To: Hamilton City Council
WHEREAS city staff have been directed to produce a report by Q2 2024 on the feasibility of creating a by-law that would require flyers containing fetal images be concealed in sealed envelopes with a warning and sender information when delivered to Hamilton residences;
WHEREAS staff have also been asked “to explore the feasibility of regulating or prohibiting graphic imagery that is carried, held or displayed in public spaces”;
WHEREAS Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the fundamental freedom of expression, and such freedom is necessary for the function of any democracy;
WHEREAS the Association for Reformed Political Action recently initiated litigation to challenge the constitutionality of the “By-law to regulate the Delivery of Graphic Images in the City of St. Catharines” (By-law No. 2023-150);
WHEREAS “images showing, or claiming to show, a fetus or any part of a fetus” encompass not only abortion victim photography but also ultrasound photos and scientific images of fetal development;
WHEREAS the purpose of arbitrarily restricting the dissemination of fetal imagery is evidently viewpoint discrimination;
WHEREAS there is a long history of social reform movements effectively employing sometimes graphic victim imagery to expose and end injustice;
WHEREAS abortion victim photography in particular instills awareness of the humanity of the pre-born and the inhumanity of abortion;
WHEREAS efforts to restrict this awareness and censor images of either abortion victims or children in the womb aid in the perpetration of this injustice and result in severe harm;
Therefore, we the undersigned, demand that you pass no such by-law and abandon plans to censor the display and/or dissemination of fetal imagery.
Sincerely,
[The undersigned]
Photo Credit: CCBR/Facebook
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