Council debates graphic abortion signs and freedom of expression

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Graphic images depicting aborted fetuses as part of pro-life protests were the topic of conversation inside Oshawa council chambers recently as one group of local advocates attempted to get these posters banned from residential areas.

Christeen Thornton, founder of the poverty advocacy group Direct Intervention Reaching Everyone (DIRE) appeared before council asking that they implement some form of control to restrict where these graphic images, generally gory depictions of abortions, are allowed to be shown, especially around areas where children are known to frequent.

“Walking down a neighbourhood street and coming across these images can be very distressing,” she says. “These images are intended to shock.”

Thornton also pointed to the fact that the City of Oshawa was unwilling to include the images on the city’s website, which Thornton included with her written request to speak before council.

“This demonstrates to me that it’s obvious that there are certain people we want to protect from these images,” she said.

For that reason, Thornton says they have no place in and around the areas where families walk with their children, noting that parents should have the choice of when to talk with their children about sensitive topics like reproductive rights and abortion.

“We can have conversations about difficult things, this should be something that is rolled out gradually,” she said.

Thornton was joined in her dissent by several Oshawa residents who wrote to councillors sharing their concerns about these posters and images on street corners in residential areas, with one letter writer going as far as asking councillors to ban abortion protests altogether.

However, several representatives of pro-life organization Show the Truth were also in attendance at the June 11 meeting and noted that despite the graphic nature of the images, the ability to use them in abortion protests comes down to freedom of expression, a right enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“The issue today is not about abortion. The issue today is about free speech,” said Marie-Claire Bissonnette, a pro-life advocate. “Municipal government does not have a free standing right on what its residents can and cannot say.”

“I believe that freedom of expression is fundamentally important to all Canadian citizens,” Thornton said. “I myself regularly engage in my right to dissent and to talk in my community, it’s merely the images that I take issue with.”

Bissonnette, who was also joined in council chambers by others on the pro-life side of the abortion argument, noted that these signs pose no physical risk to the Oshawa community, and that those involved in these protests follow a strict code of conduct, and demonstrate peacefully. She also says she has never witnessed a child upset by the graphic posters.

“They recognize what it is and then continue with their own way,” she says. “I have not seen any evidence of trauma.”

However, for Councillor Gail Bates, a former operating room nurse, she questioned how accurate these images are at showing the truth of what abortion looks like.

“I have never seen those types of things in the experience of my working life, which spanned 40 years,” she said.

Councillor Amy McQuaid-England also questioned Bissonnette on the impact these pictures can have on women who have experienced still-births or miscarriages, pointing to the fact that the posters could trigger post-traumatic stress. McQuaid-England noted that she herself had a miscarriage several years ago, and these images can be extremely distressing for her.

“I feel like I wanna throw up,” she said. “I challenge you to consider how much stronger your message would be if you’re not triggering and traumatizing the people you’re supposedly trying to help.”

“I think that PTSD, in this case, if it does arise, there’s a reason why it’s arisen and that’s the death of a child,” Bissonnette says, noting their intent is not to trigger PTSD. “If we’re not allowed to show that in society, if we’re not allowed to show the truth…I think that that is an issue that we should see as a society.”

Following the debate, a motion from Councillor Dan Carter had council passing on the delegations, receiving the request for information and taking no action. However, McQuaid-England suggested that council needed to have a broader discussion on the topic, and needed to take some form of action. It was an assertion shared by Councillor John Shield and Bates.

Following the motion’s defeat, Bates came forward with the suggestion to look to higher levels of government and lawmakers for advice, as elements of freedom of expression were outside of council’s purview to make change, as much as she may want to.

Bates went on to share tales of her time as a nurse, when a pregnant 12-year-old girl nearly bled to death from a perforated uterus after someone attempted to use a coat-hanger to abort her baby after seven months.

“All the graphic images in the world wouldn’t make a difference to the outcomes for these children,” she said. “We are challenging, in a way, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

The motion to write to the federal and provincial attorney generals was approved.