[whelan costen]

There are many communities that don't allow posters, one reason is that the power poles, or telephone poles are not public property, but privately owned. Also they end up lose after awhile and blow around making the place look like a dump. I hate garbage littering around, in Alberta we have a fairly clean province, but it takes work to keep it that way, and we have volunteers every spring, students, various clubs that go out and clean up the garbage. So I see it from both sides, the right to post, as you say that corporations have, but they usually pay someone to advertise and that isn't the same thing. Of course they have the money to do it.<br /> <br /> Another option which many communties around here have, is a bulletin board for posters, they have them in the banks, post offices, many stores will let you put up a poster, but you have to take them down after awhile. It seems to work around this area and it keeps our environment cleaner. <img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/smile.gif' alt='Smile'>

[Marcarc]

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure power poles are on easements, they may be on private property but are the responsibility of the municipality and not the landowner, while the landowner may own the land around it. If somebody puts a poster on the power pole outside my house, then I'm pretty sure its not my responsibility (but that may depend on the area). <br /> <br /> I agree with the arguments on both sides of the issue, yet I always come down on the side of free speech and public discourse. Yes they can be messy, but the upper class obsession with litter can easily be mitigated with more attentive city workers or even by fostering a 'civic duty' model of cleaning up litter. <br /> <br /> There really is a canadian obsession with neatness, which is fine-to an extent. You'll note for example that nobody ever bothers Tim Hortons or coffee drinkers about their cups that are everywhere. In Toronto, it's pretty obvious that the emphasis will be on 'curtailing' such civil liberties since the city has no money for cleaning crews. That is hardly a reason for such draconian steps.<br /> <br /> Why I think it's draconian is simply because for most small groups/artists/organizations this is the only way to advertise, and more importantly, many others rely on them for certain types of information. This is another problem with huge government entities, in most places in Toronto this is a non-issue, whereas in one or two 'highly visible' locales it may be a problem. Instead of dealing with a local problem, a city wide ordinance is enacted. To my mind that's a lousy way to run a society. That's like passing a federal law for something that's only a problem in Regina. <br /> <br /> Bulletin boards are a good solution for some areas, yet most are 'inside' those private buildings, and often many of the people who rely on these for information are not even ALLOWED inside those buildings. Public bulletin boards are a good idea, and could have been tried before passing a law. We have those in downtown Waterloo since the two universities put out their share of flyers. Waterloo is a pretty clean place as well and the flyers don't make the downtown look 'pristine', but certainly don't make it disgusting.<br /> <br /> These are extremely important to a sector of society, so I do believe that this comes down to 'minority rights'. The majority want nice clean streets with no possibility of messiness, whereas a minority may rely on these for information. Yes, they are often used to sell couches or let rooms, but we don't disband the internet simply because theres a whole lot of porn-Toronto has a huge homeless problem, and the homeless there do not all sit on their hands, they are active politically, yet with no money they have limited opportunities to advertise public meetings. Most of these areas, it can also be said, are wanting to be cleaned up by people who don't even live there and only drive through there. I know a lot of people don't see it as a 'rights' issue, but in our middle class society there is usually only very specific things that are considered 'rights issues'.

[Milton]

I intend to carry on posting my stuff, I like bus shelter windows because you can see both sides of the poster, less waste and more message. I thought it was already against the law and I have no hesitation about breaking it.

[Brent Swain]

A court in Edmonton ruled that posting is protected by the freedom of expression provisions in the charter of rights. It ruled that alternatives ,like other forms of media ,are expensive and beyond the means of low income people and groups, and are thus not a reasonable option. The Supreme Court of Canada ruling ( RvsCote 1996) ruled that the charging of a fee for the exercise of a charter right was an unresonable burden on the exercise of that right and is thus unconstitutional.<br /> Brent Swain