One of the world's leading animal rights organizations has mounted a legal challenge against the City of Toronto and its outdoor advertising firm, Astral Media, for removing anti-Canada Goose advertisements from public street fixtures.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are alleging that the city violated their constitutional rights by allowing Astral to remove ads that criticized Canada Goose's use of animal products.
The ads, paid for and designed by PETA, were pulled from Toronto transit shelters within just one day of going live in September of 2018, according to the organization.
PETA says it was told the city had received "numerous complaints" about the ads, which encouraged consumers to boycott Canada Goose over its alleged inhumane treatment of coyotes and geese.
Our lawyers are BACK in court today! 🙌 We’re intervening in a case involving the removal of @peta’s anti-@canadagoose ads from #Toronto transit shelters. We’re arguing that it’s a constitutional right for advocates to expose cruel companies through public ads! pic.twitter.com/XapPSBeDKY
— Animal Justice (@AnimalJustice) October 15, 2019
In reality, PETA's lawyers say that Astral had received only one complaint about their ads — from an advertising agency that represents Canada Goose.
The agency is said to have "implied to Astral that if it wanted to continue to maintain its strong working relationship with Canada Goose, the ads must come down."
Lawyers for PETA are at Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto today seeking a judicial review of the matter from an Ontario Divisional Court.
SO POWERFUL!
— PETA (@peta) September 6, 2019
PETA supporters showed up to the Toronto International Film Festival red carpet to urge #TIFF19 to stop taking blood-money from @canadagoose.
The retailer sells jackets made with the feathers & fur of slaughtered animals. https://t.co/rG6uPHnPa8 pic.twitter.com/czwjfSHRNf
This is not the first time PETA has come after Canada Goose in Toronto and it's unlikely to be the last.
"PETA had every right to call the public's attention to the coyotes who are caught in painful steel traps and the birds who die violently so that their fur and feathers can be used for Canada Goose jackets," said the organization's president, Ingrid Newkirk, in a statement published Tuesday.
"We look forward to holding Astral Media and the city of Toronto accountable for violating our rights and to seeing our lifesaving ads reposted."
by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO
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