Ontario Superior Court of Justice
Summary:
In 2023, ARPA challenged the City of Hamilton for refusing to post a Defend Girls campaign ad on public transit. The City claimed that the ad was misleading for implying that unborn children are human beings and that the ad thus violated its advertising policy. ARPA’s submissions picked apart the City’s reasons regarding the supposed inaccuracy of the ad and argued that Ad did not violate the City’s policy. A week before the court hearing, the City of Hamilton wrote to the court to say that the City had failed to take into consideration ARPA’s freedom of expression when rejecting the ad. The Court consequently declined to hear the case on the merits, accepted the City’s admission that it had not considered freedom of expression – despite the City’s evidence that it had done so – and directed the City to reconsider its decision and to pay $20,000 to ARPA for ARPA’s legal costs. In the end, the City accepted the Defend Girls ad.
ARPA Canada’s submissions to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
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