The Toronto City Council, which passed the motion last week 16-9, is facing criticism for restricting citizens’ freedom of speech and assembly.
TORONTO (LifeSiteNews) -- Canada’s largest city has passed a new bylaw that bans all protests near churches and other places of worship as well as around schools and daycares, which critics say is a blow to free “peaceful expression.”
Toronto City Council on May 22 passed the motion by a vote of 16 to 9, after many amendments were made to the original wording of the new “bubble zones” bylaw.
The new bylaw bans all protests within 50 metres of all facilities it lists and will come into force on July 2.
Originally, it was planned that affected locations such as schools and churches would have to apply to be included under the new law. However, this application process was taken away, meaning any church or other place of worship or school that asks to be covered under it will become a ‘bubble zone.”
The impetus for the bylaw comes amidst multiple attacks on Jewish synagogues and schools. However, civil liberty groups have blasted the new bylaw as an attack on freedom of speech and assembly.
Those who violate the new law face fines of up to $5,000 and could be arrested as well.
Pete Baklinski, who serves as the director of communications for Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), noted that while CLC has not taken an official position on Toronto’s new bylaw, so-called bubble zones “have no place in a free and democratic society.”
“They are used to strip citizens of their right to speech,” he told LifeSiteNews.
Baklinski was clear that he is not “talking about speech rights here, not death threats or other threats of violence.”
“We already have solid laws in place that protect the rights of citizens when it comes to protecting life, liberty, and security of the person. It is these laws that must be enforced if protests or demonstrations threaten public safety, not the creation of more bubble zones," he noted.
Baklinski said he finds it “interesting how bubble zones around abortion mills are being used for justification for more bubble zones, this time around places of worship, schools, etc.”
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), in a letter it had sent to Toronto city councillors, said the new bylaw “represents a significant risk to peaceful expression and assembly, and on balance is not necessary in light of the already-existing police powers.”
The Canadian Constitutional Foundation (CCF) said the new bylaw is an “unconstitutional limit on the right to protest.”
“The right to protest is a fundamental right of Canadians,” its litigation director Christine Van Geyn said in a statement posted on May 23.
“This new bylaw will prohibit public protests on matters of public interest and will unjustifiably infringe on the right to freedom of expression.”
Van Geyn said the reality is “there is no right not to be offended.”
When it comes to so-called “bubble zone” laws, Ontario already has in place a law specifically about protesting abortion, making it illegal.
Ontario’s “Safe Access to Abortion Services Act,” was put into effect on February 1, 2018, and was passed the previous year by then-Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government.
The law bans any pro-life activity, including praying, sidewalk counseling, and showing “disapproval” of abortion within 50 metres of Ontario’s eight abortion facilities. It has resulted in pro-life grandmother Linda Gibbons being jailed multiple times for silent witnessing to the unborn in front of a Toronto abortion mill.
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government of Doug Ford, which has been in power for years, has not challenged the law.
Other provinces, such as Alberta, have passed "bubble zone" bylaws as well, along with Manitoba.
Some cities such as Calgary, Alberta, have passed "bubble zone" bylaws banning protests against "drag queen story hours" at public facilities, which has resulted in the arrests and jailing of pastors protesting the law.
