Joanna Alphonso:

Ontario New Democrat MPP Terence Kernaghan (London North Centre) introduced Bill 259, the Viewer Discretion Act (Images of Fetuses) on March 8. Bill 259 directly targets the efforts of pro-life groups such as the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform (CCBR), which uses abortion victim photography in “Choice Chains” in high-traffic locations, but also distributes the images in residential mailboxes. The objective of which is to show the public the truth about abortion.

Public outrage at these images in recent years has led to the establishment of various petitions, movements against these images, and finally the Viewer Discretion Act. The explanatory note for Bill 259 states: “This Bill provides that no one shall send a graphic image of a fetus by mail or otherwise distribute such an image unless the image is contained in an opaque envelope, the exterior of the envelope includes a description of the contents and the exterior of the envelope clearly identifies the sender. The penalty for violating this prohibition is a fine of $100 per image.”

Kernaghan previously mentioned that he doesn’t want to limit freedom of expression, but he wants to ensure that people have the warning and choice to see graphic imagery.

London resident Katie Dean founded a group called the Viewers Discretion Legislation Coalition, or VDLC, to speak out against the public display and distribution of images of abortion victims with the belief that “these images are disturbing and extremely traumatizing to the community … in response to the graphic anti-abortion pamphlets being distributed across Canada by the CCBR.”

Campaign Life Coalition’s Youth Coordinator, Josie Luetke, told The Interim, “A majority of Canadians do not believe that life begins are fertilization, even though that is what science has definitively proven. These images are really important in terms of educating people and also making them feel more negatively towards abortion, so they’re less likely to choose it if they’re in a situation where there is a crisis pregnancy.”

Luetke responds to Kernaghan’s previous statement regarding freedom of expression: “it’s restricted speech” and warns “a whole slew of restrictions could easily follow, and we’ve already seen this happen.” She adds, “What I find so interesting about it is how specific it is. People don’t want to acknowledge the truth about the humanity of the preborn and the inhumanity of abortion. Politicians and activists behind this are prioritizing the sensibilities of the public over the lives of preborn children.” 

Blaise Alleyne, CCBR Outreach Director for eastern Canada, stated that the purpose of using abortion victim photography is “to expose the injustice of abortion with visual evidence in order to change hearts and minds on abortion and save lives. CCBR’s ‘End the Killing’ plan, which was launched in 2011, is to systematically bring the truth about abortion to every mature Canadian across the country.” 

In response to Bill 259, Alleyne adds, “Bill 259 in our view is incredibly unconstitutional for three reasons. First, it’s content-based discrimination, which is very much against the Charter right to freedom of expression to say that you have to do something differently if you have one kind of message. Second, it’s compelled speech. They’d be forcing us to format our messages in a certain way, which is against the fundamental right to freedom of expression. Third, I don’t think the province has the right to regulate mail deliveries. If this Bill is passed, we would continue our work of reaching all Canadians through our other efforts while exploring legal options to challenge this unconstitutional Bill.” 

“In 2017,” Alleyne recalls, “some Toronto politicians tried to do something very similar in response to a Toronto internship that we ran. They were exploring ways to restrict our Constitutional rights. What’s notable about this is that the Liberal Attorney General at that time, Yasir Naqvi, wrote back to these politicians and said that while he was sympathetic (he was pro-choice) he thought that it would be against the Charter right to do that. This was under Kathleen Wynne’s same Liberal government that censored pro-life speech around abortion clinics. He thought it would go too far to restrict delivery of flyers to homes.”

Bill 259 passed first reading in the Ontario Legislature, but the legislature rose for the summer recess before second reading.