(Nothing Special) Metro clothing shops will be warned against stocking plaid patterned shorts and green t-shirts with pink polka dots following a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that such items of apparel are obscene.
“Once I have reviewed the Supreme Court decisions, I will send people around to advise (clothing store owners) to remove those items of they will be charged,” Metro assistant to the acting deputy vice police chief Scott Peters said in an interview yesterday.
But at least one Metro shop – Willard’s Men’s Apparel – says it sees nothing wrong with selling or wearing such apparel. “I certainly have no plans to take them off my shelves,” owner Willard Fillmore said. “They’re kind of popular, and we get a lot of support from designers working with shy people.
“Besides, I sort of like wearing them myself.”
The Supreme Court decision released in Ottawa last week arose from an appeal by Richard Nongermain, owner of the National Clothinge Boutique/Boutique Nationale du Clothing). Nongermain was charged with having obscene articles for after police seized orange knit shawls and a variety of outrageous hats in a 1977 raid on the store. The seizure was the largest haul of obscene articles of clothing that week.
In a unanimous decision that applies across Canada (except for some parts of the Yukon, where native clothing rights are protected by the Constitution), the highest court in the nation ruled that wearing such apparel violated Section 159 (8ai) of the Criminal Code, which says, “any publication, a dominant characteristic of which is the undue clashing of colour or pattern…shall be deemed obscene.”
Wearing apparel was defined as a “publication” by a 1977 Supreme Court decision involving a St. Catharines clothing shop owner, Richard Chowdown, explained Patrick Tulong, prosecutor for the Montreal Ministry of Justice. Nongermain’s shop was charged the next afternoon, just as everybody was coming back from lunch.
The obscenity ruling was based on 17 articles of clothing, which included plaid patterned short shorts or evening gowns and glow in the dark Daffy Duck designer jeans.
Last week’s ruling would not affect the plain Daffy Duck t-shirts popular with many cartoon aficionados or novelty items such as Mickey Mouse wristwatches, Tulong said.
However, Nongermain’s lawyer, Jean-Claude Melee, told this reporter that the fight isn’t over yet.
“The Supreme Court has left the door open,” he said. “It is up to a trial judge to decide whether the average citizen would tolerate another citizen wearing these things.”
Mary Brown, chairperson of the Ontario Clothing Review Board, was quick to defend the decision. “In matters where the public’s sensibilities may be offended,” she stated, “it is better to err of the side of good taste. Personally, I am not offended by plaid shorts, unless they are worn by a person with especially ugly legs. Still, the greater good must be served…
“The decision does not affect the Clothing Review Board, which, as you know, does not engage in wholesale censorship of fashion in a direct way. But, it is an indication of the moral climate of our country: bad taste in clothing will simply no longer be tolerated!”
Willard’s Men’s Apparel owner Fillmore, whose shop was acquitted of obscenity charges in 1974, isn’t convinced that the decision is so cut and dried. “People’s idea of what is poor taste shifts constantly,” he said, adding: “Gee, you know, I thought that in a democracy freedom of wardrobe was guaranteed.”
Melee hinted that a Constitutional appeal might be in the works. “I’m looking at the relevant sections of the Constitution right now,” he said, “but, well, I’ve just come back from a two week vacation, so I haven’t actually had the time to do the proper research.
“My wife and I traveled around the South of France, touring the countryside in an old, rented Checy. It was all rather pleasant – would you like to see the pictures…?”
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney refused to offer an opinion on the case. However, sources within the Prime Minister’s Office have leaked the following statement: “I warned Trudeau about that Constitutional thing, but did he listen? Nooooo.”
At press time, it was learned that the Prime Minister had heard of the leak, and was about to start an internal investigation which he expects to result in the dismissal of a senior staff member.
Film director Norman Jewison was unavailable for comment.