April 24

Events

• Current events

• 1997 - Two levels of government battle to be toughest on pedos - A member of the British Columbia provincial legislature moved the following resolution on this date: "Be it resolved that the Government act immediately to create a Community Notification Process to be followed upon the release from jail of a convicted pedophile or a repeat sexual offender." On the exact same day, a member of the federal parliament formally submitted two petitions from his riding with the following comments: "The petitioners pray that Parliament will enact legislation to establish a pedophile registry."

• 2000 - Think of the children? Ok. If you insist. - Benetton is a company that has had a history of some rather strange and interesting advertisements. From the rainbow of races "united colors of Benetton" to pictures of a man dying of AIDS, they have been political and provocative. On this date it was reported that Benetton's Sisley brand was using teen sex appeal to sell their clothes. An ad that was featured in the gay publication Out showed a shirtless young man reclining in bed as he pushes another guy's face toward his crotch. The ingredients for a Palm Springs Chicken Salad appears on the page with the boyish couple, a reference to how underage boys are called "chicken" in gay slang. "Sisley is a sexy brand, it's about sex and feeling sexy when you're wearing the product," said Benetton spokesman Mark Major. "There are not a lot of companies in Out doing this." He also said Benetton's ad director, Oliviero Toscani, likes to challenge consumers with his advertising. "His agenda is to push people's thinking. He feels the way sex is a taboo subject in the US is hypocritical and that we're our own worst enemies." Another ad in the campaign showed two shirtless young men sucking popsicles. Well, that certainly makes me think.

• 2002 - Reach out and slap someone? - The Guardian reported on this date that a preventive approach, imported from the US, was about to be tried out in Britain to counter child sex abuse. It is an approach that produced such encouraging results in the US that the British government decided to fund a pilot project in Britain. The program, called "Stop It Now!," was designed to set up an early warning system by raising awareness of pedophilia and providing a help line for adults sufficiently uneasy about their own inclinations, or the behavior of others, to seek professional advice. The scheme did not offer treatment, but acted as a first port of call and to refer those in need of help to the appropriate providers after establishing the nature of the problem. "We didn't expect sex offenders would be that eager to come forward, but we found a number out there in search of hope and treatment," said an American trainer for the plan, recounting the experience of the program when it was first launched in Vermont in 1995. Essentially, the goal of the program was to convince people who had never offended to get therapy anyway.

• 2002 - Unfunny talk shows don't violate their viewers human rights - An episode of the Canadian late night talk show Open Mike with Mike Bullard that aired on this date contained a number of references to the Roman Catholic pedo priest scandals. He made numerous jokes at their expense, resulting in a whopping 14 complaints being received by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) about the episode. One of those complainants was from the Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL). It sent its complaint to the Canadian Radio and television Commission (CRTC), which forwarded it to the CBSC in due course. The matter was then referred to the National Conventional Television Panel (NCTP) for adjudication. The NCTP considered the complaints under the human rights provision of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics. The NCTP reviewed a tape of the episode and concluded that it was not a breach of the human rights clause of the Code of Ethics.