Ok I found it --- 1992 Butler decision. The Court held the following in it's decision:
"The Supreme Court of Canada, in its decision in Butler, accepted the essentials of LEAF's equality argument. The court held that the obscenity law was unconstitutional if used to restrict materials on a moral basis, but constitutional if used to promote sex equality. The court interpreted the criminal "obscenity" provision to prohibit materials that harm women."
In this context the "C" word in pornography dehumanizes a woman by reducing them to mere body parts.
hope this helps
kf1
It is an extremely complex decision.
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The actual decision was written by the late Justice Sopinka for the majority. [/FONT]
[FONT="](I have heavily redacted his decision for brevity)[/FONT]
[FONT="]"The case requires the Court to address one of the most difficult and controversial of contemporary issues, that of determining whether, and to what extent, Parliament may legitimately criminalize obscenity. [/FONT]
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[FONT="]In order for the work or material to qualify as "obscene", the exploitation of sex must not only be its dominant characteristic, but such exploitation must be "undue". In determining when the exploitation of sex will be considered "undue", the courts have attempted to formulate workable tests. The most important of these is the "community standard of tolerance" test.[/FONT]
[FONT="]…[/FONT]
[FONT="]The community standards test has been the subject of extensive judicial analysis. It is the standards of the community as a whole which must be considered and not the standards of a small segment of that community such as the university community where a film was shown[/FONT]
[FONT="]…[/FONT]
[FONT="]Therefore, the community standards test is concerned not with what Canadians would not tolerate being exposed to themselves, but what they would not tolerate other Canadians being exposed to. [/FONT]
[FONT="]…[/FONT]
[FONT="]There has been a growing recognition in recent cases that material which may be said to exploit sex in a "degrading or dehumanizing" manner will necessarily fail the community standards test. [/FONT]
[FONT="]…[/FONT]
[FONT="]In the appreciation of whether material is degrading or dehumanizing, the appearance of consent is not necessarily determinative. Consent cannot save materials that otherwise contain degrading or dehumanizing scenes. Sometimes the very appearance of consent makes the depicted acts even more degrading or dehumanizing.[/FONT]
[FONT="]....[/FONT]
[FONT="]the artistic defence is the last step in the analysis of whether the exploitation of sex is undue. Even material which by itself offends community standards will not be considered "undue", if it is required for the serious treatment of a theme. [/FONT]
[FONT="] .....[/FONT]
[FONT="]Pornography can be usefully divided into three categories: (1) explicit sex with violence, (2) explicit sex without violence but which subjects people to treatment that is degrading or dehumanizing, and (3) explicit sex without violence that is neither degrading nor dehumanizing. Violence in this context includes both actual physical violence and threats of physical violence. Relating these three categories to the terms of s. 163(8) of the
Code, the first, explicit sex coupled with violence, is expressly mentioned. Sex coupled with crime, horror or cruelty will sometimes involve violence. Cruelty, for instance, will usually do so. But, even in the absence of violence, sex coupled with crime, horror or cruelty may fall within the second category. As for category (3), subject to the exception referred to below, it is not covered.[/FONT]
[FONT="]…[/FONT]
[FONT="]In making this determination with respect to the three categories of pornography referred to above, the portrayal of sex coupled with violence will almost always constitute the undue exploitation of sex. Explicit sex which is degrading or dehumanizing may be undue if the risk of harm is substantial. Finally, explicit sex that is not violent and neither degrading nor dehumanizing is generally tolerated in our society and will not qualify as the undue exploitation of sex unless it employs children in its production.[/FONT]
[FONT="] ...[/FONT]
[FONT="]The court must determine whether the sexually explicit material when viewed in the context of the whole work would be tolerated by the community as a whole. Artistic expression rests at the heart of freedom of expression values and any doubt in this regard must be resolved in favour of freedom of expression."[/FONT]
http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1992/1992canlii124/1992canlii124.html
One of the problems with cases like this is that the decision is very complex and it cannot be reduced to a simple sentence or two. It takes a fair degree of effort to read through the whole thing and then further effort to try to understand how these various principles are to be applied in reality.