John Ince (born ) is a Canadian activist, politician, author, and lawyer. He is a founder of

The Sex Party The Sex Party was a political party based in British Columbia, Canada. The party was guided by the philosophy of the sex-positive movement. Among other points, the party advocated for reform of sex education in schools so that sexual issues are ...

, a

sex-positive movement The sex-positive movement is a social movement, social and philosophical movement that seeks to change cultural attitudes and norms around sexuality, promoting the recognition of sexuality (in the countless forms of expression) as a natural and he ...

political party of which he was party leader from 2005 until 2012.

Sex-positive activism

In 2002, Ince opened The Art of Loving, a

sex shop A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in th ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, 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. In 2005 Ince and many other erotic arts activists founded

, 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. In 2010 Ince and Marke Brunke founded VancouverMensGroups.org, a website, to facilitate the formation of groups of men who are interested in connecting at a deeper level than usually occurs at social events.

Legal career

Ince began practicing law in the early 1980s 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 Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

laws. One of his cases, ''Luscher v. Canada'', 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 Polyamory () is the practice of, or desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved. People who identify as polyamorous may believe in open relationships wit ...

community in the 2011 constitutional reference case concerning Canada’s

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

laws.

Books

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

Butterworths LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer inform ...

. Ince’s third title, ''Sea Kayaking Canada’s West Coast'' 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. 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 John Ince (born ) is a Canadian activist, politician, author, and lawyer. He is a founder of The Sex Party, a sex-positive movement political party of which he was party leader from 2005 until 2012. Sex-positive activism In 2002, Ince opened The ...

'', ( 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. His book, ''Joyshift: the journey to primal happiness'' was published in September 2015. It argues that the ingredients for happiness were genetically set in the hunter-gatherer era, and describes a daily practice to make use of these "primal nutrients of happiness" in modern-day life.

References

External links

The Art of Loving Website

Vancouver Men's Groups Website

Joyshift Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ince, John 1952 births 21st-century Canadian lawyers British Columbia political party leaders Canadian non-fiction writers Living people Sex positivism Writers from British Columbia