Maritime Film Classification Board


The Maritime Film Classification Board is a government organization responsible for reviewing films and granting film ratings in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
Created on May 1, 1994, it is jointly funded by all three provinces through the Council of Atlantic Premiers. Nova Scotia is the lead administrator of the program, which provides office space and employees through its Alcohol and Gaming Authority.
Prior to 1994, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia provided their own ratings for theatrical films and rating stickers for videos. However, the New Brunswick ratings were usually identical to those provided by the Nova Scotia Film Classification Board, thus the decision to amalgamate services. Prince Edward Island had no classification board and usually used the ratings from New Brunswick.
Under new legislation in all three provinces, each province can continue to individually regulate and enforce the exhibition and distribution of films, as well as licence theatres and video stores; this specifically includes banning operations, designating adult video stores, etc.

Rating categories

The following ratings were adopted on April 1, 2005 and are currently in use:
Classification Information Pieces:
Also in April 2005, the province of Nova Scotia officially adopted the Entertainment Software Rating Board system of classification for video games.
Source for rating information: Maritime Film Classification Board website.

History

In the early 1900s, motion pictures were rising in popularity. It was decided nationally that censorship of them was necessary in order to be suitable for a wide, general audience of varying ages, mental, and educational levels. However, since national censorship for such a large and diverse country was unworkable, each province would censor according to their own provincial community standards. However, Ontario would be the "main" censor in that theatrical prints would be censored/edited by the Ontario censors then distributed throughout Ontario, and the other provinces. The other provinces would provide additional censorship/editing if it was necessary for their own province.
In the Maritimes, motion pictures were censored for a general audience until the 1950s when the provincial film censor boards began to simply attach an "Adult rating" warning to films if necessary, if the approved film was deemed suitable for adults. All films were still subject to editing by censors if necessary.
The following ratings were used from the late 1960s to the early 1980s:
Films were still subject to editing by censors until the 1980s, when the boards slowly drifted towards classification. Films that were made for the purpose of "pornography" or "excessive violence" were rejected altogether. Around 1984, rating captions were created for use with all categories. These warnings underwent a few changes over the next few years.
In the late 1980s, the ratings were altered slightly and remained unchanged until December 31, 1993:
It was around this time that the home video market began to increase in popularity and pornographic films were no longer rejected. Pornographic videos would receive a Restricted rating with an "Explicit Sex" caption. These videos would require segregation from non-pornographic videos.
Some of the captions:
The following ratings were used from January 1, 1994 to March 31, 2005:
Source for rating information: Maritime Film Classification Board website.