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More Canadian city officials refuse to allow pro-life ads

City and transit authorities in St. John's, Newfoundland, Hamilton, Ontario and Fredericton, New Brunswick have refused to allow ads from a national educational campaign, coordinated by Life Canada, on their transit systems, claiming inaccuracies and "controversy", reports Hilary White, LifeSiteNews.com.

The ads read, "Nine months… the length of time an abortion is allowed in Canada. Abortion: Have we gone too far?" They feature a profile photo of the torso of a woman in the later stages of pregnancy and are intended for transit, print media and the internet.

The ads were pulled off the sides of the buses in St. John's on Friday, the morning after St. John's Right to Life were contacted by the St. John's transit authority, who claimed they were "inaccurate". Metrobus, owned and operated by the city, asked for more information from St. John's RTL, but before the documentation could be forwarded the group discovered the ads had already been pulled.

Over the weekend, St. John's RTL was informed that the ads were taken down after a single complaint by the local abortion-supporting Newfoundland Sexual Health Centre, who claimed that abortion in Newfoundland was restricted to 15 weeks gestation. Under Canadian federal law, however, there are no legal restrictions on abortion whatsoever.

Patrick Hanlon, head of St. John's RTL told LifeSiteNews.com that the media coverage has been interesting by what it reveals about the biases of Canadian news outlets. Local coverage has been balanced and interested, he said, except for that by the CBC. CBC's national coverage, Hanlon said, included a five minute interview with Brenda L. Kitchen, executive director of the Newfoundland Sexual Health Centre, who made the complaint to Metrobus.

Kitchen told the CBC, who repeated the claim without clarification or attribution, that in Newfoundland and Labrador, "abortions cannot be done after 15 weeks unless there are medical complications. In other provinces, it's up to 20 weeks."

Patrick Hanlon, however, defended the ads and told LifeSiteNews.com that Kitchen's claim was simply a falsehood. Abortions are committed in the local Morgentaler facility up to 16 weeks. Between 16 and 20 weeks, women are sent to the local hospital. Women seeking abortions after 20 weeks are sent out of the province at government expense.

Hanlon said his organisation is not finished yet and that they will be providing the documentation showing the ads to have been accurate.

"What it goes back to is a matter of freedom of speech," he said.

A similar story came from Fredericton where another local Right to Life group is participating in the national campaign.

One of the three posters that were to go out to the public transit shelters in Fredericton was rejected by the city authorities because it was "too controversial". The city told New Brunswick Right to Life that their policy is to reject messages of a "political" nature. When NB Right to Life requested a copy of the policy, the city did not comply until after the burst of media coverage.

The text accompanying the photo in the rejected poster read, "The human heartbeat begins to beat at 22 days after conception. Currently in Canada that heart beat can be stopped up to birth; no medical reason needed. Abortion: have we gone too far?"

In Fredericton, the objection seems to have come directly from the Mayor's office. Ironically, the effort by the city to squash the ads has brought even more publicity and controversy as the issue receives ongoing local television, radio and print media coverage as well as national attention from Global and CTV networks. Mayor Brad Woodside responded to the media coverage complaining that it was "just giving these people more publicity."

[01/30/2008]

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