A new banner in West Kelowna, questioning what children are being taught in school has been sparking outrage due to its message and the graphics on it.
The billboard, stationed along Highway 97 in West Kelowna, shows a cartoon woman, who appears to be a teacher, wearing a mask in front of a rainbow flag with a caption reading “What are your kids really learning in school?”
One advocate of the queer community was shocked to see the billboard, calling it ‘discriminating.’
“It’s promoting hate against the 2SLGBTQ, against educators who are supportive and trying to create safe spaces in schools, and discriminating against a whole community,” said Wilbur Turner, Chair of Advocacy Canada.
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According to a Vancouver Criminal Lawyer, even though the billboard appears to target and offend a group of people, nothing about it violates the law, since there is no hate speech on the billboard itself or on the website, GetAwake.ca advertised on it.
“The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects people’s rights to free expression and even when somebody has a political opinion that’s distasteful they are entitled to express that opinion as long as they don’t verge into prohibited grounds such as hate speech,” said Kyla Lee, Lawyer at Acumen Law in Vancouver.
Watch the story here.