The Canada Customs Departmental Memorandum D9-1-1 (1985) was meant to be a "temporary" amendment to the 1867 Customs Tariff Act. It sets out in detail what material may not enter Canada, that is what is "obscene" in the eyes of Canada Customs. According to the memorandum, depictions of anal penetration, bondage, and degradation are forbidden access to Canada unless presented in a "rational and unsensational" manner. Personally, I have never had "unsensational" anal penetration, and have no idea what might be meant to this regard. If questionable material violates the code in the opinion of any Customs officer it is impounded there and then, with no public trial or scrutiny. Once impounded, the offending material is put on a national watch list of illegal material until somebody undergoes the often prohibitive expense of taking the Customs' decision to trial.

From an article in the Hour Weekly of Montreal (November 10, 1993) I discovered that there has been yet another of many Customs notices which "clarify" memorandum D9-1-1. According to Customs Notice N-198, ejaculation can pass, but not "excessive ejaculation". When asked in writing by Montreal librarian Harvey Blackman what was meant by excessive ejaculation, Canada Customs Senior Communications Advisor D.J. LaBelle responded that depictions or descriptions of ejaculate landing in or near the "eyes, mouth, nose, or ears is considered to be excessive and representative of an act of sex with degradation." Before this notice, any visible (i.e. exterior) ejaculation was considered degrading and therefore obscene, which is exactly contrary to safe sex practice.