Xtra.ca's most popular stories of 2008 - chosen by you
YEAR IN REVIEW / Most-read stories have common themes of sex, celebrity and censorship
Xtra.ca / National / Tuesday, December 30, 2008
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What stories were big hits on Xtra.ca this year? Check out our top 10 most-visited articles in 2008 — the list may surprise you!

 10. George Michael: 25 years of Faith, Freedom and Fast Love
After a 17-year hiatus from touring, Michael ventured back out on the road last year, touring in Europe for over a million and a half fans. This summer, he brought his tour to North America. In this interview, he has some advice for gay artists starting their careers.
 
9. Top 10 porn videos border officials won’t let you import
Each quarter, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) releases a list of items they have banned from entering Canada. The list is comprised mostly of pornographic DVDs that have been deemed as "obscene" – but many of the rejected videos depict consensual sex.
 
 
 8. Heath Ledger: 1979 - 2008
On Jan 22, actor Heath Ledger was found dead in a Manhattan apartment. The actor won acclaim for his role in the film Brokeback Mountain, a story of two young men who fell in love while sheepherding in Wyoming in the 1960s.
 

 

 7. Canadian porn actor tackles industry myths
Ottawa’s Max Leblanc celebrates his first anniversary in the porn industry with a role on the popular site, His First Huge Cock.
 
6. Tough copyright laws will restrict access to culture on the web
Porn may be the point of the internet for many, but questions of downloading content do focus on more important questions. Who has control of artistic creations and who should be able to access them? Who controls artistic history?
 
5. The story of an HIV convict
Ryan Handy, the man convicted of aggravated sexual assault for failing to disclose his HIV-positive status before having unprotected sex with a man who picked him up online, was sentenced on Mar 27 to serve eight months in jail. Read his story to learn more about the criminalization of HIV.
4. Lesbian parents attacked in Oshawa
A lesbian couple in Oshawa say they were brutally assaulted in front of their six-year-old son and his classmates on Nov 3. Less than two weeks later, hundreds rallied in the wake of the attack.
 
3. Nudist group celebrates 20 years of naked fun
The Pacific-Canadian Association of Nudists started out as a bunch of guys getting together for nude house parties. Twenty years later, the Vancouver group has grown in size and continues to raise money for local charities.
2. The rise of Canadian porn star Pierre Fitch
How did a kid from Cornwall, Ontario become the prince of porn? Pierre Fitch picked up the tricks of the trade, so to speak, on the sets of major porn producers like Falcon Studios. Now he’s a brand all of his own, working out of Montreal.
1. Canadian border agents seize gay couple's laptop
A lazy drive home from a weekend auto show turned into a stomach-churning experience at the Canada-US border for an Ottawa couple. A Canadian border agent seized the couple’s laptop, after he found “questionable material” – which was nothing more than some tame gay porn that you could buy at your local sex shop.

 



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