Ontario Ministry of Transportation censors man holding government officials accountable

SUDBURY, ON: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces the launch of a constitutional challenge against the Ontario Ministry of Transportation on behalf of George Katerberg. In March 2024, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation denied Mr. Katerberg permission to erect a billboard criticizing politicians and government officials for their response to the Covid pandemic. The Notice of Application was filed on July 25, 2024.

George Katerberg is a retired HVAC technician and business owner. After the era of Covid lockdowns, he decided to close his business, sell his home and move to Thessalon, Ontario, along the shores of Lake Huron.

On March 1, 2024, Mr. Katerberg rented a billboard along Highway 17 near Thessalon. The billboard displayed the faces of various Government of Canada officials, including the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the leader of the federal NDP, the Ontario Premier, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, and the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The sign read, “They knowingly lied about safety and stopping tranmission [sic],” and “Canadians demand accountability.” The sign also featured an image of two hammers behind a Canadian flag. Mr. Katerberg said the design was inspired by a symbol from the 1979 Pink Floyd album, The Wall, which addressed government overreach.

Shortly after the billboard was erected, Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation ordered that the billboard be removed due to an allegation that the image represented white supremacist ideology. Unbeknownst to Mr. Katerberg, the hammer image from Pink Floyd’s The Wall was later appropriated and used by an American white supremacy music group in the late eighties and early nineties, over 30 years ago. The Ministry ordered that Mr. Katerberg contact them in advance for pre-approval of any future signs he might wish to display.

Mr. Katerberg immediately removed the billboard sign. He then prepared a new sign with the same message, but he replaced the image of the two hammers behind a Canadian flag with an image of the Canadian flag alone. Mr. Katerberg submitted the sign to the Ministry for approval on June 18, 2024.

On June 28, 2024, the Ministry of Transportation denied Mr. Katerberg’s proposed sign, advising him by email that “[t]he message on the billboard may be seen as promoting hatred or contempt for the individuals pictured on the billboard, which may violate certain policies regarding advertising. Any other billboards that you wish to erect on the highway must be pre-approved by the [Ministry of Transportation].”

Mr. Katerberg is asking the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario for a judicial review of the decision of the Ministry. A judicial review is a process by which courts ensure that the decisions of administrative bodies (e.g., the Ontario Ministry of Transportation) are fair, reasonable, and lawful. With help from the Justice Centre, Mr. Katerberg is standing up for freedom of expression and democratic accountability.

In his Notice of Application, Mr. Katerberg alleges that the June 28 decision was unreasonable and that it did not balance the Charter right to freedom of expression with the purposes of relevant legislation, which it was required to do. The sign’s message to the public was about holding government officials accountable for their actions, which is essential to democracy.

The Notice of Application states, “The Sign does not promote violence, hatred, or contempt… Further, the Sign does not target any ‘identifiable group’… To the extent that the six well-known public figures featured on the Sign form a group at all, it is on the basis of their collective response to the Covid-19 pandemic in their political and/or professional capacity.”

Lawyer Chris Fleury stated, “Mr. Katerberg’s proposed sign was a matter of legitimate expression protected by the Charter. In a functioning democracy, individuals like Mr. Katerberg need to be able to express their dissatisfaction with public officials. Doing so is not promoting hatred. Mr. Katerberg is looking forward to his day in Court and to eventually being able to erect his billboard.”