Judge OKS bylaw banning trailer ads in Foothills
Trailer ads that blight southern Alberta’s pristine vistas are a constitutionally protected form of expression, a Calgary judge has ruled.
But in a written decision released Thursday, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Nick Devlin said a bylaw banning the advertising form is a justifiable breach of the right to free speech.
In rejecting a constitutional challenge, Devlin said the Municipal District of Foothills was acting within its jurisdiction when it passed a bylaw banning the ads, which are commonplace along Alberta highways.
“A vista of blue skies over golden
Prairies, rolling into foothills beneath the front range of the Rocky Mountains, grace the highways of southern Alberta,” Devlin noted.
“So, too, do a brace of disused semi-trailers, adorned with large vinyl advertising banners.”
Devlin noted the MD finds “their presence is dissonant, distracting and degrading to the rural aesthetics that are a social and economic cornerstone of their community.”
As a result, Foothills passed a bylaw last year specifically banning vehicle signs. Three separate parties challenged the rule’s constitutionality — a couple that has allowed High River Pro-life to post anti-abortion signage on a trailer on their property, an outdoor advertising company that leases space on trailers, and three landowners who receive compensation for permitting advertising trailers to be parked on their property.
Devlin found the bylaw had a pressing and substantial objective required for legislation to infringe on a Charter right.
“Citizens have a right not to be visually ‘shouted at’ by signs at every turn,” he said. “Controlling the time, place and volume (in all its meanings) of advertising is a core quality-of-life issue.”
Devlin said the MD had to consider the effect of the signage on the overall well-being of its citizens.
“Protection of the community’s visual environment is a pressing and substantial objective sufficient to justify a limit on individual rights of expression,” he said.
“The signs in question here are large. They compare in overall size to traditional highway billboards. Their visual impact is very real — indeed, that is the very premise upon which they operate.”
He rejected arguments the bylaw was arbitrary because Foothills was inconsistent with its approach by allowing derelict trailers to be parked on properties, but not ones with signs on them.
“Trailers with and without signs are not equivalent. A disused trailer is a lump of metal. A trailer with a sign on it is a shout-out to passers-by; its object is to catch the eye and garner attention,” Devlin said.
“Overall, I find that the limit on the right to freedom of expression is not disproportionate to the benefit that the bylaw secures for Foothills and its residents. The limit is justified in a free and democratic society.”
Citizens have a right not to be visually ‘shouted at’ by signs at every turn