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Artist busted for child pornography

Broadcast Date: Dec. 21, 1993

On Dec. 21, 1993, police arrest Toronto artist Eli Langer and seize 40 of his works that depict children and adults engaged in anal and oral sex. The charges would eventually be dropped, but it's the first time police use the a child pornography law to arrest and censor an artist.

Now it's up to a higher court to decide if Langer's works can be tried under the new law. One artist, who worries the new law will target gay and lesbian art, defends Langer: "Just as we're breaking the silence...about child abuse, to have this work seized is a very cynical move."

Artist busted for child pornography

• Proponents of the new child pornography law originally sought to curb a growing ring of child pornography photographs.

• The banned exhibit appeared at the Mercer Union Gallery. Toronto police charged Langer and gallery director Sharon Brooks under the new child pornography law.

• A court later dropped charges and Langer got back most of his confiscated paintings and drawings.

• In a hearing to decide whether the works were child pornography and should be destroyed, Justice David McCombs ruled in April 1995 that Langer's works were not illegal.

• Even though Langer's trial set a precedent for art expression in Canada, critics found his later works devoid of feeling. In 1999 R.M. Vaughan said his installation in New Work with "its reclining nudes, skeletal heads and spread-eagled nubiles" was a far cry from his Mercer Union exhibit.

Artist busted for child pornography

Medium: Radio

Program: The World At Six

Broadcast Date: Dec. 21, 1993

Guest(s): Elaine Carroll, Alison Griffith

Host: Alannah Campbell
Reporter: James Murray

Duration: 2:04

Last updated:
April 8, 2008