A little history, A few years back C.A.P.C.S. managed to get some zoning bylaws in place. Basically anything to do with the Sex trade has been zoned out to the industrial areas. So no strip bars or sexy undies in the City. Having one of their members sitting on Council is a boost for them. At that time they also wanted to get this Adult Materials dealt with to, but City Council went with a Goodwill Letter Initiative. The Goodwill Letter asked that stores put Adult Materials out of sight of Children. Fair enough really, the problem is City Hall are allowing C.A.P.C.S, to define what Adult Material is for them.
A Condensed History of events leading up to the new bylaws
2001 CAPCS run a Petition to have a Plebiscite on bringing in a bylaw to control Adult Entertainment and Materials.
The Petition fails
So they rally and get one of their members who previously announced she would not run for office, voted into Council.
2003 Now with a Member of CAPCS on City Council, CAPCS are able to bully the Council into creating an Adults Entertainments/Materials Bylaw.
They did not get all they wanted; they still had issues with Displays of Adult materials. A Goodwill Letter was drawn up and sent to businesses.
2005 Using their own definition of Pornography. (That includes, but not limited to Bikini issue publications) CAPCS run a Survey of businesses to gauge the compliance level of the Goodwill Letter.
2006 CAPCS present the result of this Survey, and in a statement of fact. Report to City Council that there is only a 4% compliance rate to the Goodwill letter and call for a Bylaw to control the display of what C.A.P.C.S, but no one else consider Pornography.
This survey was totally bogus. This survey included stores that were never sent the Goodwill Letter, because it did not apply to their businesses. Also C.A.P.C.S has their own definition of Pornography that they will not share with the rest of us. So the Store owners do not even know what publications C.A.P.C.S are having problems with. Unofficially through blog posts we now know Bikini issue Calandars, Maxim and Cosmo Magazines are on C.A.P.C.S hit list
January 2007 Council sends the matter to Committee, who return with the verdict that no Bylaw is necessary and to just revamp the Goodwill Letter.
City Council totally ignores their committee’s decision and goes ahead with creating the Bylaw.
It seems C.A.P.C.S. is now running City Hall. Or have at least made and given City Council members, a rubber stamp to use on any C.A.P.C.S issues.
The following is a CAPCS interpretation of events. It in itself may be deceptive
History of the Adult Materials Issue
1. 2001-2003, CAPCS met with the Internal Project Team. {See Appendix A}
2. 2003 (spring), CAPCS presented issue to Council, agreement to go forward with Goodwill Letter Initiative.
3. 2003 (April), Goodwill Letter drafted by Bob Wanner/Zane Weber, no input from CAPCS as to content.
4. 2004 (spring), Zane’s report of compliance to letter presented to Council.
5. June 25, 2004, CAPCS wrote letter to every Council Member expressing concerns {See Appendix B}
6. April, 2005- September 2005, CAPCS conducted a Survey of 68 businesses carrying adult materials. {See Appendix C}
7. Nov, 2005 – Ken Roset & Joyce met with Mayor to present survey, as well as survey done in 1985 Mayor agreed to send out Goodwill Letter again as a reminder, to send out personal letter to all businesses not in compliance, and to re-evaluate in six months time.
8. Dec, 12 2005 – 12 year old boy purchased calendar Acknowledged by vendor as being inappropriate, but materials not removed from children’s access. Mall manager did nothing to change accessibility, communications with both mayor and Ald Kelly not acknowledged. {See Appendix D }
9. March 22, 2006 – second meeting with Mayor, Goodwill letter had been re-sent, personal letter to non compliant businesses had not. Presentation of random samplings results given to Mayor, demonstrating even further deterioration of compliance since CAPCS survey completed. Mayor asked for more time to send out personal letters.
10. March 2006 – CAPCS executive mandated by membership to wait no longer but move forward with a request for a by-law.
11. March 31 2006 – Letter sent to mayor indicating desire to move forward with a request for a By-law. {See Appendix E }
12. April, 2006- CAPCS met with John Komanchuk, Al Guscott.
13. May, 2006 – second meeting with John and Al.
14. June, 2006 – field trip to four businesses to assess CAPCS concerns.
15. June, 2006 – Summery of concerns given to John, Al and forwarded to Mayor.