Janine Fuller, left, manager of Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver and the store's co-owner Jim Deva.Sean White/ The Globe and Mail
15 years ago...25 years ago
Jan. 23-29, 1996
Little Sister's appeals censorship ruling
Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium will seek a court order to stop the federal government from censoring its publications at the border, despite a court decision on Friday upholding the government's right to confiscate materials that depict gay sex.
B.C. Civil Liberties Association director John Dixon said this week that lawyers will ask that the injunction remain in effect until the B.C. Court of Appeal has heard a joint appeal of Friday's decision, launched by Little Sister's and the BCCLA.
The ruling by Mr. Justice Kenneth Smith rejected the gay and lesbian bookstore's challenge of a law allowing Canada customs officers to seize and hold publications deemed to be obscene.
However, Judge Smith also said the law was applied in an arbitrary fashion that discriminated against the bookstore.
Little Sister's argued customs violated its right to free expression because the homosexual material detained at the border was similar to heterosexual material found in most bookstores and magazine shops.
Flash forward: In 2000, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canada Customs officers subjected Little Sister's to "excessive and unnecessary prejudice." Seven years later, the Supreme Court rejected the store's demands that Ottawa help pay its legal bills.
25 years ago...Jan. 23-29, 1986
Bomb planted outside Indo-Canadian Times
Accusations flew between opposing political factions in Vancouver's Sikh community after the discovery of a bomb outside the Punjabi language newspaper Indo-Canadian Times on Sunday.
Made of five sticks of dynamite and a ticking clock, the explosive device was concealed in a McDonald's fast-food bag and placed on the doorstep of paper's office in Surrey.
Indo-Canadian Times editor Tara Singh Hayer blamed agents of the Indian government, calling the bomb an attempt to "silence the paper's voice," while India's consul-general in Vancouver, Jagdish Sharma, pointed the finger at Sikh separatists.
The attempted bombing coincided with Republic Day, a traditional flag-raising ceremony marking the anniversary of India's constitution, held at Mr. Sharma's home in the British Properties.
Khalistan supporters celebrated Republic Day by burning the Indian flag in a protest at the opening of a new Sikh separatist "information office" on Main Street.
The events took place amid heightened tensions over the conviction last week of three Sikhs in the 1984 murder of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Flash forward: Already paralyzed from a 1988 assassination attempt, Mr. Hayer was shot dead in the garage of his Surrey home in November, 1998. His murder remains unsolved.
Special to The Globe and Mail