Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, Vancouver

About Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium

Little Sister's has anchored the Davie Village since 1983, when Jim Deva and Bruce Smyth opened it as a queer bookstore in Vancouver's West End. It carries gay and lesbian fiction, trans and memoir titles, queer theory and erotica alongside Pride apparel, cards, and an adult section of toys and kink gear. Its real place in the city's history came from a decade-long fight with Canada Customs, which repeatedly seized the store's imported gay and lesbian material as "obscene." The case reached the Supreme Court of Canada in 2000, which found Customs had unfairly singled the store out and struck down the rule that forced importers to prove their books weren't obscene. Manager Janine Fuller became the public face of that battle, and in 2026 Canada Post honoured the store on a "Places of Pride" stamp featuring Deva, Smyth, and Fuller. For a traveler it's worth the walk down Davie for the history alone, but it still works as a real bookstore: somewhere to find a queer title you won't see in a chain, or to ask the staff what's worth reading.