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 was opened in 1983 by Jim Deva and Bruce Smyth, and its current manager is Don Wilson. In addition to books, the store carries LGBTQ- and Pride-themed merchandise, as well as a large and varied selection of sex toys and sex-related products. While it has a long history as an LGBTQ+ business, catering to that community specifically, it carries product for the general public as well.

Deva died on September 21, 2014 and Smyth died on December 23, 2019.

Legal cases

The bookstore was famously the plaintiff in ''Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v Canada'', where it challenged Canada Customs' repeated decisions to block its shipments of erotic literature under customs regulations that bar "obscene materials" as a violation of free expression and equality rights."A tale of two bookstores"
. ''Xtra!'', January 19, 2006. These materials, nearly all dealing with male–male or female–female sexuality, were routinely seized at the border. The same publications, when destined for mainstream booksellers in the country, had often been delivered without delay or question. Glad Day Bookshop, an LGBT bookstore in Toronto, has faced similar difficulties.

Little Sister's filed their claim against the federal government in 1990 but the case stalled and was not heard by the Supreme Court of British Columbia until October 1994. The court ruled in January 1996 that Little Sister's shipments had been wrongly delayed or withheld due to the "systemic targeting of Little Sisters' importations in the Customs Mail Center" but did not strike down the legislation. The court ruled that banning importation of obscene material, while a violation of section 2 of the ''Charter'', constituted a reasonable limit under section 1 and that there was no violation of the equality rights under section 15. Little Sister's appealed the latter portion of the decision to the British Columbia Court of Appeal, which agreed with the lower court.

Little Sister's appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2000. The court agreed with the lower courts that customs authorities had unfairly targeted shipments to the bookstore and that the laws on obscene material were contrary to section 2 of the ''Charter'' but saved under section 1. However, the court also ruled that the provisions of the Customs Act which placed the onus on the importer to disprove obscenity were unconstitutional. The case established that there is a ''Charter'' right to import expressive material unless the government proves it is obscene or otherwise illegal.

The bookstore's travails were fictionalized as a subplot of the film ''Better Than Chocolate''. A feature-length documentary film by Aerlyn Weissman, ''Little Sister's vs. Big Brother'' (2002), has also been released about the bookstore. Former manager Janine Fuller was also a coauthor with Stuart Blackley of the book ''Restricted Entry: Censorship on Trial'', a non-fiction account of the Little Sister's battle, and wrote an introduction for '' Forbidden Passages: Writings Banned in Canada'', an anthology of excerpts from some of the impounded works which was edited by Patrick Califia."Censorship Trial Spawns Books". ''Cuir'', March/April 1996. Both books were published in 1995, and were awarded Lammys at the 8th Lambda Literary Awards ceremony in 1996. Additionally, the book ''What right?: Graphic interpretations against censorship'' addressed the court case in the form of a graphic novel, with proceeds from sales of the book being donated to the Little Sister's Defense fund to assist with legal challenges with Canada Customs. The book features contributions from a number of comic artists including Alison Bechdel and Marc Bell.

See also

*''Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada (Minister of Justice)'', 0002 S.C.R. 1120
*Spartacus Books, another bookstore in Vancouver with a wide ''"queer lit"'' section
*Feminist bookstore
*Gay's the Word (bookshop)

Notes

External links

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Independent bookstores of Canada
LGBTQ culture in Vancouver
LGBTQ bookstores
Censorship in Canada
Canadian companies established in 1983
Retail companies established in 1983
1983 establishments in British Columbia
Shops in Vancouver
LGBTQ organizations based in Canada
LGBTQ history in Vancouver
LGBTQ literature in Canada
West End, Vancouver
LGBTQ places in Canada