''Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v Canada (Minister of Justice)''

000 Triple zero, Triple Zero, Zero Zero Zero, Triple 0, Triple-0, 000, or 0-0-0 may refer to: * 000 (emergency telephone number), the Australian emergency telephone number * "Triple Zero", a song by AFI (band), AFI from ''Shut Your Mouth and Open Your ...

2 S.C.R. 1120, 2000 SCC 69 is a leading

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

decision on freedom of expression and equality rights under the

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part o ...

. It was held that the ''Customs Act'', which gave broad powers to customs inspectors to exclude "obscene" materials, violated the right to freedom of expression under section 2 but was justifiable under section 1.

Background

Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, also known as Little Sister's Bookstore, but usually called "Little Sister's", is an independent bookstore in the Davie Village/ West End neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The bookstore wa ...

is a bookstore in

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 ...

, British Columbia, that sells gay and lesbian-related literature. It imports most of its material from the United States, which often caused trouble at the border when material was classified as obscene by

Canada Customs The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA; french: Agence des services frontaliers du Canada, ''ASFC'') is a federal law enforcement agency that is responsible for border control (i.e. protection and surveillance), immigration enforcement, and cust ...

and was thus refused entry. The bookstore challenged the provision of the ''Customs Act'' prohibiting the importation of obscene material as well as a section of the Act that put the onus on the importer to disprove obscenity.

The courts below

At trial, the court found that the customs has targeted shipments to the bookstore and attempted to prevent their entry into Canada. Consequently, the government was found to have violated section 2 of the Charter. However, the violation was justified under section 1.

Judgment of the Supreme Court

In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the trial judge and found that though the law violated section 2, it was justified under section 1. The law was thus saved. However, they found that the way the law was implemented by customs officials was discriminatory and should be remedied, an opinion they suggested would avail the bookstore in any further legal battles. They also struck down part of the law that put the onus on an importer to prove material was not obscene. The ruling, therefore, upheld Canada Customs' right to prevent the importation of material that had already been banned as obscene by the courts, but curtailed the agency's right to preemptively or punitively detain material that had not been so adjudicated.

References

External links

*
Summary of case from mapleleafweb.com
{{LGBT in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms case law Canadian freedom of expression case law Supreme Court of Canada cases Canadian LGBT rights case law 2000 in LGBT history 2000 in Canadian case law Bookselling

Background

The courts below

Judgment of the Supreme Court

See also

Further reading

References

External links