Although a registry clerk rejected the marriages, the MCCT appealed to the Court of Appeal. In 2003, that appeal resulted in Ontario becoming the first jurisdiction in North America to recognize gay marriage. Activists were heavily involved but their role is ignored in the article.

It has been a number of years since I read Restricted Entry, so I might have some details slightly wrong, but the core of it is that this wasn't a raid, Canada Customs would just regularly discriminate against queer book stores by deeming their shipments as obscene.

To read more about the Canada Customs case, I recommend "Restricted Entry: Censorship on Trial" by Janine Fuller & Stuart Blackley. Janine was the manager at the time.

Also, the lesbian romcom Better than Chocolate is loosely based on Little Sister's. It is the only good thing about the movie.

Prior to the case, importers were expected to prove that their imports were not obscene. That was deemed unconstitutional by the Canadian Supreme Court in 2000.

Little Sister's took this to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, who ruled that Canada Customs had violated Little Sister's Charter rights but that it was within reasonable limits as determined by the Charter. It is all sorta complicated Canadian constitutional law, so not easy to summarize.

Correction: Little Sister's wasn't raided by Customs, they, along with a bunch of other queer book stores like Glad Day in Toronto, would frequently have their shipments stopped at the border. The same publications that were deemed immoral were often available at non-queer book stores.

The fact I can now publicly say I have worked with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation makes me unbelievably giddy. Please watch, like, and share the video!

We just gotta come back tomorrow and finish it off. One more game.

Truly a heartbreaking end to that game. Really seemed like we could have turned it around before that call.