City council wise to wait on transit ads

Advertising Standards Canada is probably a conscientious arm of the advertising industry, but it is no more than that.

The organization accepts complaints from the public and rules on whether advertisements are misleading.

Its website lists seven hearings held so far in 2017. In each case the ad complained of was found to contain misleading information. One advertiser changed the content in response to the ASC hearing, the other six did not.

But whether the advertising industry listens to its own regulator does not really matter in the case of an anti-abortion ad now appearing on city buses in Peterborough.

People who object to the ad complained to the ASC, which found that it is misleading and should be changed or removed.

The right-to-life organization that placed the controversial ad, is having none of it. A lawyer for the group noted that an Ontario court upheld its right to display the ad and the ASC has no power to overrule the courts.

That is the central issue, one that city council has to keep in mind when the ASC comes asking that it be taken down.

The three-panel ad shows images of a fetus at seven weeks and 16 weeks followed by a blank space with the word “Gone” and the message “Abortion kills children.”

Some find the ad a gruesome, threatening attempt to demonize women who have abortions. Others consider it a life-affirming and necessary message.

In Canada, sorting out such competing views is not left to municipal councils – or to private regulators like ASC. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the proper guide.

The Charter was included by Parliament in the Constitution of Canada nearly 40 years ago. Since then the broad language of Charter rights has been interpreted by the courts.

The courts, particularly the Supreme Court of Canada, have generally come down in favour of protecting free expression, not limiting it.

However, a lower court judge in Alberta went the other way earlier this year after the city of Grand Prairie refused to accept the same ad that is now on Peterborough buses.

The judge’s decision that Grand Prairie could refuse the ad will now go before the Alberta Court of Appeal. It might yet end up at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Peterborough city council has been watching that case for direction. It should keep watching and discount the Advertising Standards Canada ruling.

ASC’s motto is “Creativity is subjective. The truth isn’t.” But what is considered true can also be subjective.

Free speech is much too important a principle to be put in the hands of a private regulator with no public accountability.