CANADA’S MOST CENSORIOUS BYLAWS

Exposing the municipalities muzzling free speech.

The CCF’s inaugural Municipal Muzzle Award goes to… the City of Calgary!

Calgary has what may be the most obviously unconstitutional speech restriction of any city, town or municipality in Canada: the “Safe and Inclusive Bylaw.” This Orwellian-named law prohibits protests on specific topics selected by the government in a large geographic area. An example of what we call a “bubble zone” law, it creates a figurative “bubble” around certain places where protests are not allowed. Calgary’s bubble zone is especially dangerous because it gets the government involved in deciding which topics can be protested, and which cannot. Once the government is deciding the content of speech and protest, the right ceases to have any meaning.

Calgary’s bylaw forbids “specified protests” within 100 metres of an entrance to a city operated recreation facility or library. And it defines a “specified protest” not just as a large gathering, but as any “expression of objection or disapproval” about the government’s long list of topics. The bylaw could apply to random outbursts by people suffering from mental illness at the drop-in centre, located right beside the library. It could apply to private conversation overheard on the street if the person who overheard it thinks that conversation expressed “objection or disapproval.” It also, of course, would apply to gatherings protesting various government policies, something Canadians have a right to engage in according to section 2(b) and 2(c) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Calgary’s bylaw forbids “specified protests” within 100 metres of an entrance to a cityoperated recreation facility or library. And it defines a “specified protest” not just as a large gathering, but as any “expression of objection or disapproval” about the government’s long list of topics. The bylaw could apply to random outbursts by people suffering from mental illness at the drop-in centre, located right beside the library. It could apply to private conversation overheard on the street if the person who overheard it thinks that conversation expressed “objection or disapproval.” It also, of course, would apply to gatherings protesting various government policies, something Canadians have a right to engage in according to section 2(b) and 2(c) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

If you would like to learn more, please go to the following link:

https://theccf.ca/wp-content/uploads/CCFs-Canadas-Most-Censorious-Bylaws-Report-2025.pdf