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Canada's Supreme Court acknowledged in 2000 that Canada Customs (remonickered the "Canada Border Services Agency") had unfairly targeted shipments of gay books, magazines, and other materials. But on January 19th, in a seven-to-two ruling, the high court denied the financial means for doing something about it.

At stake were four titles bound for Little Sister's, Vancouver's gay and lesbian bookstore. Customs had seized them at the border in 2001-- a year after the bookstore's apparent Supreme Court victory. Beyond the immediate question of the four titles was what the high court granted was Customs' "systemic targeting" of the store.

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The costs of Customs seizures to Canada's two principal gay bookstore-- Toronto's Glad Day and Vancouver's Little Sister's-- have run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars since Little Sister's faced its first battle in 1986, with the barring-at-the-border of copies of The Advocate. Glad Day's owner John Scythes says that Customs seizures have cost the store about $100,000-- in addition to $100,000 in legal expenses and lost business from a failed legal effort to sell gay porn movies unrated by the Ontario Film Review Board.

The financial burden of fighting Customs seizures convinced the British Columbia Supreme Court in July 2004 to award Little Sister's advance costs to fight the seizure of the four books-- and to reexamine the questions of whether Customs had made any changes, as it had promised, in its de facto targeting of gay bookstores.

That decision to fund the case was reversed on appeal, and then on January 19th, the Canadian Supreme Court seconded the reversal, saying the question of the 2001 seizure was not sufficiently "rare and exceptional."

Two members of the court bitingly dissented. "Given that 70 percent of Customs detentions are of gay and lesbian material, there is unfinished business of high public importance left over from Little Sister's No. 1," wrote Justices Ian Binnie and Morris Fish, in reference to the 2000 case. They said they were prepared to grant $300,000 toward the bookstore's defense.

When the January 19th decision came down barring advance funding, Little Sister's said it simply could not afford to contest the seizures further. But efforts are afoot to further engage support for the anticensorship fight-- in lesbian and gay communities in Canada and beyond.

"These issues couldn't be more important in defining how much the government intrudes on our lives and our ability to see and access the things that we want," says Little Sister's manager Janine Fuller. "We're putting our energy into not letting the Supreme Court decision stand as the last speech on this issue."

For information on supporting Little Sister's, browse to Littlesistersbookstore.com.

Author Profile:  Bill Andriette
Bill Andriette is features editor of The Guide
Email:	theguide@guidemag.com