Georgia Straight
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| Categories | Alternative weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Weekly |
| First issue | 1967 |
| Country | Canada |
| Based in | Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Website | straight |
The Georgia Straight is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. As surveyed by VAC its per-issue circulation average as of January 25, 2011[update], is 119,971 copies, and its average weekly readership is 804,000 as of 2009[update]. Its website traffic ranked 47,339 globally and 1,458 within Canada, according to February 27, 2012 figures[update] from Alexa.
The paper was founded as an underground newspaper in May 1967 by Pierre Coupey,Milton Acorn,Dan McLeod, Stan Persky, and others, and originally it operated as a collective.
In April 1967: "The proposed paper was christened the Georgia Straight over beer at the Cecil Hotel. The name aims to play on the fact that the weather forecasts will offer free publicity: they're always issuing gale warnings for the Georgia Strait."
On May 5, 1967 the first issue was presented and cost ten cents. It was originally a biweekly newspaper. On May 12, Dan McLeod was taken away in a paddy wagon and jailed for three hours for "investigation of vagrancy." College Printers refused to print the second issue, but an alternative was found.
The paper was raided and fined by the Vancouver Police for publishing obscenities, and was often banned from distribution for its criticism of the local police and politicians. Vancouver mayor Tom Campbell described the paper as "filth" and, objecting of its sale to "school children," urged the city's licensing inspector to suspend the paper for "gross misconduct" contrary to city bylaws. The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) attempted to assist the paper by challenging the suspension in court by arguing that only federal laws could restrict freedom-of-the-press. The initial challenge was unsuccessful, with Justice Thomas Dohm praising the mayor for his actions. On appeal, the appellate court agreed to lift the suspension on the grounds that a hearing should have been provided to explain why the paper was suspended, but did not rule on the BCCLA's freedom-of-the-press argument. The BCCLA provided further legal assistance to Dan McLeod and the paper when both were criminally charged with three counts of obscenity for publishing a photograph, an advertisement titled "Young Man Wants to Meet Women 30 years Old for Muffidiving, etc," and an article titled "Penis de Milo Created by Cynthia Plaster-Caster." McLeod and the paper were acquitted on all three charges due to the Crown having failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, with the judge noting that no evidence was provided as to the meaning of the word "muffdiving" and that he could not take judicial notice of a word that he had not previously heard. Those controversies ended in the 1970s, as the paper moved to become a more conventional news and entertainment weekly, albeit with a progressive editorial slant.
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