U.S. citizens: Demand Congress investigate soaring excess death rates
THESSALON, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — An Ontario man is taking the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to court for censoring his billboard critical of the provincial government’s COVID response.
According to an August 6 press release, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) announced it has launched a constitutional challenge on behalf of Ontario resident George Katerberg after the Ontario Ministry of Transportation refused to allow him to display a billboard demanding that politicians be held accountable for their mishandling of COVID.
“Mr. Katerberg’s proposed sign was a matter of legitimate expression protected by the Charter,” JCCF lawyer Chris Fleury stated. “In a functioning democracy, individuals like Mr. Katerberg need to be able to express their dissatisfaction with public officials.”
“Doing so is not promoting hatred,” he argued. “Mr. Katerberg is looking forward to his day in Court and to eventually being able to erect his billboard.”
The billboard was originally erected along Highway 17 near Thessalon, Ontario. It read, “They knowingly lied about safety and stopping tranmission [sic],” and “Canadians demand accountability.”
The billboard displayed the faces of various Government of Canada officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Theresa Tam, and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci.
All of the beforementioned individuals pushed both COVID restrictions and the COVID shots, despite evidence that neither were safe nor effective.
Above their images was a picture of two hammers behind a Canadian flag, a design which Katerberg explained was “inspired by a symbol from the 1979 Pink Floyd album, The Wall, which addressed government overreach.”
Shortly after the billboard was displayed, Ontario’s Ministry of Transport demanded it be removed since they alleged that the image represented white supremacist ideology. The Ministry further required that Katerberg submit any future billboards for approval.
“Unbeknownst to the Applicant, the claw hammer image from Pink Floyd’s The Wall was appropriated and used by an American white supremacist music group in the late eighties and/or early nineties,” the notice of application explained.
Accordingly, Katerberg redesigned the sign, replacing the image with the Canadian flag, and submitted the billboard to the Ministry.
However, the Ministry again took offense to the sign, this time arguing that “[t]he message on the billboard may be seen as promoting hatred or contempt for the individuals pictured on the billboard, which may violate certain policies regarding advertising. Any other billboards that you wish to erect on the highway must be pre-approved by the [Ministry of Transportation].”
Now, Katerberg is appealing to the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, arguing that the Ministry’s decision infringes on freedom of expression.
“The Sign does not promote violence, hatred, or contempt,” Katerberg stated in his notice. “Further, the Sign does not target any ‘identifiable group’… To the extent that the six well-known public figures featured on the Sign form a group at all, it is on the basis of their collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic in their political and/or professional capacity.”
U.S. citizens: Demand Congress investigate soaring excess death rates