Judge rules city right to refuse anti-abortion bus ads

GRANDE PRAIRIE

City officials in Grande Prairie were justified in refusing an anti-abortion group’s advertising campaign for public buses because the ad was likely “to cause psychological harm” to women who’ve had or are considering having abortions, an Alberta judge has ruled.

The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) wanted to post the ads on the outside of Grande Prairie buses in February, 2015. The ad had three panels: the first showed a fetus at seven weeks; in the second, the fetus was 16 weeks; and in the final panel, the fetus was missing, replaced by a blood-red background. The captions on the photos read, “Growing, growing, GONE,” alongside a tag line: “Abortion kills children.”

The city denied the ad, saying it would disturb commuters. So CCBR launched a court challenge arguing that its Charter right to freedom of expression had been unjustifiably infringed upon. It’s the latest in a series of public battles involving the anti-abortion group, which made news during the 2015 federal election after some Canada Post mail carriers refused to deliver their graphic pamphlets.

Officials in Grande Prairie argued that the city had a statutory objective to protect its citizens from the “harmful effects” of hate speech while providing them “a tranquil, smoothly functioning transit system, with no risk of danger due to inflamed emotions or devastated psyches.”

The city said it would have welcomed other ads from the group. This particular ad, however, promoted hatred against women who have had abortions by equating them “with murderers, the most repugnant and villainous type of person in our society, capable of the most heinous crimes, thereby inciting anger and revulsion against these women,” the city told the court.

In her Dec. 22 decision, Court of Queen’s Bench Judge C.S. Anderson found the city’s move to limit the group’s free-expression rights was reasonable.

“Expression of this kind may lead to emotional responses from various people who make use of public transit and other users of the road,” Judge Anderson wrote.

“It is also likely to cause fear and confusion among children who may not fully understand what the ad is trying to express.”

Anderson also noted that the ad promoted the group’s website, which includes such phrases as: “Now is the time to put an end to the slaughter. Now is the time to look evil in the face and say enough.”

The CCBR’s lawyer, Carol Crosson, said the group is considering an appeal.

“It’s an entire about-face from prior jurisprudence on protection for free speech,” she said of the decision Tuesday. “Protection for free speech has been very wide. So this is quite a departure from that firm protection.

“If your speech isn’t protected, mine isn’t protected either. The knife slices both ways.”

City officials in Grande Prairie did not return calls on Tuesday.

THEREBY INCITING ANGER AND REVULSION AGAINST THESE WOMEN. — JUDGE C.S. ANDERSON