News date: 2001-10-05

TORONTO – Glad Day Bookshop, a lesbian and gay bookstore that has been in business for 31 years, has been charged with a violation of the Theatres Act for selling a gay adult video to undercover inspectors.

The Ontario Ministry of Consumer and Business Services, formerly known as the Censor Board, charged Glad Day Bookshop and its owner with one count of Distributing an Unapproved Film.

The charge carries a maximum fine of $25,000 and/or one year in prison for the owner and a potential fine of $100,000 for the business. If the store loses the fight, it likely would be forced to close.

The situation began when three undercover Theatres Act inspectors bought Descent, a video by American director Steven Scarborough, on April 27, 2000, and then alleged Glad Day violated Section 37 (1) of the Theatres Act.

"What it boils down to is they are saying it had not been reviewed and approved by the Ontario Film Board," Toshiya Kuwabara, manager of Glad Day Bookshop, told AVN.com Friday in an interview from Toronto.

The Board collects a tax of $4.20 per minute each time it reviews a video, mainstream or explicit, and it has deemed Descent an "unclassified video," Kuwabara said.

"It's really a tax on speech," Kuwabara said. "They want to collect so they are charging us for our alleged non-compliance."

The store now is preparing to launch a constitutional challenge against the Ontario Film Review Board's system of regulation and censorship. That will begin when court reconvenes on Oct. 11 at Old City Hall with attorney Frank Addario representing Glad Day Bookshop.

The upcoming proceeding marks the fifth time Glad Day Bookshop, Canada's first lesbian and gay bookstore, has been in court over lesbian and gay proceedings.

"We felt this one time what we were being attacked for is something we needed to challenge because if it went through, it would affect the livelihood of the store," Kuwabara said.

The store primarily is a lesbian and gay bookstore, not an adult store or a video store, Kuwabara said.

"Video is a sideline," he said. "But it is an important part of the store's livelihood."

Under the Theatres Act, the Board is empowered to regulate the distribution, rental and sale of all films and videos in the province. It can even ban or censor videos that are not criminally obscene.

"There has not been a challenge to the Theatres Act since the Supreme Court's decision in Butler in 1992," Addario said. "This statute allows the province to regulate films and videos in an area that belongs to the Federal government. It puts the risk of incorrect decisions on the seller of the film or video, and it reverses the burden of showing that a film shouldn’t be sold.

"… We will argue that all of these things are inconsistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

Kuwabara said he was "shocked" that this matter has gone this far.

"I find it extremely disconcerting, disturbing and horrific that the Censor Board should attack a small independent lesbian and gay bookstore when there are so many other bookstores in the province," he said. "What we're arguing is the board's ability to ban and/or censor is an infringement on federal jurisdiction and federal power."

Dan Miller