City of Vancouver targets handbills near Olympic venues

SFU communications professor says free speech is more important than building a 2010 Potemkin village.

The freedoms of speech and expression trump all considerations about putting Vancouver’s best look forward during the 2010 Olympic Games, according to an SFU communications professor.

In a phone interview, Robert Hackett said that a charter challenge might be filed against a proposed bylaw that seeks to clamp down on a number of activities not just around Games venues but throughout the city between January 1 and March 31.

“People’s right to free speech is more important than building a Potemkin village to put on a good face to tourists,” Hackett told the Georgia Straight.

Members of the public will have a chance on July 23 to voice their concerns to council about the bylaw that seeks to prohibit any person from exhibiting or distributing “advertising” material like leaflets, brochures, and handbills in designated Olympic zones or lanes.

The measure also requires owners to “remove graffiti and illegal posters” from their property as these constitute an “eyesore”. Activities that “cause any disturbance or nuisance interfering with the enjoyment of entertainment on city land by other persons” are also deemed prohibited in the bylaw.

However, Hackett said that these provisions can be questioned before the courts. “The right of expression and freedom of the press are subject to those limits that are justifiable in a free and democratic society,” he said. “You could take it to the court to determine whether this is a justifiable restriction. Personally, I don’t think it is.”

In a report to council, city staff said that the proposed bylaw deals with “advertising materials with commercial content” and will have “no impact on freedom of political expression or the right to lawful protest”.

Postering is a “historically and politically significant form of expression”, according to a 1993 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In The Corporation of the City of Peterborough v. Kenneth Ramsden, the court ruled that a municipal bylaw prohibiting posters on public property was constitutionally invalid. The posters involved in this case were not of a political nature but were advertisements for performances by a band. “Postering conveys or attempts to convey a meaning, regardless of whether it constitutes advertising, political speech or art,” the court stated in its decision.

Under the proposed Vancouver bylaw, the installation of Olympics-extolling “celebratory signage” on buildings can begin on October 1 this year. These are large-format signs exceeding 10 percent of the face area of a building.

Local government law expert Ray Young told the Straight that Vancouver politicians “should be very careful in sacrificing human rights, even at the altar of the IOC [International Olympic Committee]”.

“It’s just a big game; it’s not a foreign occupation,” Young said. “One has to hope that these politicians will have some moderation and will actually debate and come to some reasonable conclusions.”