Introduction During the 1950s there was a social movement against the pornography industry in Canada. Religious and feminist groups were concerned about the harmful effects regarding the endangerment and degradation of women. The opposition to this movement was that pornography was a freedom of expression and sexual orientation. This has led to many political debates and controversies about what is ethically right and what is a personal freedom. This created many problems for the Canadian government on how to legislate pornography and uphold Canada's common rights. First obscenity legislation and criminal law In 1959, the Canadian government passed the first obscenity law after a social movement by feminist groups. Canadian law stated: “For the purposes of the Act, any publication the dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex, and any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence, shall be considered obscene. " The addition of this law did not resolve the conflict between liberals and conservatives over the value of pornography and sex itself. It all hinged on one question: Were depictions of sex socially and morally dangerous or sexually liberating? Feminist Movement During the 1980s another feminist movement began because they felt that the current law did nothing to protect women and did not criminalize pornography in any way. way. Feminist groups argued that pornography oppressed women and would influence men to believe that this degrading behavior depicted in adult entertainment is acceptable and that something must be done to change it. However, not all feminists believed in this movement. This particular group took the name Feminist Against Censorship. This special group was against censorship of pornography because it would give men in the Canadian government the power to control women's rights - it is the epitome of sexism. Some feminist leaders in North America have argued that current laws interpret the text in such a way that the government ignores the realities of women's lives. In other words, the feminist group says, the law is too subjective and must be eliminated and a completely new law must be enacted that completely eliminates pornography. In order for women to change this law they would have to demonstrate that men who consume pornography also behave in this way, degrading and dehumanizing women. At this point there was no evidence to support that if a man viewed pornography he would use violence or demeaning behavior towards women.