(LifeSiteNews) — Canada’s abortion activists are relentless in their campaign to keep the pro-life message away from Canadians – and they’ve just scored a victory in British Columbia, where a major billboard company has decided to ban all signs dealing with abortion.
The Kelowna Right to Life Society has put the pro-life message on billboards along Highway 97 for years; I saw them when I drove to Kelowna from the Fraser Valley earlier this year to speak at one of their events. One features an elderly man and the statement: “Assisted Suicide is not caring, it’s Killing. Say NO to ‘MAiD.’”
Another billboard features photos of an elderly man, a young girl with Down syndrome, and a baby in the womb, with the slogan: “All Lives Are Precious.” This message should be uncontroversial, but in a country where over 90 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb are aborted and activists support abortion up until birth, it attracted the ire of those who do not, in fact, believe that all lives are precious.
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In response to Kelowna Right to Life’s billboard ads, abortion activist Sophie Harms went to both Pattison Outdoor Advertising and B.C. Billboards to put up a pro-abortion ad stating that abortion is “safe, normal and common.” Both companies refused. Pattison stated that it doesn’t allow any abortion-related signs. B.C. Billboards initially ignored her request.
The B.C. Humanist Association supported Harms. “We thought that was great,” a spokesman told the CBC. “That was a fantastic initiative and one that we wanted go get behind.” They sent a legal letter to B.C. Billboards, stating that their refusal to run the pro-abortion ad violated the B.C. Human Rights Code, “which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, including pregnancy-related health care such as abortion.”
B.C. Billboards responded by stating that it would change its policy and no longer run any abortion-related ads at all. Jim Wannop, the president of the company, stated that “we will no longer be advertising pro-life or pro-abortion advertising. Any existing ads to that effect will be removed at the end of their contract.”
Harms, predictably, was thrilled. “It is absolutely a victory,” she said. “When I started this campaign, I had low expectations. But I’m constantly surprised at the success.” Kelowna Right to Life, which currently has two billboards with six months left, is disappointed.
“They have been good to us, and we have been treated fairly, and we would like to continue in the future,” spokesperson Marlon Bartram said of B.C. Billboards. “We think that having a public debate on a difficult issue like this is important. All sides ought to put forth their arguments, and may the best ones win in the end.”
It is not surprising that Harms sees the removal of pro-life billboards as a victory – in Canada, virtually any public expression of socially conservative sentiment becomes a lightning rod for censorship. In 2020, an “I heart J.K. Rowling” billboard in Vancouver was removed after a backlash by angry LGBT activists – it was vandalized after only two days, and Councilor Sarah Kirby-Yung of the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association claimed that the slogan was actually hate speech.
The billboard was co-sponsored by Amy Hamm, who lost her job as a nurse and was disciplined by the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives in part because of the billboard.
Earlier this year, ARPA Canada had one of their billboards on the same subject removed; the text read: “Stop medical transitions for minors.” In Canada, advocating a policy that is standard in the U.K., New Zealand, and a half-dozen other countries are immediately censored – the mayor called it “transphobic.”
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The most egregious example is the 2018 censorship of the We Need A Law campaign’s billboards, which read merely: “Canada has no abortion laws.” Even though this was a statement of fact – something abortion activists admitted – they also claimed that they should be unapproved by Ad Standards because they promoted “fear and stigma.” Ad Standards sided with the abortion activists, who want to control what Canadians know for fear they might make up their own minds when confronted by ugly facts.
Those driving to Kelowna will no longer be confronted by the now-controversial assertion that “all lives are precious.” Abortion activists consider that a victory. That should send an even more potent message.
