultimately reversed.[17]
1981	Beau-père	French film about a man having sex with a minor was banned in Ontario.[18]
1983	I Spit on Your Grave	Banned in Nova Scotia until 1998.[14]
1985	Day of the Dead	Banned in Ontario and the Maritimes, with a cut, 97 minute version passed in Ontario.[19] The original 101 minute version was resubmitted to the Ontario Film Review Board in 2008 and given a 14A rating.[20] The 101-minute version has also been granted an R rating in the Maritimes.[14]
1986	Blue Velvet	Banned by the New Brunswick Film Classification Board.[21] New Brunswick now uses the ratings provided by the Maritime Film Classification Board, which granted an R rating.[14]
1987	Bad Taste	Banned in Nova Scotia; it is now available on DVD with an 18 rating.
1989-1993	Death Scenes	Video series is banned in Nova Scotia.[14]
1994	Exit to Eden	Temporarily banned by the Saskatchewan Film and Video Classification Board.[22][23]
1997	Bastard Out of Carolina	Banned by the Maritime Film Classification Board. This decision was later appealed, and a video release was allowed.
2001	Fat Girl	Banned by the Ontario Film Review Board until 2003
2006	Bumfights	This series of shot-on-tape reality productions, is banned in seven of the thirteen provinces and territories; the remaining give it an R rating. As of 2016, the films are still banned in Quebec.[24]

See also

• List of banned films
• Cinema of Canada
• Film censorship

References

1. Censored! Only in Canada, Malcolm Dean, Virgo Press, 1981.
2. Hollywood Censored, Gregory Black, 1994.
3. https://web.archive.org/web/20121105025557/http://www.cbc.ca/archives/discover/programs/t/take-30/censored.html. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
4. "Life of Emile Zola, The - Régie du cinéma". Régie du cinéma. 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
5. Karl F. Cohen. "Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America". Books.google.be. p. 29. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
6. "Forever Amber - Régie du cinéma". Régie du cinéma. 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
7. "The day Shakespeare was banned | Toronto Star". Thestar.com. 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
8. "Wild One, The - Régie du cinéma". Régie du cinéma. 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
9. https://web.archive.org/web/20121105025557/http://www.cbc.ca/archives/discover/programs/t/take-30/censored.html. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
10. "CBC Archives". Archives.cbc.ca. 2001-09-11. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
11. Evans, Gary (1991). "'On a Chariot of Fire': Sydney Newman's Tenure". In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949 to 1989. University of Toronto Press. pp. 177–187. ISBN 978-0-8020-6833-0.
12. "1976". National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
13. [Portman, Jamie. Untitled column, Calgary Herald, 21-04-71, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VWxkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Cn0NAAAAIBAJ&pg=2962,2375889]
14. Rating search at the Maritime Film Classification Board website in 2005, since then, all entries for "Not Approved" (ie. rejected) products have been removed.
15. Butler, Don (April 18, 1978). "Province backing 'Pretty Baby' ban despite criticism". Ottawa Citizen. p. 77. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
16. "History of Ontario's film industry, 1896 to 1985". Free Online Library. 2000-06-22.
17. Cole, Janis. "Bonnie Sherr Klein". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica-Dominion. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
18. Neil Boyd, Censorship and Obscenity: Jurisdiction and the Boundaries of Free Expression, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Volume 23, Number 1 (Spring 1985), p. 56.
19. "Search for a Film Classification - Ontario Film Authority". Ofrb.gov.on.ca. 1986-05-12. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
20. "Search for a Film Classification - Ontario Film Authority". Ofrb.gov.on.ca. 2008-04-15. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
22. Salem, Rob (16 October 1994). "Maybe Saskatchewan had it right first time: Exit To Eden is painful". Toronto Star. p. B3.
23. (CP) (14 October 1994). "Exit to Eden ban reversed". Toronto Star. p. 88.
24. "Décisions - Régie du cinéma". Régie du cinéma. 2005-04-29. Retrieved 2016-03-04.