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MPP Michael Bryant, Liberal Attorney General critic, used the occasion to also call for new regulations that would forbid record stores from selling objectionable CDs to minors.
"Nobody wants to curb free speech in the province of Ontario, but some of this rapper's songs go over the line," Bryant told a press conference at Queen's Park.
"Where something falls outside of the marketplace of ideas and enters into the marketplace of causing harm to women, then we have laws on our books to deal with that kind of music."
On Friday, JAM! Music reported that Valerie Smith, a Toronto community activist, had filed a complaint with the police's Hate Crimes Squad, singling out lyrics by Eminem that she described as advocating hatred and violence against women.
Police in turn referred the matter to the Attorney General's office for their input as to whether Eminem's songs "Kim" and "Kill You" constituted hate propaganda under Canadian law. Smith said she hoped that if the Attorney General found the lyrics did violate hate propaganda laws, Eminem and SkyDome would be charged, and she would extend her complaint to record retailers selling Eminem's albums.
"Basically, this guy is a low-rent, garden variety hate-monger. I make no distinction between him and a hate-rock group that tries to sneak across the border," Smith told the press conference.
As of Wednesday afternoon, with just over 24 hours to go before Eminem was scheduled to play SkyDome with Limp Bizkit, the Attorney General hadn't made any pronouncement on the case.
Bryant said Eminem's songs are so extreme and graphic, they justified being singled out. Compact discs like Eminem's, which carry record-industry warnings about offensive content, should not be sold to minors, he added.
"It is time for us to consider whether we apply the same standard to the music industry that we apply to the film industry. If this song (Eminem's "Kim") was played in a movie, the movie would be restricted ... Parents would get to decide whether their kids get to hear this music," he said.
"These lyrics suggest that violence against women is cool, maybe even funny. We have more than 50 years of research from the medical community that confirms these kinds of lyrics cause harm," he said.
The fact sheet Bryant distributed to the media in support of that declaration said that a number of U.S. psychiatric associations issued a joint statement this summer saying that 30 (not 50) years of research have found a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior -- although they did not say that the aggressive behavior translated into "harm."
"You can't cry 'fire' in a crowded theatre. Nor should you be able to say it is cool to kill your girlfriend and throw her in the trunk, because it causes harm," Bryant said.
"If you look at these lyrics from beginning to end, they clearly suggest it is cool or otherwise acceptable, if not encouraging, for one to act out ones anger against ones girlfriend, and choke her."