PAGE 4 HIGH GEAR

'The Body Politic' back in court

By PAUL TROLLOPE

TORONTO County Court Judge George Ferguson, in a judgment delivered February 29, has set aside the February 1979 acquittal of The Body Politic and has sent the case back to Provincial Court for a new trial. TBP. however, has decided to appeal Ferguson's judgment to the Ontario Court of Appeal, and no new trial will be scheduled while that appeal is pending.

In a 33-page decision, Ferguson said that trial judge Syndney Harris made several serious errors of law, "the cumulative effect of which was of such a magnitude as to satisfy" Ferguson that if Harris had correctly applied the law the verdict would not necessarily

have been the same.

"In a case with such high visibility I conclude that justice

will be best served by allowing the appeal, setting aside the verdict of acquittal, and ordering a new trial," Ferguson said. His other main alternative would have been to find that any errors of law were not so serious as to result in any "substantial wrong or miscarriage of justice," and dismiss the appeal on that ground, as TBP counsel Clayton Ruby had argued he sould do (TBP, March).

Ferguson ruled that Harris was wrong in deciding that the whole of the December 1977-January 1978 issue of TBP had to be "immoral" or "indecent" in order for the Crown to succeed. Although this is the legal test for determining whether a book is immoral or indecent; Ferguson said, a different test applies to magazines. He said that while the whole of a magazine must be

considered, a single, isolated immoral or indecent passage could be enough to justify a conviction. One could not suround an obscene article or photograph with intellectual discourses on foreign policy and expect to be acquitted, he added.

Ferguson also ruled that Harris should have determined as a matter of law what community stanards of decency and morality were and whether or not TBP had offended them.

Harris made "a serious error of law." Ferguson said, in deciding that the word immoral was so vague that it could not form acceptable subject matter for the criminal law. "This determination on the part of the learned trial judge amounts to a failure to exercise jurisdiction," Ferguson pointedly noted.

Referring to the vague and

Gay and lesbian Jews to meet

For the fifth consecutive year, I gay and lesbian Jews from around the world will be coming together for the International Conference of Gay and Lesbian Jews, scheduled to take place in San Francisco from August 29 through September 1, 1980.

Sponsored by Congregation Sha'ar Zahav and gay and lesbian Jews of the Bay Area, the conference will feature work-

shops, symposia, facilitated discussion groups, social events, worship services and more.

"We expect to give conference participants a warmer welcome than they received in Israel last year," said Aaron Cooper, chair of the Conference Planning Committee. "In Israel, the orthodox rabbinate harassed the conference to the point of driving it underground, and the Jewish

Fund rejected a donation from gay community for a 3,000-tree forest that was to be dedicated during the conference."

"This year's conference will be absolutely super," agreed Irene Ogus, conference vice-chair. "I particularly want to emphasize that the conference is open to all Jewish lesbians and gays, not just people who are affiliated with a gay Jewish organization. I

subjective area of morals legislation gnerally, Ferguson said that "however elusive the contemporary Canadian community standards of decency or morality may be, it nonetheless remains incumbent upon the court to determine them.... There does exist in any community at all times as general instinctive sense of what is decent and what is indecent, of what is clean and what is dirty, and of what is right and what is wrong."

Ferguson also found that Harris had erred in law in deciding that the section of the Criminal Code under which TBP was charged "was not aimed at the distribution of magazines to subscribers," but rather "was designed to catch the sick individual...the invisible eexhibitionist who gets his sexual kicks by anonymously

shocking his victims." Ferguson noted that "there is nothing in the Criminal Code or any reported case...to suggest that such a restriction" applies to this section of the Code. "Accordingly. I conclude that the learned trial judge fell into error on this pont" as well.

"There can be no doubt that the concept of morality is somewhat imprecise and illusory," Ferguson conceded "One cannot lay down a definition for all time. However, the duty of the court remains to ascribe to the word the best meaning that it can. There are many, many words in statutes which are not explicitly defined but which must be interpreted by the courts in accordance with accepted principles...."

(Continued on Page 16)

GRNL

hope we have lots of people who've never attended this kind of event before. It's a marvelous reason for scheduling a visit to San Francisco!"

hope we have lots of people moves

Anyone interested in attending the conference can obtain additional information and registration materials from the Conference Registration Committee, P.O. Box 5640, San Francisco, CA 94101.

WASHINGTON, D. C. The Gay Rights National Lobby announced that they have moved into new offices in downtown Washington, D.C. The new address is 930 F. St. NW, Suite 611, Washington, D.C. 20004. The phone number remains the same, (202) 462-4255.

SPRING MIDNIGHT MADNESS

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From 1:00 A.M.-2:30 A.M. Mondays thru Saturdays

Dean's Lounge 11120 Clifton Blvd.

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(216) 961-7407

Monday-Saturday 4:00 P.M.-2:30 P.M.

Sunday 2:00 P.M. 1:00 A.M.

'Til Forbid -