The B.C. government on March 14 introduced the first major amendments to the province’s Motion Picture Act (MPA) since 1986.
The changes aim to:
- reduce the licensing burden on cinema owners who want to show restricted movies;
- protect the public interest by aligning the definition of obscenity with the obscenity and child pornography provisions in the Criminal Code of Canada; and
- broaden and update definitions to account for new technology that enables visual images to be disseminated via satellite and digital means.
Liberal house leader Rich Coleman, who is in charge of liquor laws in the province, said February 9 that he would change laws to enable cinema owners to allow venues that serve liquor to also show movies.
That proposal is still in the works and is not part of the MPA, a B.C. justice department source told Business in Vancouver.
BIV has made several requests in the past few weeks to interview Coleman about changes to liquor laws in B.C. and he has not yet responded.
The updated MPA introduces a new compliance and enforcement model that provides a range of sanctions and monetary penalties against cinema owners who breach the act that do not involve the courts.
Previously, the only enforcement options available were licence suspension, cancellation or seizure or a fine that involved the court system.
