John Ince (politician)

John Ince (born May 30, 1952) is a Canadian author, lawyer, activist, and entrepreneur. He is probably best known as the founder of The Sex Party and for his book The Politics of Lust.

Ecotourism

With three others, Ince in 1979 founded Trekspeditions, one of the first travel agencies in Canada focusing on the then emerging ecotourism industry.[1] They sent clients to hike Mount Robson, kayak Haida Gwaii or canoe in the Yukon and represented pioneering ecotour businesses such as Ecosummer Canada.

Legal career

Ince began practicing law in the early 1980s[2] focusing on environmental issues but gradually moved to the human rights field, specializing in sexual issues. He represented performers and individual citizens fighting sexual censorship laws. One of his cases, Luscher v. Canada,[3] was successful in striking down as unconstitutional a federal law that had prohibited sexual material from entering Canada for over one hundred years. He represented the Canadian polyamory community in the 2011 constitutional reference case concerning Canada’s polygamy laws.[4]

Sex-positive work

In 2002, Ince opened The Art of Loving, a sex shop in Vancouver, Canada. It sells art, instructional books and videos and pleasure products. It also produces almost one hundred sexual seminars a year, some led by Ince. He produced an erotic event at The Art of Loving that garnered international media attention in 2003.[5]

In 2005 Ince and many other erotic arts activists founded The Sex Party, the world’s first officially registered sex-positive political party. Ince was party leader from 2005 until 2012. He and others ran as candidates in two provincial general elections in 2005 and 2009.[6]

Men’s groups

In 2010 Ince and Marke Brunke founded VancouverMensGroups.org to facilitate the formation of groups of men who are interested in connecting at a deeper level than usually occurs at social events. Ince and Brunke have a combined thirty years of experience participating in men’s groups.[7]

Books

Ince’s first two books concerned the then emerging field of environmental law. Both Environmental Law[8] and Land Use Law[9] were first published by the West Coast Environmental Law Association and then by the legal publisher Butterworths.

Ince’s third title, Sea Kayaking Canada’s West Coast[10] was co-authored with Hedi Kottner. It was in print for 20 years and was the first paddling guide to the sport of ocean kayaking.

Ince wrote The BC Guide to Buying Rural and Recreational Property in 1993.[11] It is the only detailed guide to the process of acquiring property outside cities in British Columbia.

Ince worked on and off for almost twenty years researching his 2003 publication The Politics of Lust, (Prometheus Books) which argues that irrational sexual fear is pervasive in our culture, that it is largely unrecognized, and that it affects our political orientation.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Smith, Charlie (Jul 2, 2009). "Art of Loving unveils planet-friendly sex toy". Georgia Straight. Vancouver Free Press. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  2. ↑ "John Ince". CanadianLawList. Thomson Reuters Canada Limited. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  3. ↑ Luscher v. Deputy Minister, Revenue Canada, Customs and Excise, [1985] 1 F.C. 85;
  4. ↑ "Polyamorists want court to declare group love legal". Vancouver Sun. September 9, 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  5. ↑ Girard, Daniel (June 2013). "Will sex on stage tempt police to act?". Toronto Star. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  6. ↑ Woolley, Pieta (Mar 9, 2009). "Sex Party leader John Ince to run against Premier Gordon Campbell". Georgia Straight. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  7. ↑ Takeuchi, Craig (Sep 19, 2012). "Best of Vancouver 2012 communities: It’s raining men who are addressing men's issues". Georgia Straight. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  8. ↑ Ince, John G. (1984) [1979]. Environmental Law: A Study of Legislation Affecting the Environment of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC, Canada: Centre for Continuing Education. ISBN 0919365019.
  9. ↑ Ince, John G (1984) [1978]. Land Use Law. Canada: Butterworths. ISBN 0409988634.
  10. ↑ Ince, John G. (1982). Sea Kayaking Canada's West Coast. Vancouver, BC, Canada: Raxas Books. ISBN 0898863422.
  11. ↑ Ince, John G. (1993). The BC Guide to Buying Rural and Recreational Property. Vancouver, BC, Canada: Pivitol Press. ISBN 0-9696567-0-X.
  12. ↑ Wood, Daniel (Dec 15, 2005). "Sexual freedom". Georgia Straight. Retrieved 15 June 2013.

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