A proposed amendment to the City of Calgary’s community standards bylaw has officials with the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform reevaluating their methods for circulating literature.

Ward 9 councillor Gian-Carlo Carra says the review of the bylaw was prompted by members of the public expressing their concerns with unwanted brochures left in their mailboxes bearing ‘No Flyers’ signs..

“This was precipitated by some very graphic literature by pro-life groups being distributed to people’s homes and people complaining about the fact that their kids were exposed to some really gruesome images,” said Carra.

The community standards bylaw governs a wide range of potential neighbour disputes including fire pits, yard upkeep and the handling of junk mail.

“The community standards bylaw is also based on the idea that we want to educate people and we don’t want to punish people,” said Carra. “We want to get them up to speed. “

“It would be lovely if we could just write a law that just said ‘Don’t be a jerk’ but that doesn’t stand up in a court of law.”

Should warnings be ignored, bylaw officers may issue fines to those who place flyers at homes with signs indicating ‘No Flyers’.

Cameron Cote, the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform’s western activism and outreach director, says he’s disappointed by the proposed change.

“I feel as though the proposed amendments are really going to impact the ability for Calgarians to either raise awareness or stay connected,” said Cote. “If the bylaw is enacted, which it hasn’t yet, if the amendments are accepted by city council after their three readings this month, then I certainly believe that we’ll reevaluate how we circulate the information that we do.”

Cote says the disturbing imagery included in the organization’s flyers is intended to inspire change.

“You think about the Syrian refugee crisis that is ongoing and that our government has worked so hard to alleviate,” said Cote. “it really wasn’t until we saw that picture of Alan Kurdi washed up on the shores of Turkey before people started taking action.”

“It took seeing that image, that reality, before they were spurred to action.”

Cote says the organization has elected to deliver flyers to homes by hand instead of with affixed postage because of the financial cost and it’s unlikely they would risk future penalty should the bylaw is amended.

“We certainly can’t afford to be paying $50 to $300 on every mailbox that we go to. I can’t see why we would decide to ignore the bylaw.

According to Carra, the proposed bylaw amendment will not inhibit the efforts of community associations. Political communications would also be exempt from the junk mail rules in order to protect freedom of speech.

Carra is quick to remind that freedom of speech has limitations in order to protect the rights of others.

“When it comes to your private property, when it comes to the invitation to let things in, there are people who put up signs saying ‘Please no flyers, no junk mail’,” said Carra. “What that does is that rescinds, from a free speech perspective, your ability to force your message down someone’s throat into their private property.”

“We needed to clear that up a little bit and that’s sort of exactly what the minor adjustments to the community standards bylaw with regards to junk mail did.”

Carra adds the intention of the amendments is to clamp down on rogue operators and provide bylaw enforcement with additional tools to secure prosecution.