Toronto councillor to introduce motion aimed at curbing anti-abortion group's graphic door-to-door tactics
CBC
Toronto city council will hear a call this week for limits on the graphic imagery being distributed door to door by an anti-abortion group.
The motion by coun. Mike Layton (University-Rosedale) calls on staff to look into the feasibility of banning pictures of aborted fetuses that an anti-abortion group called the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform (CCBR) distributes to people's homes, and displays on signs during public demonstrations.
"Those are images that can come back to haunt children," Layton said.
"I've got two small girls, six and four, and I don't want them seeing that imagery before we walk them home to go to bed.
"I don't want them going to going to high school and having that kind of fear mongering happening outside of their high school, which could deter them from getting medical treatment if they were in a position that they would be seeking an abortion," he added.
Layton's motion is fashioned after a regulation approved last month by the London, Ont., city council, which now forces organizations that distribute graphic abortion imagery to enclose their leaflets in an envelope bearing a warning.
Efforts by Toronto councillors in 2017 and 2018 have not yet resulted in municipal limits on the practice here. City staff say they're still studying the issue.
Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Halifax have anti-flyer bylaws as well, although only Calgary's was developed in specific response to anti-abortion materials.
At Queen's Park, a private members bill that would have outlawed door-to-door distribution of images of dead fetuses — unless they're enclosed in an envelope — died after its first reading last year.
Blaise Alleyne, eastern outreach director for the CCBR, said London's new bylaw may be the subject of a legal challenge — as could any similar effort by the Toronto city council.
He maintains that Toronto's past efforts to stop his group from displaying the graphic images have been stymied when the city's legal and licensing staff told councillors the rules would be a violation of the group's right to free expression.
City staff told CBC Toronto they are still studying the issue.
"I think the City of London hasn't learned its lesson yet, that the Charter obligates it to protect the right to freedom of expression," Alleyne said.
"If [Toronto councillors] go ahead with this, we'll explore all of our legal options to defend our Charter right to freedom of expression so that we can be a voice for voiceless, pre-born children and for people who've experienced the trauma of abortion."
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