The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench says the City of Edmonton was within its rights to pull an offensive bus advertisement posted by an American anti-Muslim group.
The ads showing photographs of several Muslim girls, stating they had all been victims of honour killings, before posing the question, “Is your family threatening you? Is there a fatwa on your head?” appeared on ETS buses in 2013.
They were paid for by the New-York-based American Freedom Defense Initiative or AFDI.
In his ruling, Justice John Gill stated “the benefits of providing a safe and welcoming transit system outweigh the deleterious effects of the city’s policy limiting offensive or discriminatory advertising on its public transport.”
Gill said AFDI purports to offer a help line to victimized Edmonton Muslim women and links them to a group which advocates extreme anti-Muslim positions.
“I have no doubt that many Edmontonians and Canadians in general … would find the positions advanced by the AFDI … to be offensive, discriminatory and demeaning,” he said.
“In my view, it is speculative that this would actually be helpful to Muslim women in Edmonton.
“I conclude that, to the extent of the city’s policy infringed AFDI’s freedom of speech, the benefit of doing so far outweighed the deleterious effects.”
After the city received several complaints, the ads were removed prompting the AFDI to file its own complaint claiming the move contravened Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The section guarantees the right to freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other means of communication.