Sex News

Over 300 rainbow-clad LGBTQ members and allies rallied in Oshawa on April 18th after a local newspaper published a homophobic rant about Councilor Amy England’s participation in a PFLAG fundraiser. The newspaper, Oshawa/Durham Central, printed a story that referred to the fundraiser as a “freakshow” and compared England’s drag performance to blackface. In response, members of PFLAG also created a website calling on advertisers with Oshawa/Durham Central to end their business with the paper.

A recent survey from Revera Inc, one of Canada’s largest providers of care and services for seniors, shows that the rates of romantic partnership among seniors aged 75 and over is just as high as that in the 18-30 group surveyed. According to the Revera Report on Romance, “[…]seven-in-ten Canadian seniors say love and romance remains an important aspect of their lives and 88 per cent agree that companionship is something they couldn’t do without.”

Standard Innovation Corporation, manufacturer of the We Vibe line of products, is seeking relief and compensation from LELOi AB, LELO Inc., LELO Shanghai Trading, Ltd, and their distributors for infringement on its Canadian patents and industrial design registration. The company filed a similar lawsuit in U.S. District Court and stated in a release that the launch of similar products by LELO prompted the action to enforce its intellectual property rights.

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Unlike most provinces which have non-profit and/or government funded sexual health centers, residents of P.E.I. have to go to their family doctor or a walk-in clinic with concerns about their sexual and reproductive health. The population of Canada’s smallest province makes funding a clinic hard to justify, according to P.E.I. Chief Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison.

Although Morrison insists that islanders have very good access to clinics and doctors, AIDS PEI outreach coordinator, Alana Leard, said she often gets calls from residents hesitant to get help.

Miss Universe Canada finalist, Jenna Talackova, was recently disqualified from the pageant for being male-assigned at birth or, according to the pageant website, failing to  "meet the requirements to compete despite having stated otherwise on her entry form". Talackova says she knew she was female since the age of 4 and started hormone treatment at 14. She considers her disqualification a human rights issue, and rightly so.

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently ruled that banning brothels was unconstitutional as it puts sex workers at risk. The Court also found the law against “living on the avails” of prostitution to be unconstitutional but instead amended it only to apply to exploitation cases.

Unfortunately, one provision was left in tact: public communication for the purpose of prostitution will remain illegal.

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After concerns about sex workers not wanting to report rape were raised by the Missing Women inquiry, Vancouver police will finally consider new guidelines concerning enforcement against sex workers. The new enforcement strategy, called ICEE for “investigate, communicate, educate, enforcement and exit,” stressed enforcement as a last resort, treating sex workers with dignity, and assisting with exit strategies where appropriate.

Health Canada has issued a warning about two potentially dangerous drugs being sold at The Love Shop outlets in Ontario. Stiff4Ever and PurePillz are unauthorized drugs with unsafe health implications, including increased body temperature, increased blood pressure and heart rate, as well as abnormal heart rhythm, nausea, vomiting and kidney damage, Health Canada said.

No adverse reactions to the drugs have been reported, but Health Canada is urging Canadians who have purchased the products to consult a healthcare practitioner regarding any concerns.

In the past ten years, the number of syphilis cases in New Brunswick has risen tenfold, and the outbreak could get worse, a provincial health official warns.

The province recorded an average of one case per year from 1993 to 2007, but in 2010 that number reached 37. So far this year, 10 cases have been recorded, according to New Brunswick's deputy chief medical officer of health.

A survey commissioned by SiriusXM Canada recently found that more than half of Canadians like to tune in when they’re turned on. This is especially true for Quebecers and 45-54-year-olds.

"Emotions have a stronger link to our auditory stimuli versus visual so what we hear, or don't hear, during sex has the ability to affect what happens between the sheets," said sex and relationships expert Josey Vogels.

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