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]
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, because censors "felt the film was just an excuse to show criminal activity."[5] Available in Winnipeg on DVD as part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3.
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.
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 The ban was repealed in 1995.[15]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 was passed in British Columbia by the BC Film Classification Office and was rated Restricted with a warning. It 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]
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] The controversy surrounding the ban and the film itself ultimately led to Saskatchewan disbanding its classification authority, handing classification of films over to the British Columbia Film Classification Office in a 1997 bilateral agreement.[24]
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.[25]

See also

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 (2013-10-18). Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. p. 29. ISBN 9781476607252. 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. Archived from the original on 2016-02-03. 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. Archived from the original on August 23, 2011. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  13. [Portman, Jamie. Untitled column, Calgary Herald, 21-04-71, https://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. Archived from the original on 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2012-02-25.
  17. Cole, Janis. "Bonnie Sherr Klein". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica-Dominion. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. 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. Archived from the original on 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  20. "Search for a Film Classification - Ontario Film Authority". Ofrb.gov.on.ca. 2008-04-15. Archived from the original on 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  21. "The Vancouver Sun - Google News Archive Search".
  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. "Film and Video Classification Board". Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice. Archived from the original on 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2007-04-30. On October 1, 1997, an agreement between the province of British Columbia and Saskatchewan came into effect, under which the British Columbia Film Classification Office will classify all new theatrical releases and adult videos on behalf of the Saskatchewan Film and Video Classification Board.
  25. "Décisions - Régie du cinéma". Régie du cinéma. 2005-04-29. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
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