Janine Fuller

{{short description|Canadian businessperson and writer (born 1958)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Janine Fuller
{{post-nominals|country=CAN|size=100%|CM}}

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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1958}}

| birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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| occupation = businessperson, writer

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| known_for = advocating for gender equality

| notable_works = Restricted Entry: Censorship on Trial (co-author)

}}

Janine Elizabeth Fuller {{postnominals|country=CAN|CM|size=100%}} (born 1958){{Cite web |title=Inductee: Janine Fuller |url=http://clga.ca/npc/subject/42 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321010114/http://clga.ca/npc/subject/42 |archive-date=21 March 2017 |website=Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives}} is a Canadian businessperson and writer. She was the manager of Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver, British Columbia,{{Cite news |last=Ryan |first=Denise |date=3 March 2011 |title=B.C. Heroes: Janine Fuller |work=Vancouver Sun |url=https://vancouversun.com/news/Heroes%2BJanine%2BFuller/4368072/story.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615083239/https://vancouversun.com/news/Heroes+Janine+Fuller/4368072/story.html |archive-date=15 June 2018}}{{Cite journal |last= |first= |date=March–April 1996 |title=Little Sisters Declares 75% Victory in Canada Customs Court Battle |url=https://jstor.org/stable/community.28036373 |department=News |journal=Feminist Bookstore News |volume=18 |issue=6 |pages=7, 14–15 |jstor=community.28036373 |jstor-access=free}} 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 (Minister of Justice) in 2004.{{Cite journal |last=Cameron |first=Heather E. |date=Spring 1996 |title=Queer Experts at the Little Sisters Trial: An Interview with Janine Fuller |url=https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/9240/8357 |url-status=live |journal=Canadian Woman Studies |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=80–83 |issn=0713-3235 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231207052533/https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/9240/8357 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |access-date=6 December 2023}}

Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Fuller began advocating for gender equality at a young age, fighting to be allowed to start a girls' soccer team in Grade 6. She was later an employee of the Toronto Women's Bookstore, and was working there when the store was firebombed in 1983. She moved to Vancouver in 1989, taking a job at Little Sister's the following year, and became an active fundraiser and freedom of expression activist as the store was drawn into legal battles when Canada Customs regularly confiscated and impounded its shipments from publishers.{{Cite web |last=Burrows |first=Matthew |date=23 September 2009 |title=Bright Lights: Janine Fuller |url=https://www.straight.com/life/bright-lights-janine-fuller |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131072938/https://www.straight.com/life/bright-lights-janine-fuller |archive-date=31 January 2023 |access-date=6 December 2023 |website=The Georgia Straight |language=en}}

Following a diagnosis with Huntington's disease in the late 2000s, Fuller has also become an activist and speaker on issues relating to the condition.

Writing

In 1995, she coauthored with Stuart Blackley the book Restricted Entry: Censorship on Trial, a non-fiction account of the Little Sister's battle,{{Cite book |last1=Fuller |first1=Janine |title=Restricted Entry: Censorship on Trial |last2=Blackley |first2=Stuart |last3=Pollak |first3=Nancy |publisher=Press Gang Publishers |year=1996 |isbn=9780889740662 |location=Vancouver |language=en |oclc=35924970}} 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."Censorship Trial Spawns Books". Cuir, March/April 1996.

Fuller has also written a number of plays, and has worked as a performance artist.{{Cite web |last=Cameron |first=Layla |date=30 August 2016 |title=After 25 years at Little Sister's, Janine Fuller now faces her toughest battle |url=https://www.dailyxtra.com/after-25-years-at-little-sisters-janine-fuller-now-faces-her-toughest-battle-71824 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207055323/https://xtramagazine.com/power/after-25-years-at-little-sisters-janine-fuller-now-faces-her-toughest-battle-71824 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |access-date=18 September 2019 |website=Xtra}}

Awards

Both Restricted Entry and Forbidden Passages won Lammies at the 8th Lambda Literary Awards in 1996, Forbidden Passages in the "Editor's Choice" category and Restricted Entry in the "Publisher's Service" category.

In honour of her role as a significant contributor to LGBT culture and history in Canada, Fuller has been inducted into both the Q Hall of Fame Canada{{Cite web |title=Inductees: Janine Fuller |url=http://qhalloffame.ca/inductees/janine-fuller/ |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423221817/http://qhalloffame.ca/inductees/janine-fuller/ |archive-date=23 April 2012 |website=Q Hall of Fame}}{{Cite web |date=14 September 2009 |title=Canadian Queer Hall of Fame Inducted |url=https://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2009/09/14/canadian-queer-hall-fame-inducted |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231026140007/https://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2009/09/14/canadian-queer-hall-fame-inducted |archive-date=26 October 2023 |access-date=6 December 2023 |website=The Advocate |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Theodore |first=Terri |date=19 September 2009 |title=Trudeau, Tewksbury among first inductees into Queer Hall of Fame |language=en-CA |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/trudeau-tewksbury-among-first-inductees-into-queer-hall-of-fame/article4286033/ |url-status=live |access-date=6 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231026140118/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/trudeau-tewksbury-among-first-inductees-into-queer-hall-of-fame/article4286033/ |archive-date=26 October 2023}} and The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives' National Portrait Collection. She was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Simon Fraser University in 2004,{{Cite web |last=Stevenson |first=Michael |date=10 June 2004 |title=That's Dr Fuller |url=http://archives.xtra.ca/Story.aspx?s=2282525 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613155304/http://archives.xtra.ca/Story.aspx?s=2282525 |archive-date=13 June 2013 |website=Xtra}} the inaugural Reg Robson Award from the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association in 1997,{{Cite web |date=29 November 2023 |title=Reg Robson Award Recipients: Janine Fuller / 1997 |url=https://bccla.org/about/reg-robson-award/reg-robson-award-recipients/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323164022/http://bccla.org/about/reg-robson-award/reg-robson-award-recipients/ |archive-date=23 March 2023 |access-date=6 December 2023 |website=British Columbia Civil Liberties Association |language=en-US}} the Freedom to Read Award from the Writers' Union of Canada in 2002,{{Cite web |title=Freedom To Read Award |url=https://writersunion.ca/freedom-read-award |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603185702/https://www.writersunion.ca/freedom-read-award |archive-date=3 June 2023 |access-date=6 December 2023 |website=Writers' Union of Canada}} as well as awards from numerous women's and LGBT organizations.

In 2024, she was appointed to the Order of Canada.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gg.ca/en/order-canada-appointees-june-2024|title=Order of Canada Appointees – June 2024|website=Governor General of Canada|date=21 June 2024 |language=en|access-date=2024-06-30}}