{"id":234984,"date":"2020-11-21T11:42:55","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T17:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=234984"},"modified":"2020-11-20T18:11:39","modified_gmt":"2020-11-21T00:11:39","slug":"canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over ‘polarizing subject matter’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The Alberta March for Life Association filed a lawsuit against Edmonton city officials last year when they canceled the already-approved plan to advertise a pro-life event on the High Level Bridge. On November 13, oral arguments in the case were heard.<\/p>\n

The High Level Bridge runs across the North Saskatchewan River and features 60,000 programmable lights that are used to mark major events and cultural celebrations. According to the Canadian Press<\/a>, the pro-life group requested to light the bridge in pink, blue, and white, to represent preborn boys and girls and recognize the annual March for Life. The city initially approved that request, then rescinded that approval a month before the scheduled march, citing the “polarizing nature of the subject matter.”<\/p>\n

According to the Christian Post<\/a>, Justice Centre For Constitutional Freedoms’ attorneys representing the Alberta March for Life Association argued that the promoting of the event should have been allowed based on freedom of expression. “The expression of pro-life opinions is part of the diversity of expression found in a free society, and is protected by the charter,” said attorney James Kitchen. He noted that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives Canadians the fundamental freedom of expression.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Pro-life \u2018Unplanned\u2019 movie blocked from distribution in Canada<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Kitchen also told the court that the city has allowed the lights on the bridge to be lit up for other causes, including promoting sexual and gender diversity, LGBT Pride, disability awareness, and International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the city argued that since the city has permitted the group to hold its annual march, it is not restricting the group’s freedom of expression. They said that lighting the bridge implies support for the organization by the city and that abortion is too polarizing of a topic.<\/p>\n

“Various postings (against the lighting of the bridge) on Twitter represent a microcosm of community at large,” said Shayne Abrams,\u00a0an attorney for the city, who said social media followers were overwhelmingly upset that the city would light the bridge for a pro-life group. “These (messages) show that the message of March For Life polarizes the community and shows that some citizens take the lights as a message from the city.”<\/p>\n

The court has not announced when a decision will be made in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Alberta March for Life Association filed a lawsuit against Edmonton city officials last year when they canceled the already-approved plan to advertise a pro-life event on the High Level Bridge. On November 13, oral arguments in the case were heard. The High Level Bridge runs across the North Saskatchewan River and features 60,000 programmable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":235013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2793,5,3473,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nCanadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over 'polarizing subject matter'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The city initially approved the request, then rescinded it a month before the pro-life march, citing the "polarizing nature of the subject matter."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over 'polarizing subject matter'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The city initially approved the request, then rescinded it a month before the pro-life march, citing the "polarizing nature of the subject matter."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-21T17:42:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-21T00:11:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/High_Level_Bridge_Edmonton_Alberta_Canada_Wikimedia.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1197\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\"},\"headline\":\"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over ‘polarizing subject matter’\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-21T17:42:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-21T00:11:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/\"},\"wordCount\":405,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Activism\",\"International\",\"Newsbreak\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/\",\"name\":\"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over 'polarizing subject matter'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-21T17:42:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-21T00:11:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"The city initially approved the request, then rescinded it a month before the pro-life march, citing the \\\"polarizing nature of the subject matter.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over ‘polarizing subject matter’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\",\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nancy Flanders\"},\"description\":\"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over 'polarizing subject matter'","description":"The city initially approved the request, then rescinded it a month before the pro-life march, citing the \"polarizing nature of the subject matter.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over 'polarizing subject matter'","og_description":"The city initially approved the request, then rescinded it a month before the pro-life march, citing the \"polarizing nature of the subject matter.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2020-11-21T17:42:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-21T00:11:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1197,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/High_Level_Bridge_Edmonton_Alberta_Canada_Wikimedia.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nancy Flanders","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nancy Flanders","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/"},"author":{"name":"Nancy Flanders","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef"},"headline":"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over ‘polarizing subject matter’","datePublished":"2020-11-21T17:42:55+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-21T00:11:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/"},"wordCount":405,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Activism","International","Newsbreak","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/","name":"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over 'polarizing subject matter'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-11-21T17:42:55+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-21T00:11:39+00:00","description":"The city initially approved the request, then rescinded it a month before the pro-life march, citing the \"polarizing nature of the subject matter.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/canadian-pro-life-group-suit-alberta-cancels\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Canadian pro-life group sues after Alberta cancels contract over ‘polarizing subject matter’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef","name":"Nancy Flanders","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nancy Flanders"},"description":"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235014,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234984\/revisions\/235014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}