Toronto gay bookshop gives up the fight

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050125/GLADDAY25/TPNational/Toronto

By KATIE ROOK
Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - Page A10

After 30 years in and out of court and more than $1-million spent on legal fees, lost revenue and seized inventory, Toronto's Glad Day Bookshops Inc. is surrendering its role as champion of gay and lesbian rights in Canada.

The store's most recent battle, a four-year court case that challenged the latitude of the Ontario Film Review Board to censor films, has cost more than $100,000.

Despite winning an appeal that led to a proposal to replace the Theatres Act, employees at the small shop near Yonge and Wellesley Streets say they are exhausted and disappointed they can't continue to fight.

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the mantle will be passed.

It was one of the first places I went to when I was a teenager... Trying to find info on being Gay when there was nowhere else....

It will be missed... :cry:

I think it's saying that the owners of the bookstore are tired of fighting government film board censorship powers in expensive court battles, so they won't be doing any more of that, no matter how worthy the principal. Fortunately it does NOT say that the bookstore is closing.

Doesn't Canada have something like our ACLU or GLAD to fight stuff like this?

the name escapes me at the moment, but they were a Boston (and New England) institution for years . . . I've been out of touch since leaving New England and am curious if they've managed to survive . . . (if someone could remind me of the name, that would be nice, too) . . .

They liquidated years and years ago. I think around 2000 or so.

Glad Day Toronto begat Glad Day Boston, which went belly-up a few years ago when it lost its lease and the Canadian owners couldn't find a suitable new location in Boston's ridiculous real estate market.

Eventually John Mitzel, the manager of the old Boston store, set out on his own and found a cozy spot down in the old "leather district" on South Street near South Station, and there begat Calamus Bookstore (http://www.calamusbooks.com).

It has the same "look and feel" as the old Glad Day, the same great assortment of stuff, and the same knowledgable and committed folks running it. We lucked out, this time...

that's why I couldn't remember the name . . . it was ALSO Glad Day . . . I was in that store many, many times over the years, even way back when they were in some upstairs loft in downtown . . . I recall one day that some nasty homophobes were making a stink outside, and all of the customers and staff went downstairs to confront them . . . and this was way back when . . . felt good to exercise a little collective power in those days . . . the idiots, btw, turned tail and left rather promptly . . .

>> even way back when they were in some upstairs loft in downtown <<

Ya, down on Bromfield Street, up on the second floor above Bromfield Camera. They shared the space with the old Gay Comminity News. They were burnt out of there in a fire which the arson squad later determined was set by a homphobic fireman! You must be a real old geezer if you go back that far!

>> I recall one day that some nasty homophobes were making a stink outside <<

Ya, after the bookstore had moved to Boylston Street across from the Library. I had to force my way past the sanctimonious creeps to get into the bookstore and I "accidently" gave one of them a good kick in the shins. It felt good, and I'd do it again.

Roy

okay . . . I'm gettin' up there (late 50s) . . . but geezer? . . . c'mon, have a heart! . . . :)

Just razzing you. I'm 56, not quite as decrepit as you, but getting there...

Seriously though, it might be fun to have a "Do you remember?" thread.

All of the glbt focuses bookstores in my conservative backwater have closed over the years. I have held on to Canada as the last bastian of the closest keeper of things all things sane regarding culture wars.