The Calgary City Council has passed a proposal that pave the way for a new bylaw that will limit the distribution of graphic anti-abortion posters door to door.
The motion, drafted by Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness, calls for a new bylaw that will require mailed flyers from anti-abortion groups — which include graphic images, like showing or claiming to show a fetus, or any part of a fetus — to be concealed in an envelope.
The motion also requests that a viewer discretion notice be included in the booklets.
Wyness’ proposal was overwhelmingly approved by council on Wednesday after receiving the support of the majority of council members.
“It’s about representing the community and finding a way to balance everybody’s belief system and rights,” Wyness told Global News. “I believe that was the balance I intended to achieve when I wrote this.
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Wyness informed the council that constituents who had graphic posters delivered to their doorsteps had informed her of the problem.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek recalled an event in which she was emotionally affected by a graphic booklet and claimed that council had “been fighting this for a long time.”
Gondek told council, “It is really distressing.” “This was delivered to my mailbox after I had a miscarriage, and I don’t want other people to experience what I did.
According to Wyness’ motion, the city took the action to recognise “the rights of parents to regulate their children’s access to potentially upsetting or objectionable information.
But according to the motion, the current rules require residents to “choose between receiving no flyers or receiving all flyers, including those containing alleged images of aborted fetuses.
” However, the language in the motion could open the door to legal challenges down the road, according to Marty Moore, a lawyer at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
According to Moore, the bylaw “targets specific graphic imagery utilised by pro-life groups for political speech, not graphic imagery in general.”
This is not a neutral bylaw to protect residents from graphic pictures, which may stir up their emotions or disturb them in some way, therefore you can expect a lot of backlash, according to the argument.
A graphic anti-abortion flyer was also delivered to Jennifer Sanger, one of Wyness’ constituents, at her house last summer.
The former labour and delivery nurse claimed that the flyer brought up her patients’ loss-related trauma.
Sanger now collaborates with the Viewer Discretion Legislation Coalition (VDLC), which fights for amendments to Canadian legislation that would forbid the unauthorised use of graphic pictures on door-to-door flyers.
Sanger told Global News, “I don’t want to suppress anti-abortion groups. “I do want our family values to be honoured in the way they convey their message,” you said.
Wyness’ motion is similar to a bylaw passed earlier this year in London, Ont.
Flyers with graphic images must now be issued in envelopes that have a content advisory, under the new regulations.
When the new bylaw is drafted by city administration, which is anticipated to happen sometime next year, Calgarians will be able to voice their opinions during a public hearing on the subject.
The Calgary City Council has decided to tighten the regulations on graphic door-to-door flyers.
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