HAMILTON, Ontario, October 21, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Hamilton city official has expressed frustration that the City has been unable to find cause to shut down a peaceful and legal pro-life demonstration taking place weekly on the bypasses of the city’s busy expressway.
“We were hoping to get them on the sign bylaw, but they are not hanging these signs on public property, they are attaching the signs to their bodies,” Ward 7 City Councillor Scott Duvall told CBC News.
“I have contacted our bylaw staff and they have stated to me there is nothing they can do.”
Pro-lifers from the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) have targeted Hamilton with abortion-victim images for the past month, displaying large banners over the expressway.
Stephanie Gray, CCBR’s executive director told LifeSiteNews.com that they hope to “prick the conscience of the public.”
“Killing is happening in Hamilton. The youngest of our kind are being dismembered and we are letting the people of Hamilton know about that so that they bring it to an end,” she said.
The grisly images of aborted babies are dropped off as brochures in people’s homes, displayed on the sides of a truck that drives around town, shown to high school students on hand-held billboards, and viewed by motorists on hand-held banners draped over the expressway.
The large banners, held by a minimal of four people over the Lincoln Alexander Parkway (Linc) during weekday peek hours, have proved effective at provoking discussion, with media coverage as well as angry drivers contacting city officials and police.
Gray said that people should get angry over the images, because injustice naturally provokes anger. She added, however, that such anger should not be directed toward her group for highlighting the injustice, but toward ending the injustice that is abortion.
Hamilton police told The Spec last week that the CCBR is demonstrating within the confines of the law.
“And with respect to this group, they are working within the context of the law, both federally, provincially and in municipal bylaws,” said police Superintendent Ken Weatherill.
Duvall said he had contacted the police, and was told that “this is a well educated and professional group that is not violating the law.”
Gray said that her group always does its “homework” before doing any activism to “ensure we know what our rights are.”
“We are aware of these bylaws about being unable to affix signage to public property and so we affix the signs to the bodies of our team in two places to ensure that there is no way it can come loose.”
Duvall has committed to staying on the issue, going as far as contacting the chair of the police board Bernie Morelli to “discuss this with the police services and have officers attend to these calls.”
Gray said she wished city officials such as Duvall had as much concern about protecting the city’s unborn as they do about motorists’ complaints.
“If [city officials] are so concerned about the people of Hamilton, then where’s their concern for the pre-born people of Hamilton whose heads are being chopped off [by abortion],” she said.
Duvall might be waiting a long time before seeing the end of the banners. The CCBR have no plans to leave town any time soon, having entered into year two of an eighteen-year campaign — called End the Killing — aimed at ending abortion in Canada.
“This is a long-term project,” said Gray, adding that the campaign continues to grow and will soon reach the greater Toronto area.
Gray said there are many “positive things” about the banner campaign that mainstream media has ignored.
While holding the banner over the Linc last week, a man pulled over in a truck and donated all the cash he had on hand to help the group pay its bills.
One 39-year-old woman named Lisa told radio show host Jim Richards that if she had seen the banners twenty-seven years ago, she would not have had an abortion.
“We don’t live in a culture that honestly looks at this issue [of abortion] for what it is, and it is murder,” Lisa told Richards.
Gray said her group is encouraged by the many people who have come forward with stories about how their minds have changed on abortion after seeing what it really looks like.
Contact info:
Mayor of Hamilton Bob Bratina
Hamilton City Hall
2nd floor – 71 Main St. West
Hamilton, Ontario
L8P 4Y5
Phone: 905-546-4200
Email: [email protected]
Scott Duvall – Ward 7
Hamilton City Hall
2nd floor – 71 Main St. West
Hamilton, Ontario
L8P 4Y5
Phone: 905-546-2706
Mobile: 905-973-1720
Email: [email protected]