B.C. Supreme Court orders end to anti-LGBTQ demonstrations on North Vancouver overpass

The Supreme Court of British Columbia has granted the provincial government an injunction to stop persistent demonstrators' months-long display of "hateful" anti-trans and COVID-19 denial signs on a North Vancouver highway overpass.

The court order came on Thursday after the group of about 20 demonstrators ignored multiple RCMP and Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure requests to stop displaying signs on the Mountain Highway Overpass over Highway 1.

Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said Thursday the signs compromised the safety of passing drivers and demonstrators themselves standing on the overpass.

"The hanging of banners from any highway overpass is not allowed under the Transportation Act," a ministry spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CBC News on Saturday. "Safety is the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure's number one priority."

The injunction prohibits anyone from gathering, hanging signage or otherwise impeding vehicle and pedestrian traffic on the overpass and within 250 metres of it.

In late April, North Vancouver RCMP said they had already asked the demonstrators to leave several times over the last few weeks. 

On Saturday, Const. Mansoor Sahak of the North Vancouver RCMP said demonstrators had left earlier than they usually stayed after officers informed them of the injunction.

"We didn't do any enforcement but we took that opportunity to educate the protesters that if they don't abide they could be arrested in the future," Sahak told CBC News. "We obviously want to take a measured approach... and give them an opportunity to leave peacefully without having to use force."

'Hateful, derogatory and false:' mayor

The signs in question contain false statements about transgender people, the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-vaccine conspiracies that have been debunked.

One reads 'no child is ever born in the wrong body,' and another said 'protect our kids from big pharma greed.'

City of North Vancouver Mayor Linda Buchanan called the signs "hateful, derogatory and false," and said "hate has no place" in the city in a late April tweet.

"These messages go against who we are as a community," Buchanan wrote. "I stand in solidarity with LGBTQ2SAI+ people on the North Shore and beyond."

Demonstrators have denied their messages are hateful toward any group of people.

While no organized group has publicly taken responsibility for the demonstrations, a number of signs include the link to the website for a group that opposes sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) topics taught in B.C. schools.

SOGI123 programming is an optional provincial education resource meant to help create safe environments for all students regardless of their gender or sexual orientation, according to the province.

The SOGI123 Task Force group has opposed this programming in B.C. schools due to so-called "hidden truths around both the sexualization of children in schools and gender dysphoria."

The organization is also run by a number of individuals who lead or are aligned with organizations that support the 2022 convoy protests and deny the efficacy of vaccines against COVID-19 or the existence of the pandemic as a whole, according to its website.

On Saturday, CBC News asked the Task Force if it or any of its members were responsible for the demonstration, and did not receive a reply.

However, in a Sunday morning email, an unnamed member of the Canadian Freedom Coalition, which shares a co-founder with the Task Force and protests against vaccine mandates according to its website, declined to directly respond to CBC News.

A province-wide issue

North Vancouver is not the only community to see such sentiments displayed publicly.

A billboard near West Kelowna with similar messaging and accompanying anonymous website, getawake.ca, was removed in February after 2SLGBTQA advocates expressed concerns the messaging "provokes hate and mistrust, creating safety issues for the LGBTQ+ community." 

"It's an attack on our teachers who work in our district, an attack on trans students, transgender staff — actually LGBTQ in general," Wayne Broughton, a trustee for the Central Okanagan School Board and father of a transgender child, told CBC News at the time.

Instagram videos from a supporter of the demonstrators in North Vancouver also show similar signs on a highway overpass in Abbotsford.

It remains unclear whether demonstrators in North Vancouver will obey the injunction.