Recently, residents in Old East Village (including myself) and other parts of London have received flyers from a Calgary-based organization, the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. These flyers include graphic images of fetuses.

Many residents have contacted me because they or their children have received these unsolicited flyers at their homes. Some have described receiving the flyer as an assault. My heart goes out to everyone who has been harmed by the distribution of these flyers.

I have been in touch with organizations with expertise in this area to discuss what can be done at the municipal level to discourage or prohibit advertisers from distributing flyers with such graphic images. If you have ideas about what should be done, please email me at [email protected].

In the meantime, here are four things you can do at an individual level:

1. Make a complaint to Ad Standards that the advertising is contrary to the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.
2. Download, print, sign and mail a Trespass Notice to the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. This is an action suggested by Peter Tabuns, NDP MPP in Toronto Danforth. Similar flyers were distributed in that area a few years ago. I have reached out to Peter's office to inquire about the efficacy of the trespass notices.
3. Add your name to this page to let me know you support measures that will discourage or prohibit the distribution of advertising that is contrary to the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.
4. Make a donation to the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. If the CCBR realizes that its campaign to distribute graphic images generates donations to the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, perhaps it will discourage them from distributing such graphic images.