Toronto sex shop and MP Carolyn Bennett fight for eco-friendly orgasms


Eco-orgasm crusader Carolyn Bennett (Photo by Jerad Gallinger)

“Let the warm waves of eco-friendly orgasms curl your toes.” That’s the greeting message on, the on-line home of Toronto sex shop Red Tent Sisters. The titular sisters, Amy and Kim Sedgwick, opened the Danforth and Pape store in 2007, stocking it with such environmentally friendly products as organic lubricant and vegan condoms. Is there any industry that Al Gore hasn’t touched?

Recently, the Sedgwicks wrote to Toronto Liberal MP (and physician) Carolyn Bennett, outlining the potentially dangerous chemicals that are found in most sex toys on the Canadian market. Bennett has responded with a letter to the minister of health, Leona Aglukkaq, outlining the “urgent need for responsible regulation in the adult toy industry in Canada.” Plastics like bisphenol-A and chemicals like phthalates are banned in baby products but not in adult toys.

“Sex is a pretty common activity, and these sexual toys are certainly a growing market, and I really do feel at the moment we’ve got a bit of a double standard in terms of what we allow and don’t allow,” Bennett told the Globe and Mail.

Can anyone really oppose Bennett on this one? We hope not—but if someone does, he or she may achieve the impossible task of making the Liberals seem sexy again.

‘Urgent need’ to regulate sex toys, MP says [Globe and Mail]