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An iconic Vancouver bookstore that won a landmark legal battle for 2SLGBTQ+ rights in Canada is being honoured with a new stamp from Canada Post.
Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium has been a sanctuary and resource for the community since 1983.
Twenty-six years ago, the shop won a protracted Charter challenge against border officials who were blocking the business from importing queer-themed materials on the grounds they were “obscene.”
The stamp features portraits of Little Sister’s founders Jim Deva and Bruce Smyth, along with long-time manager Janine Fuller, who together pursued the decades-long legal case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Parm Gill, who took over as owner of the store earlier this year, said the stamp honours the past while recognizing that a better future is always possible.
“We’re in an era where queer rights are constantly under attack, so this is a good reminder of thinking about how we can create a world that’s more safe, equitable for all, not just based off your sexual identity or gender expression,” he told CBC News.
“Little Sisters will always be a sanctuary. That will never change.”
The stamp is part of a new series called Places of Pride, which recognizes key Canadian sites in the fight for 2SLGBTQ+ equality.
The design by Kelly Small and illustrations by Tim Singleton also depict the cat Little Sister, for whom the store was named.
15-year censorship battle
Little Sister’s legal battle began not long after the business opened, selling a variety of materials ranging from queer literature, magazines and newspapers to erotic, instructional and self-help books.
At the time, Deva and Smyth noticed that some content from U.S. suppliers wasn’t showing up, was held up at the border, or arrived with pages torn out.
Other bookstores, some ordering the same materials, weren’t having any problems with deliveries.
“The very first thing that was seized was a lesbian magazine called Bad Attitude, and that began a whole, sort of, never ending sequence of seizures at the border … persistently and in increasingly large quantities,” explained Glenn Tkach, creator of Vancouver’s Really Gay History Tour.
“It was starting to seem like a pretty deliberate attempt to just bully this one little bookstore because other pornographic materials were … widely available throughout the country if they were heterosexual.”
A store that serves the gay community in Vancouver finally got its day in court.
Deva and Smyth joined with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association to take the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to court, arguing the agency had violated their constitutional right to freedom of expression.
The B.C. Supreme Court found the CBSA had wrongly destroyed the store’s materials, but ruled the action was lawful under Section 1 of the Charter which allows “reasonable limits prescribed by law” to Canadians’ rights and freedoms.
The B.C. Court of Appeal upheld that ruling.
But in 2000, the Supreme Court of Canada reversed the decision, concluding the CBSA had unjustifiably discriminated against the bookstore. The ruling also shifted the burden of proof, requiring customs officials to prove something was obscene before seizing it.
“The whole legal struggle took 15 years, 15 years of just never ending work raising funds to do this,” Tkach said.
“This small independent bookstore doesn’t have a big ton of money, so they had to fundraise, they had to help build the case, Janine Fuller … was on the phone every night of her life, or at an event or at a fundraiser.”
Jim Deva died in 2014, and Bruce Smyth passed away five years later.
And while the world has changed dramatically since their battle with the government, the store they founded remains at the heart of the city’s 2SLGBTQ+ community and at the leading edge of today’s struggles.
“We’re one of the few shops that actually sell, for example, gender confirming gear,” Gill said. “It’s a space for exploration.”
“If you are looking to understand, or actually find a sense of community that can help you figure what out what that looks like, Little Sister’s is a really good start.
Prominent gay book store owner and freedom of speech defender Jim Deva has died.
