Books banned from city streets

Don't tell Jim Brown, proprietor of Ma'at Bookrooms, a tiny bookshop on St-Urbain north of Villeneuve, that "you can't fight city hall." Brown's sidewalk book-bins recently landed him a $136 fine for contravention of bylaws forbidding outdoor displays. His neighbours on either side don't mind the bins, and 500 customers have signed a petition asking the city to give him a break. But the city of Montreal says the books must stay indoors, or the next fine will be $600--a huge amount for Brown's pocket-sized business.

Stephen Welch, of S.W. Welch Bookseller on the Main, has been down this road before. "Years ago the city fined me for having books outside," says Welch, who challenged the bylaw in court. "It cost me $1,000 and I won, but the city just went and re-wrote the bylaw."

City spokesperson Francois Lemay told the Mirror that "we allow fruit and flowers to be displayed outside for traditional reasons, but if we give permission for bookstores, then we would have to give it to hardware stores and drugstores and everybody else."

Brown vows to stick to his guns--or, rather, his bins. "My attitude towards this is the same as the Viet Cong: this is my rice paddy and I ain't going anywhere."

--John Edmonds

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