The Toronto Women's Bookstore was the largest nonprofit, feminist bookstore in Canada, before its closure in November 2012. [1] It was run and staffed primarily by women of color, [2] and sold fiction, poetry and non-fiction by women writers to promote feminist and anti-oppression politics. [3]
The bookstore informally began as a single shelf of books in a women's resource centre on Dupont Street in the early 1970s, [1] [4] and opened as a bookstore in 1973 at a site in Kensington Market, where it was associated with a feminist printing press and a self-defence collective. [4] [5]
The bookstore was nearly destroyed on July 29, 1983, [6] in an accidental firebombing which was actually intended to attack the neighbouring abortion clinic of Henry Morgentaler. [7] The loss of merchandise, combined with a slow insurance settlement and delays in reopening put significant strain on the bookstore's finances. A Fire Sale, where the bookstore sold off merchandise damaged in the fire to supporters of its cause, provided enough capital for the bookstore to re-open at a new location, 73 Harbord St. [4] An employee of the store at the time of its firebombing, Janine Fuller, later moved to Vancouver, where she became manager of Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium and attained prominence as one of Canada's most influential anti-censorship activists in the store's ongoing battles against Canada Customs. [8] The store later suffered more moderate damage in a second firebombing attack on Morgentaler's clinic in May 1992. [9]
By 1993, stiff competition from larger chain bookstores saw the Toronto's Women's bookstore showing a loss. Similar situations faced many other independent bookstores around the same time. The bookstore reorganised its operations, expanding their inventory of books on anti-racism, feminist theory, disability and health. The bookstore also engaged in increased community outreach, with more book readings and launches, as well as hosting book clubs. Combined with a Jobs Ontario Community Action Grant, the store turned around its operations and stopped losing money. [5] The store also increased its emphasis on books aimed at visible minority women, with separate sections titled "African-Canadian," "Caribbean," "South Asian" "First Nations," "Latina," and "Arab." [2]
Although the bookstore had long served as a source of course books for University of Toronto classes requiring special or hard to find texts, its market was substantially strengthened during the 2000 worker's strike at the University of Toronto bookstore, when many professors withdrew their required textbooks from the university's bookstore as a show of solidarity with the strikers, preferring to have them retailed through the Toronto Women's Bookstore. At the conclusion of the strike, many of those professors did not resume offering their course texts at the university's bookstore. [4]
The rise in sale of eBooks, online book retailers, and the 2008–2012 global recession lead to the closure of the bookstore, planned for 30 November 2012. [10]
Located near the University of Toronto, the bookstore stocked the texts used in many anthropology, sociology and women's history courses offered at the university. The reliable business of students in these courses amounted to roughly two thirds of the bookstore's total sales. [11]
In addition to book sales, the store hosted book clubs, book launches and author signings. [5] It also ran courses on a variety of subjects of interest to women, including knitting, writing, and explorations of bisexuality. [11]
The Toronto Women's Bookstore was voted "Best Bookstore in Toronto" by Now Magazine in 2005. [2]
Henekh "Henry" Morgentaler, was a Polish-born Canadian physician and abortion rights advocate who fought numerous legal battles aimed at expanding abortion rights in Canada. As a Jewish youth during World War II, Morgentaler was imprisoned at the Łódź Ghetto and later at the Dachau concentration camp.
Abortion in Canada is legal throughout pregnancy and is publicly funded as a medical procedure under the combined effects of the federal Canada Health Act and provincial health-care systems. However, access to services and resources varies by region. While some restrictions exist, Canada is one of the few nations with no criminal restrictions on abortion. Abortion is subject to provincial healthcare regulatory rules and guidelines for physicians. No province offers abortion on request at 24 weeks and beyond, although there are exceptions for certain medical complications.
REAL Women of Canada is a socially conservative advocacy group in Canada. The organization was founded in 1983.
R v Morgentaler, [1988] 1 SCR 30 was a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada which held that the abortion provision in the Criminal Code was unconstitutional because it violated women's rights under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ("Charter") to security of the person. Since this ruling, there have been no criminal laws regulating abortion in Canada.
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Judy Rebick is a Canadian writer, journalist, political activist, and feminist.
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Garson Romalis was a Canadian gynecologist who specialized in providing abortions. He was twice wounded in attempts on his life. The first attempt on his life was by far the most violent anti-abortion crime in Canada, according to the National Post. The second attempt was made by an unknown assailant who stabbed him and fled. Since being personally attacked, Romalis became more outspoken and more determined to provide abortions to women who want them. As such, he was a notable public figure in the Canadian abortion debate. The University of Toronto Law School invited him to speak at their Symposium to mark the 20th Anniversary of R. vs. Morgentaler. He worked to convince medical students of the need to continue providing abortions.
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Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution is a book written by Canadian journalist, political activist, and feminist Judy Rebick. The book is made up of the experiences of over 100 feminists in Canada from the 1960s through the 1990s.
Janine Elizabeth Fuller is a Canadian businessperson and writer. She was the manager of Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is best known for her role as an anti-censorship activist in the bookstore's battles with Canada Customs, which culminated in the Supreme Court of Canada case Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada in 2004.
Forbidden Passages: Writings Banned in Canada is a compilation book about censorship edited by Patrick Califia with an introduction by Janine Fuller. It was published in 1995 by Cleis Press. Most of the works in the book involve topics relating to LGBTQ and specifically gay and lesbian homosexuality issues.
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Syrus Marcus Ware is a Canadian artist, activist and scholar. He lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is an assistant professor in the school of the arts at McMaster University. He has worked since 2014 as faculty and as a designer for The Banff Centre. Ware is the inaugural artist-in-residence for Daniels Spectrum, a cultural centre in Toronto, and a founding member of Black Lives Matter Toronto. For 13 years, he was the coordinator of the Art Gallery of Ontario's youth program. During that time Ware oversaw the creation of the Free After Three program and the expansion of the youth program into a multi pronged offering.
