(LifeSiteNews) – Lawyers representing the Christian Heritage Party of Canada (CHP) say an Ontario court permitted them to proceed with an appeal in a case involving the City of Hamilton’s refusal to allow the CHP to advertise on a city bus an affirmation of the biological reality that there are only men and women.
The Acacia Group, the Ottawa-based legal group representing the CHP, noted in a press release that the CHP in 2023 was not allowed by Hamilton city officials to place a bus advertisement with the words “Woman: An Adult Female.”
The city’s rejection letter, dated July 2023, acknowledged that the CHP did have Charter rights to free speech. However, as noted by the Acacia Group, the city claimed that the advertisement’s message supporting “a traditional and biologically determined definition of gender in line with conservative values” was enough grounds to ban the ad.
The city’s rejection letter also mentioned it had consulted with local LGBT groups as well as an LGBT-sponsored health publication about whether the ad would have a negative effect on transgendered people. In the end, the city said that there would be a risk to transgendered people should the ad be allowed to be placed.
Toward the end of 2024, the Ontario Divisional Court denied CHP’s request that the city’s rejection of its bus ad violated its right to free expression as well as its political beliefs and that the way it rejected the ad was not fair.
Despite the Ontario Divisional Court’s denial, the Appeal Court agreed to hear CHP’s appeal.
Lia Milousis, lawyer for the Acacia Group, welcomed the news of the appeal, saying it was a positive move in the defense of free speech.
“It’s not for a municipal government to dictate what can and cannot be part of democratic dialogue or what people can and cannot be exposed to in terms of free expression,” she noted.
“The City of Hamilton is trying to prevent its residents from being exposed to a view that it says is unacceptable, but it’s not allowed to censor the views and pick and choose what Hamiltonians can and cannot hear, can and cannot know, can and cannot be exposed to.”
Jim Enos, the CEO for the CHP Hamilton Mountain electoral district association, said it was confusing why the city rejected the bus ad.
“So ‘conservative values’ aren’t allowed in Hamilton. That would come as a surprise to Conservative Party candidates and the citizens all over the city who had Conservative signs on their lawns during the election,” he noted.
To date, the Appeal Court has not said why it has allowed the appeal, and a date for the hearing has yet to be set.
Instances of groups looking to promote pro-life and family messaging and then being denied have occurred on many occasions. Last year, a Canadian pro-life group had one of its billboard ads canceled by a major company because the latter said the messaging creates too much “controversy.”
