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SOUTH BRUCE PENINSULA – The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) welcomes the news that the Town of South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario has this morning repealed a bylaw that unconstitutionally banned picketing in public places without government authorization.

The CCF highlighted this outrageous bylaw in its 2025 report, Canada’s Most Censorious Bylaws, where South Bruce Peninsula was named a runner-up for the first-ever Municipal Muzzle Award, and has worked over the past year to encourage its repeal. 

Canada’s Most Censorious Bylaws, 2025 identified the bylaw, which prohibited any form of “picketing” including displaying signs, wearing expressive clothing, marching, chanting, or even engaging in silent protest in public spaces unless approved by the municipality, as a clear violation of section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects free expression. As pointed out by the CCF, this captured virtually all forms of protest activity. The effect was that it became illegal for residents to express any form of dissent in public without first obtaining government permission.

Alexander Surgenor, Counsel for the CCF, said the repeal of the law was long overdue.

“This was an obvious and unjustifiable restriction on a freedom that should have never been up for debate in any municipality in Canada,” said Surgenor. “Your town or city cannot require citizens to ask permission before expressing dissent in public.”

The CCF encourages municipalities across Canada to review their bylaws and ensure they comply with the protections of the Charter. 

The recipients of the 2026 Municipal Muzzle Award have already been determined and the CCF is in the process of issuing legal warnings in advance of the updated report, due for release in early June. 

The CCF thanks everyone who has donated to its Censorship Defence Fund, which assisted the CCF in combatting this speech-restricting bylaw. Over the past year, the Censorship Defence Fund has also been used to assist a resident of Windsor, Ontario who was ticketed for holding a protest sign while skating at city hall, a resident of Niagara Falls, Ontario who held up a small sign in a city council meeting, and to hire local counsel to combat a ban on a wide variety of expression outside the entrances to libraries and recreation centers in Calgary.