Restricted Entry: Censorship On Trial

By Janine Fuller & Stuart Blackley; Foreword by Jane Rule

***Winner of the 1995 Editor's Choice Lambda Literary Award***

This is an insiders' account of the true story of how a small gay and lesbian bookstore in Vancouver, BC named Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium took the Canadian government to court in a 10 year battle over censorship at the Canada-U.S. border and WON!

There are few, if any, West End businesses as legendary as Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium. Opened in 1983 in the upstairs of an old house at 1221 Thurlow by Bruce Smyth and Jim Deva, and managed for many years by Janine Fuller, Little Sister’s (named for Bruce and Jim’s pet cat) was Vancouver’s first gay business that wasn’t a bar or a club. 

Since those early days, Little Sister’s has survived nearly four decades of challenges ranging from years of government harassment to three anti-gay bombings, not to mention the usual ups and downs of the retail book business. In 1996 the store relocated to its present location at 1238 Davie.  

The bookstore is famous for its legal battle with the Canada Border Services Agency over the Customs seizure of what the agency had labelled "obscene materials, nearly all dealing with male-male or female-female sexuality.” The case made it all the way to victory at the Supreme Court.

Little Sister’s story has been fictionalized as a subplot of the film Better Than Chocolate and was a feature-length documentary film by Aerlyn Weissman, Little Sister's vs. Big Brother (2002). Janine Fuller was also a co-author of the book Restricted Entry: Censorship on Trial, a non-fiction account of the Little Sister's battle and victory.

Paperback: 264 pages

Publisher: Press Gang Publishers; 2nd edition (May 2000)
ISBN-13: 9780889740662
Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm