Vancouver’s Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium isn’t just a bookstore — it’s a joyful battleground
Vancouver's Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium is known for its legacy of defiance.
Mark
If you’ve strolled through Davie Village in Vancouver, you’ve probably seen the pink neon sign and maybe grabbed a Tom of Finland tee or some lube. But behind the cheeky merch and extensive selection of LGBTQ+ literature is a legacy of defiance. Once the only LGBTQ+ bookstore in Western Canada, Little SIster’s Book & Art Emporium survived three bombings and became a key player in the fight for queer rights and free expression in Canada.
Named after co-founders Jim Deva and Bruce Smyth’s spirited cat, Little Sister, the bookstore opened its doors in 1983 with co-founder Barb Thomas, just as Vancouver’s LGBTQ+ community was coming into its own. The store initially showcased art exhibits by local gay and lesbian artists, but they quickly realized that books were more financially sustainable.
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So, they poured their savings into building up the book inventory, banking on the growing support of Vancouver’s gay community in the West End. Unlike any other bookstore in Vancouver at the time, people would go there to feel at home, enjoy a 25-cent cup of mediocre coffee, and pick up some gay erotica while they were at it.
“It started as a place where people could meet and form ideas. Where every corner of the room was a different faction of who and what we are as a community,” remembers Jim Deva in the 2002 documentary, Little Sister’s Versus Big Brother.
Little Sister’s lived up to its name. Like its feline namesake, the bookstore was scrappy and resilient in the face of relentless adversity. While it quickly became one of the go-to spots for the gay and lesbian community in Vancouver, it was also a target of harassment, violence, and systemic discrimination.
In 1985, Canada Customs seized a shipment of magazines bound for the store – the beginning of a pattern. Customs routinely intercepted and withheld shipments headed to Little Sister’s, while the same items reached mainstream bookstores with little issue. As Deva explains in the 2002 documentary, even lifesaving safer sex manuals were challenging to get over the border during the height of the AIDS crisis.
The double standard was glaring. In 1986, during the crucial pre-holiday retail season, customs seized over 600 books, magazines, and videos intended for Little Sisters, citing Canada’s obscenity laws, which gave customs sweeping authority to block any content they deemed “obscene.”
Around this time, Little Sister’s became the target of anti-gay violence. In December of 1987, a bomb exploded in the stairwell of the bookstore. Two months later, someone threw another bomb through the back door of the restaurant downstairs. No one was hurt, but the message was clear.
By 1990, Little Sister’s had had enough. They sued the federal government for unfairly targeting them and repeatedly blocking their shipments, sparking a landmark legal battle that spanned 20 years and changed censorship in Canada.
In 1990, Deva brought in Janine Fuller as store manager – a role that would prove pivotal.
Born and raised in Toronto, Fuller worked at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (which was nearly destroyed in a similar bombing in 1983 when anti-abortion activists mistook it for the clinic next door).
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Fuller shared that when she moved to Vancouver with her partner, Julie Stine, in 1989, she thought she was leaving this trauma behind. But, in 1992, Little Sister’s was bombed a third time.
“We had left Toronto thinking our bombing days would be over. And they were not,” she recalls.
Most people would consider a career change after surviving multiple bombing attacks. The staff of Little Sister’s didn’t. When asked what kept her going, Fuller says, “The history. The activism. The awareness that things weren’t better here – they were just different.”
Fuller became an intrinsic voice during the store’s court battles, advocating for gay rights and freedom of expression. In 2000, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favor of the bookstore. The court determined that Canada Customs had violated the bookstore’s right to free expression and equality, damaging its human dignity.
Today, it’s easy to forget how hard-won queer freedoms are in a city as LGBTQ+ friendly as Vancouver. However, Little Sister’s history of fighting back against the powers that be is the perfect reminder that LGBTQ+ didn’t come without a fight.
In a day and age when people can purchase nearly anything online, the bookstore still serves as a vital haven in Vancouver. “It’s so important to have safe, queer spaces – specifically for queer, trans people,” says Fuller.
Watching Little Sister’s Versus Big Brother today, it’s hard not to draw parallels to the current political climate. With book banning rampant and the rights of LGBTQ+ people under attack, spaces like Little Sister’s are as crucial as ever. “People’s lives are easily in danger by people’s hate,” says Fuller.
Last year, Fuller received the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honor for community service – an ironic full-circle moment. The same government she took to court now recognizes her work as an activist.
When asked what advice she has for the next generation of queer activists, she says, “Every day is the most relevant day that you live. Make it worthwhile and important.”
And support your local queer bookstore while you’re at it.
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