La réglementation des journaux jaunes à Montréal, 1955-1975. Le cadre juridique et la mise en application des lois

Cet article offre un survol de la réglementation de la presse populaire (notamment les journaux jaunes) à Montréal dans les années d’après-guerre. Visés par les groupes religieux et les politiciens, les journaux jaunes ont été des cibles des campagnes de moralité. Tandis que les autres études sur l’histoire de la censure au Québec considèrent l’application du Code criminel (donc la loi fédérale), notre étude constate qu’une loi provinciale et des règlements municipaux ont également été invoqués et appliqués. Sur le plan méthodologique, cette recherche suggère qu’une analyse de la réglementation de la culture doit tenir compte d’autres cadres judiciaires que le Code criminel.This article offers an overview of the regulation of the popular press (especially tabloid newspapers) in Montreal during the post-war years. These publications were the object of attack and derision by both religious groups and local politicians. While other studies of censorship in Quebec have discussed the application of the federal Criminal Code, this study highlights the use of a provincial law as well as municipal bylaws. In terms of methodology, it underscores the need to consider legal frameworks other than the Criminal Code in an analysis of the regulation of culture

Beyond Leisure Studies: A Labour History of Male to Female Transsexual and Transvestite Artists in Montréal, 1955-1985

This paper presents the results of an oral history project on transsexual and transvestite artists in the Canadian city of Montréal, 1955-1985. Through interviews and archival research, I examine the working conditions of these artists in the city's post-war cabarets and nightlife. Theoretically and methodologically, this research parts ways with current studies of transsexuality, as well as lesbian/gay oral history projects. My research illustrates the centrality of work to an adequate historical understanding of the emergence of transsexuality in Québec. As such, I argue for the integration of a labour analysis in both historical and contemporary considerations of transsexual lives.Cet article présente les résultats d'un projet sur la tradition orale d'artistes transsexuels ou travesties à Montréal, au Canada, de 1955 à 1985. Par l'entremise d'entrevues et de recherches dans les archives, j'ai étudié les conditions de travail de ces artistes et la vie dans les cabarets de l'après-guerre, et la vie nocturne de la ville. En théorie, et en méthodologie, cette recherche se distingue des études courantes sur la transsexualité, ainsi que des projets de la tradition orale lesbienne/gaie. Ma recherche illustre la centralité du travail à une compréhension historique de l'émergence de la transsexualité au Québec. Ainsi, je parle en faveur de l'intégration dune analyse du travail à l'égard et historique et contemporain des vies transsexuelles

Unknowable bodies, unthinkable sexualities: lesbian and transgender legal invisibility in the Toronto women's bathhouse raid

Although litigation involving sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination claims has generated considerable public attention in recent years, lesbian and transgender bodies and sexualities still remain largely invisible in Anglo-American courts. While such invisibility is generally attributed to social norms that fail to recognize lesbian and transgender experiences, the capacity to 'not see' or 'not know' queer bodies and sexualities also involves wilful acts of ignorance. Drawing from R. v Hornick (2002) a Canadian case involving the police raid of a women's bathhouse, this article explores how lesbian and transgender bodies and sexualities are actively rendered invisible via legal knowledge practices, norms and rationalities. It argues that limited knowledge and limited thinking not only regulate the borders of visibility and belonging, but play an active part in shaping identities, governing conduct and producing subjectivity

Criminal Code reform of HIV non disclosure is urgently needed : Social science perspectives on the harms of HIV criminalization in Canada

The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure represents a significant issue of concern among people living with HIV, those working across the HIV sector, public health practitioners, and health and human rights advocates around the world. Recently, the government of Canada began a review of the criminal law regarding HIV non-disclosure and invited feedback from the public about potential reforms to the Criminal Code. In light of this public consultation, this commentary examines social science research from Canadian scholars that documents the intersecting damaging effects of HIV criminalization. Canadian social scientists and other researchers have shown that HIV criminalization is applied in uneven and discriminatory ways, impedes HIV prevention efforts, perpetuates HIV stigma, and has a damaging impact on the daily lives of people living with HIV. We argue that there is an urgent need for reforms that will significantly restrict how the criminal law is applied to HIV non-disclosure