City keeps options open in fight over ads

The city will keep appeal options open for a new council on a court ruling against Hamilton’s ban on Christian Heritage Party bus shelter ads about transgender rights.

Council was supposed to discuss the ruling in an emergency meeting just days before the upcoming Oct. 22 municipal vote — but couldn’t get enough councillors to show up for the session, which was cancelled.

A new council won’t meet until December. To get around the election conundrum, city legal staff will file a notice of leave to appeal “in an effort to preserve the city’s rights,” said spokesperson Jen Recine in a release Tuesday.

The move will leave the city’s options open “until further direction from council is provided” in December, she said.

Without filing the notice, council would run out of time to debate and vote on a prospective appeal.

The divisional court ruling this month quashed a quick city staff decision in 2016 to yank the controversial bus shelter ads and seek council approval in an after-thefact vote.

The advertisements, at three bus shelters on the Mountain, depicted a man walking toward a door labelled “ladies showers,” with the main text saying “Competing Human Rights ... Where’s the Justice?”

The city argued it was not preventing freedom of expression but instead removing a discriminatory ad suggesting transgender people are scary or dangerous.

The Christian Heritage Party argued the unilateral advertisement removal raised the question of whether a government can censor political comment it disagrees with.

A three-judge panel said the city did not give the CHP a chance to be heard before removing the ads, and it did not consider the party’s charter rights.

It’s not yet clear if the city’s legal experts are recommending an appeal or not, or what such a move would cost.

Outgoing Ward 1 Coun Aidan Johnson previously called an appeal “the morally and legally right thing to do.”