Algoma U history prof exploring decades-old movie scandal

A local religious historian is digging into a controversial incident that took place in the Sault several decades ago.

Bruce Douville, a history professor at Algoma University, is working on an essay about a contentious incident that occurred at Station Mall in 1979 — when a cinema manager was charged with blasphemous libel for daring to show the Monty Python film Life of Brian.

Douville’s draft of those circumstances will soon be sent to the McGill-Queen’s University Press for review. If published, his piece would be included in a series of essays outlining Canada’s history.

According to the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library, Reverend Michael Eldred, an Anglican priest from Richards Landing, levelled private charges of blasphemous libel against a local cinema and its manager for airing the British comedy in November 1979.

The theatre manager and Toronto-based Villa Theatres were implicated for showing the film that satirized organized religion and became the subject of controversy around the world.

Under section 296 of the Criminal Code, anyone who committed blasphemous libel could face imprisonment for up to two years. (The law was officially repealed by the federal government in 2018).

The controversial case ultimately never made it to trial, as charges were withdrawn against the movie manager in January 1980, two months after they were laid.

Douville says those charges should have never been laid in the first place.

“To go two months between November and January, wondering if you were going to be convicted for blasphemous libel, what impact is this going to have on your freedom, job, life, finances?" he says. "I can only imagine it must have been a horrible and dark time for the movie manager.”

Douville has spent the pandemic compiling information on the incident by digging into archival sources and reaching out to the families involved in the case.

“I was drawn to this topic originally because, being raised in the Sault, I knew that something had happened at the time involving the censorship of Monty Python's Life of Brian," he says. “I knew that there had been a controversy surrounding it. I wasn't sure of the details, but I knew that there was a local story worth exploring.”

In May 2021, Douville presented his research as part of a conference hosted by the University of Toronto called "Between Postwar and Present Day: Canada, 1970-2000, Local, National, Global."

He explains one of the more interesting pieces of the story is the fact there were very few reported cases of blasphemous libel in the country during the 20th century, and next to none after the 1920s.

“This was probably the last case ever in Canada and was likely the last time anyone was charged with it,” he says.

Douville believes the events stemming from the Sault’s cinema are still significant today, especially after last week's near-fatal attack on award-winning author Salman Rushdie in New York.

Since the late 1980s, Rushdie has faced criticism, backlash, and death threats for his novel The Satanic Verses, as some groups, particularly members of the Muslim community, considered his piece of literature blasphemous for the depiction of Prophet Muhammad.

“As we’ve seen from the Rushdie incident, there are still people who take blasphemy against their God so seriously that they would be willing to cause immense suffering and immense human fallout,” Douville says. “That’s tied in with the whole issue of free expression.”

Douville explains that freedom of expression specified by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is an important pillar to our society, especially in cases like the Monty Python film and the localized fallout that resulted in national attention.

“When we use the law to silence expressions that offend us, we’re on dangerous ground,” he says. “Freedom of expression is the bedrock of a democratic society, and that includes defending the rights of those who poke fun at the things we hold dearest.”

“If you aren’t allowed to poke fun at any aspects of a particular religion, then it isn’t a religion worth taking seriously,” he continues. “True religion should never be that fragile.”

Douville intends to have his draft completed in September, then sent to the McGill-Queen’s University Press for review.

He hopes the piece will then be published as part of an academic collection of essays on the history of Canada between 1970 and 2000.