Stop the Smut! Citizen Activism and Toronto’s Sin Strip, 1972-1973
This Friday, October 3rd, I’ll be taking part in a panel on vice and citizen activism at a conference in Montréal. For years Marcel, Tom and I have talked about getting together to discuss our common interest in the way Canadian cities have managed vice and perceived social problems in the past. Here is the result:
Managing Vice in Canadian Cities, 1965-1980
Président: Mathieu Lapointe (Université McGill)
Panelists: Marcel Martel (York University): «Chassez-les»: Réponses citoyennes au phénomène des hippies à Montréal.
Daniel Ross (York University): «Downtown is for Everyone» : Citizen Activism and the Sex Industry on Toronto’s Yonge Street, 1972-1977.
Tom Hooper (York University): «Our Police Force Too!» The Right to Privacy Committee and Creating a ‘Gay Minority’, Toronto 1979.
The only thing is…I’m in the UK this term, at the Centre for Urban History in Leicester. But thanks to the wonders of the internet (and Tom Hooper’s video-editing skills), I won’t miss the conference in Montréal. Below you’ll find a 16-minute video presentation describing how conservative Torontonians mobilized to protest the sex industry in the 1970s. I’m hoping that a bit of music and some slides will keep the audience from nodding off to the comforting sound of my voice…And I’ll be able to field questions and perhaps ask some myself thanks to Skype.
Daniel Ross 