Davie Village (also known as Davie District or simply Davie Street ) is a neighbourhood in the West End of Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada. It is the home of the city's LGBT subculture, and, as such, is often considered a gay village , or gaybourhood . Davie Village is centred on Davie Street and roughly includes the area between Burrard and Jervis streets. Davie Street—and, by extension, the Village—is named in honour of A.E.B. Davie , eighth Premier of British Columbia from 1887 to 1889; A.E.B's brother Theodore was also Premier, from 1892 to 1895.
25-446: Along Davie Street are a variety of shops, restaurants, services, and hotels catering to a variety of customers, in addition to private residences. The business with the most notoriety is Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium ("Little Sister's"), a gay and lesbian bookstore, because of its ongoing legal battles with Canada Customs that have received extensive national media coverage. Many businesses and residents along Davie Street and in
50-576: A former worker within the area, claims in a The Volcano article that the neighbourhood was “dignified outdoor brothel culture". The working population included both cisgender, transgender, two-spirit , and crossdressing individuals of different ages and ethnicities; many of which first came to the street as early as twelve years old, and since, have built a community with their peers, creating bonds by working together and looking out for each other's safety. In 1980, when Davie Street started to generate profit off of queer owned properties and business aesthetics,
75-569: A light-industrial and commercial road in southern Coquitlam. The Canadian Pacific Railway mainline roughly follows the alignment of Lougheed Highway in this area, and skirts the south and east sides of the interchange. This interchange contains several types of interchanges within it, but overall is a hybrid stack interchange. The junction between Highways 1 and 7 is a 4-way, 3-level stack interchange, with two turning movements omitted (eastbound Hwy 7 to westbound Hwy 1 and eastbound Hwy 1 to westbound Hwy 7). Vehicles making those movements should use
100-709: A small connecting road to a light (which forms a continuous green t-intersection with the Lougheed Highway mainline). Via this connection, traffic from Mariner Way and Cape Horn Avenue (two major residential roads in Coquitlam) may also access the interchange. On the Port Mann Bridge , where Highway 1 crosses the Fraser River immediately east of the interchange, eastbound traffic to 152nd Street/ Surrey City Centre must exit before
125-568: Is Don Wilson. Deva died on September 21, 2014 and Smyth died on December 31, 2019. The bookstore was famously the plaintiff in Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v Canada , where it challenged Canada Customs' repeated decisions to block its shipments of erotic literature under customs regulations that bar " obscene materials" as a violation of free expression and equality rights. These materials, nearly all dealing with male-male or female-female sexuality, were routinely seized at
150-620: Is a major interchange that connects British Columbia Highway 1 ( Trans-Canada Highway ) to Lougheed Highway (Highway 7), a heavily signalized thoroughfare in Coquitlam , Port Coquitlam , and Burnaby , and the Mary Hill Bypass (Highway 7B), bypassing the Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam sections of Lougheed Highway and forming the quickest route to Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge . It also includes several exits to United Boulevard,
175-401: Is also held each year in early September, to celebrate local businesses and the community itself. This Day is designed to build awareness and promote the surrounding businesses, and is focused around Jervis to Burrard Street . The Davie Street Business Association coined the name "Davie Village" in 1999 and also commissioned banners from local artist Joe Average , which fly from lampposts in
200-678: The 8th Lambda Literary Awards ceremony in 1996. Additionally, the book What right?: Graphic interpretations against censorship addressed the court case in the form of a graphic novel, with proceed from sales of the book being donated to the Little Sister's Defense fund to assist with legal challenges with Canada Customs. The book features contributions from a number of comic artists including Alison Bechdel and Marc Bell . 49°16′56″N 123°08′03″W / 49.282336°N 123.134251°W / 49.282336; -123.134251 Cape Horn Interchange The Cape Horn Interchange
225-554: The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) cases that were largely tied to serial killer Robert Pickton in the early 2000s. Apart from the annual Red Umbrella March and Women's Memorial March , the history of the West Ends’ sex work community remains largely forgotten. While portraying an accepting and inclusive LGBTQ2A+ environment, the history remains intentionally masked with little memorabilia of those impacted by
250-534: The "systemic targeting of Little Sisters' importations in the Customs Mail Center" but did not strike down the legislation. The court ruled that banning importation of obscene material, while a violation of section 2 of the Charter , constituted a reasonable limit under section 1 and that there was no violation of the equality rights under section 15 . Little Sister's appealed the latter portion of
275-871: The Brunette Avenue Interchange, 4 km west of the Cape Horn. Hwy 7B (the Mary Hill Bypass) has a half- single point urban interchange (westbound exit, eastbound entrance) with United Boulevard, and then westbound 7B merges onto Highways 1 and 7 westbound. Traffic from eastbound Highways 1 and 7 each have a free-flowing ramp to Highway 7B east. Just north of the Hwys 1/7 junction, United Boulevard intersects Lougheed Highway with two free-flowing ramps (eastbound Lougheed to southbound United, northbound United to westbound Lougheed. All other turning movements must be made over an overpass and down
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#1732802083700300-667: The West End (CROWE), consisting of primarily white gay men and women, worked with the city to get a BC Supreme Court injunction to displace sex workers. Workers in the area were pushed into Yaletown , then Mount Pleasant , where they were repeatedly protested by "Shame the Johns vigilantes", down East Broadway, and eventually into the Downtown Eastside , where already vulnerable sex workers are more open to violence and abuse than ever before. This relocation also contributed many of
325-500: The West End generally also fly rainbow flags as a symbol of gay pride, and many of the covered bus stop benches and garbage cans along Davie Street are painted bright pink. The Village hosts a variety of events during the year, including the Davie Street Pride Festival which runs in conjunction with Vancouver's annual Gay Pride Parade , during which sections of the street are closed to motor traffic. Davie Day
350-551: The annual Pride Parade and Festival . In the 1960s, after the removal of the Dupont and Alexander Street Districts, Vancouver's sex workers relocated to the streets of the West End . By the 1970s, over 150 workers could be seen walking on and around Davie Street from twelve to three AM on a regular occasion. By the 1970s, the area had a visible sex work scene, and was coined the “Prostitution Capitol of Canada”. Jamie Lee Hamilton ,
375-657: The anti-discrimination protection of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteeing equality of all Canadians. Not to mention that five out of ten provinces (plus one of the two territories) explicitly forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation. Little Sister's filed their claim against the federal government in 1990 but the case stalled and was not heard by the Supreme Court of British Columbia until October 1994. The court ruled in January 1996 that Little Sister's shipments had been wrongly delayed or withheld due to
400-489: The bookstore. Former manager Janine Fuller was also a coauthor with Stuart Blackley of the book Restricted Entry: Censorship on Trial , a non-fiction account of the Little Sister's battle, and wrote an introduction for Forbidden Passages: Writings Banned in Canada , an anthology of excerpts from some of the impounded works which was edited by Patrick Califia . Both books were published in 1995, and were awarded Lammys at
425-484: The border. The same publications, when destined for mainstream booksellers in the country, had often been delivered without delay or question. Glad Day Bookshop , an LGBT bookstore in Toronto , has faced similar difficulties. ... [A]lternative culture and lifestyles, including manuals and handbooks on safe sex (?!) were proclaimed indecent by someone who has no right to judge them in his/her bias/bigotry, which violates
450-497: The bridge, in the middle of the Cape Horn Interchange, and cross the bridge in a 2-lane carriageway, separate from the mainline. Westbound traffic follows a similar arrangement, where vehicles seeking to exit at the Cape Horn Interchange from Highway 1 westbound must exit before the bridge, at exit 44. The Cape Horn Interchange also features two truck-only exits to United Boulevard. Namely, from Highway 1 westbound to
475-490: The decision to the British Columbia Court of Appeal , which agreed with the lower court. Little Sister's appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2000. The court agreed with the lower courts that customs authorities had unfairly targeted shipments to the bookstore and that the laws on obscene material were contrary to section 2 of the Charter but saved under section 1. However, the court also ruled that
500-534: The district. The two-sided banners depict a rainbow flag on one side and a sun design by Average on the other. Davie Village is also home to the offices of Xtra! West , a biweekly LGBT newspaper, Qmunity (formerly the Gay and Lesbian Centre) which provides a variety of services for the city's lesbian , gay , bisexual , and transgender residents, and the Vancouver Pride Society, which puts on
525-482: The erasure. Cape Horn Interchange Little Sister%27s Book and Art Emporium Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium , also known as Little Sister's Bookstore , but usually called "Little Sister's", is an independent bookstore in the Davie Village / West End neighbourhood of Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada. The bookstore was opened in 1983 by Jim Deva and Bruce Smyth, and its current manager
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#1732802083700550-535: The intersection of United Boulevard and Fawcett Road (accessed via the Highway 7 west ramp), and from Highways 1 and 7 eastbound to the intersection of United and Leeder Street (accessed via their combined ramps to Highway 7B). Trucks can also access Highway 1 east from the intersection of United and Fawcett. This entrance leads directly into the separated lanes for 152nd Street in Surrey, and they can merge back onto
575-496: The mainline of the freeway after the exit to 152nd. General traffic may use these ramps on weekends and after 5pm on weekdays. Originally opened with the expressway alignment of Highway 1 (in the 1960s) this interchange featured a trumpet interchange on Highway 1, a short connecting road, and then a modified half- cloverleaf interchange with Highway 7. As part of the Port Mann/Highway 1 Improvement project, which saw
600-542: The provisions of the Customs Act which placed the onus on the importer to disprove obscenity were unconstitutional. The case established that a Charter right to import expressive material unless the government proves it is obscene or otherwise illegal. The bookstore's travails were fictionalized as a subplot of the film Better Than Chocolate . A feature-length documentary film by Aerlyn Weissman , Little Sister's vs. Big Brother (2002), has also been released about
625-484: The visible state of the sex work scene became more and more unwanted. Within little time, the removal of this image became the main focus of erasure. In preparation for the 1986 World Fair, Davie Street soon began sculpting an image of what they felt suited the ideal gay community, which included the forceful displacement of the West Ends’ sex work community. In 1983, a group called the Concerned Residents of
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