Saskatchewan is proud of its telecommunications Crown corporation, a message former premier Brad Wall heard loud and clear, after his government mused aloud about following suit when next door’s Manitoba Telecom Services stuck a sold sign in its front yard.

With all that brand recognition and customer loyalty behind them, never mind one of the strongest year-overyear net profit increases in Saskatchewan’s Crown portfolio, one wonders why SaskTel is still scraping the bottom of the barrel by selling . . . porn?

If you are a SaskTel MaxTV subscriber, you know that when you select the Video on Demand menu, the ‘Adult Only’ (apparently only one of us is allowed at a time) option is right there, a mere two lines below ‘TV Shows’ and three lines below ‘On Demand Kids.’

I realized that as a mom of two boys, I should know exactly what Adult Only is, if only because what’s more enticing for a teenager than that very phrase?

With some trepidation I clicked on the Adult Only menu, upon which I was put through a rigorous security process entailing entering the default PIN of 1111. That took me to another minimal, text-only menu with selections like Featured, Trending Now, All Sex and LGTBQ.

Now, I’m not sure exactly what I expected; maybe something along the lines of ambiguous categories, blacked out boxes and heavily redacted (a specialty of this government) movie titles? Nope. Instead I got a full-screen, Netflix-style menu of hardcore porn titles and images.

SaskTel’s featured adult film that day was The Flight Attendants, described as “. . . stopovers filled with debauchery, perverted wealthy clients and other depraved colleagues.” Other categories included DD’s (the cup size), Quickies and my personal favourite, Nasty Bourgeoisie.

The Trending Now categories were Group Sex and Just Legal, the latter of which refers to the childish appearance of the female stars. The All Sex category was exactly that, with a true smorgasbord of titles that won’t be published if I include them in this column, but I can tell you that if you’re in the market for anything involving teen lesbians, schoolgirls, Grampa or gangbanging, you’re in luck.

With respect to market share, it’s unknown. There’s nary a word about adult entertainment offerings in SaskTel’s annual reports or on its website, nor does SaskTel break down MaxTV revenue to reflect what their 110,000 subscribers are spending on the service’s options.

Regardless, if every single subscriber spent $50 per year on renting SaskTel porn, the revenue would still only represent a tiny portion of the Crown corporation’s overall profits.

But even if it was a moneymaker, it still doesn’t make sense. This Saskatchewan government selling porn is the same government that has been wringing its hands for the last two years over the concept of legalized cannabis, forcing anyone who dares to try to sell it to pass their “good character” test.

Sask. Party MLA Don Morgan, who coincidentally is also the minister responsible for SaskTel and thereby all its porn, went as far as to say that it “would have been better for our province had (legalization of cannabis) not happened.”

How does that work? How do you claim the moral high ground on one vice while turning a blind eye to another?

That hasn’t always been the case. In 1997, former Sask. Party MLA and Minister Bob Bjornerud was absolutely incensed when SaskTel began dipping its toes into porn waters.

“Mr. Speaker, the motto “Reach Out and Touch Someone” has taken on a whole new meaning in this province,” Bjornerud blasted then-NDP Minister for SaskTel Carol Teichrob. “Why are we as the Government of Saskatchewan promoting this filth and pornography? . . . when taxpayers hear about SaskTel branching out into various activities, I’m quite sure that peddling XXX movies such as Sexual Instinct isn’t what they expected.”

Sexual Instinct. Compared to the titles SaskTel is peddling today, that sounds positively quaint. “Will the minister in charge of SaskTel — or should I refer to her as the minister in charge of “SaskPorn” — bite the bullet and bare all the facts on this issue?” asked Bjornerud.

Political dramatics aside, Bjornerud wasn’t wrong. It doesn’t take a deep academic understanding of culture to grasp the harm of images of women also being repeatedly referred to as slut, bitch and whore.

Human trafficking of women, which was recently revealed to be terrifyingly prevalent in Saskatchewan, has been linked by numerous credible researchers and studies to the increasing consumption of pornography. Saskatchewan’s rates of domestic violence against women are some of the highest in the country.

It’s highly unlikely that this conservative Saskatchewan government has suddenly embraced the themes of “choice,” “empowerment” and “free speech” often used by the porn industry to justify making and selling their content. But if they haven’t, how exactly do they justify it?

To get the answer to that question I’m going to channel my inner Bob Bjornerud and ask Don Morgan, today’s minister responsible for SaskTel (SaskPorn?) the same eloquent question his colleague Bjornerud asked on the matter 20 years ago: “Is the almighty dollar more important than our women and children in this province?”

I think not. It’s time for SaskTel to bid bon voyage to The Flight Attendants and their cohorts and say hello to higher standards.

-Tammy Robert