The Ontario Superior Court has cited numerous public complaints in a ruling that lets the city of Toronto pull down five* illegal billboards owned by Strategic Media Outdoor Inc. while the company pursues a constitutional challenge to the city’s sign bylaws.
Superior Court judge Alexandra Hoy sided with the city because of numerous complaints by IllegalSigns.ca—an activist website that has pushed the city to deal with signs and billboards that don’t conform with bylaws.
“The City has been inundated with complaints since 2006 from a public interest group regarding the proliferation of signs in Toronto’s downtown core,” wrote Hoy.
“Moreover, in the process of harmonizing the various sign bylaws, the City received public input to the effect that there are too many signs and regulation of the City’s streetscape is inadequate,” she continued. “Thus, the City argues, there is evidence of actual public interest in this issue and harm to that interest if the injunction is granted.”
Rami Tabello, coordinator of IllegalSigns.ca, has filed complaints against nearly 650 illegal billboards in Toronto. While 35 Strategic Media signs were found to be violation of city bylaws, the court only ordered five to be taken down.
“This is a fantastic ruling,” said Tabello. “Strategic Media is now completely under the gun. Virtually every sign they have is subject to enforcement.”
Strategic Media and the city of Toronto have been arguing over whether the city should be able to immediately take down the signs that breach bylaws or wait until Strategic Media’s constitutional challenge against the bylaws is resolved.
The court ruled that the city could proceed with removing the illegal billboards while the Toronto-based company continues its challenge.
The ruling “means that billboard companies can’t use delay tactics in court to prevent the city from enforcing the law, which is what Strategic Media was trying to do,” said Tabello.
Strategic Media submitted that unless it could earn revenue from its signs, it would not be able to afford the legal fees for its charter challenge. Calls to Strategic Media were not returned by press time.
“They [Strategic Media] don’t seem to have a legitimate reason to exist,” said Tabello. “A media buyer would be silly to do business with Strategic Media when the inventory is so illegal that the signs can get taken down by the city crew and there may not be another place for Strategic to move that sign.” *This story has been corrected. The original item reported that 35 signs were to be taken down. In fact, 35 signs were found in violation of city bylaws, but the court only ordered five to be taken down.
