Gay Bookstore Can Appeal To Top Court

VANCOUVER, CANADA - Vancouver gay bookstore has been given the go-ahead to argue in front of the Supreme Court of Canada that the government should fund its legal dispute with Canada Customs.
Yesterday, the top court granted Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium leave to appeal a lower-court decision that cut its funding lifeline for the legal fight. Jim Deva, a co-owner of Little Sisters, said fighting Canada Customs in court could cost the store $500,000 to $1-million, which he characterized as an impossibly high figure for a bookstore, or almost anyone else, to come up with.
The bookstore has been fighting Canada Customs because the federal agency blocked the importation of several books and magazines at the U.S. border, claiming they were obscene.
The seized material included two series of Meatmen comic books and two books that depicted bondage and sadomasochism.
In July, 2004, a B.C. judge ordered the federal government to pay the bookstore's court costs, because it was an important constitutional case that touched the interests of all book importers, big and small.
That ruling was seen as the first non-aboriginal application of a Supreme Court decision that said the government had to finance a B.C. native band's forestry dispute, because the band did not have enough money and there were key constitutional issues to be dealt with.
In February, however, the B.C. Court of Appeal reversed the lower-court ruling and killed the funding, saying that Little Sisters had assumed the role of "watchdog" over Canada Customs, but that the public had not appointed the bookstore to this role.
Now, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal of that ruling, and will likely provide some guidance on what kind of cases are important enough to get "advance funding," when the litigants can't afford to carry the costs.
Joseph Arvay, a lawyer for Little Sisters, said that if the bookstore had not been granted the chance to take its case to the top court, it would have had to give up the fight. "There was no one who was willing to take up the challenge, and Canada Customs would continue to ban books at the border without any review by the courts."
Mr. Arvay said the case is important beyond the interests of his client or the bookstore. "It has much broader implications for all citizens who believe that their Charter rights and freedoms are being infringed, and yet could not possibly afford the cost of litigation."
Mr. Deva, co-owner of the bookstore, said he's pleased the court will hear the case because "it means we can advance our argument."
Judith Mauro Bowers, who handled the case for the federal government, would not comment on the decision to hear the case. "We'll present our arguments at that time. It would be inappropriate for me to comment now," she said.
The decision creates a rematch for Little Sisters and Canada Customs at the top court. In 2000, the court criticized the agency for using arbitrary and inconsistent policies when seizing material the store was trying to import. The court did not strike down Canada Customs' powers to censor material, but said it needed to fix its procedures.
But changes implemented by the agency were done without consulting anyone in the book business or people with expertise in gay and lesbian sexuality, worsening the situation, Mr. Deva said.
The agency adopted specific rules about what was not allowed into Canada, he said, but he questioned the logic behind the guidelines. "Suddenly, out of the blue, the licking of boots was not acceptable," he said, as an example. "If they had known more about that fantasy, and about that sexual act, perhaps they wouldn't have thought of it as dehumanizing and degrading."
from Globe And Mail