Caryma Sa'd: Nothing about this billboard is inherently hateful
'There are people who may disagree with that message, and that is their prerogative,' said Sa'd on Friday's Rebel Roundtable livestream. 'But that does not render it inherently hateful.'
A Rebel News billboard truck was detained by Toronto police this week after a passerby called 911, claiming an advertisement on the truck's side made him feel unsafe.
The ad, purchased by caWsbar, a Canadian women's sex-based rights organization, states that women and girls deserve safety in sports, privacy in locker rooms, and fairness on the podium. The truck had been parked legally on St. Clair Ave. while the driver, Mark, stepped away briefly for a washroom break and a coffee.
When Mark returned, an officer told him he was not permitted to leave. Three police cruisers had been dispatched to the scene. The complainant, captured on video, told a Rebel News cameraman that being filmed made him feel unsafe, before police arranged for him to be driven home in a cruiser.
No charges were laid, and no bylaw was found to have been violated.
The incident was discussed at length on Friday's Rebel Roundtable livestream, where hosts David Menzies, Tamara Lich, and lawyer Caryma Sa'd weighed in.
"How can an advertisement on the side of a billboard truck make you feel unsafe?" Tamara asked. "It really is all coming back to feelings once again."
Caryma, reviewing the ad's content, disputed any suggestion the message met a legal threshold for hate speech. "Substantively, no, not that I saw," she said. "That does not render it inherently hateful."
Tamara, drawing on her own experience with the justice system since 2022, offered a pointed comparison. "Lady Justice is always depicted wearing a blindfold," she said. "But I think in Canada these days, she's wearing a set of X-ray glasses."
The hosts also connected the incident to Bill C-9, federal hate speech legislation currently before Parliament. "We'll see all of y'all in the gulags," Tamara said, only half in jest.
David noted that the response came amid what he described as a broader crime wave in Toronto, raising questions about how police resources were allocated in this instance.
Rebel News says the truck and its advertisement will continue circulating in the city.
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