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ARTICLE · 19 JUNE 2020

Preventing Visual Pollution And Valid Constitutional Limits On Freedom Of Expression

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On May 7, 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an application by commercial advertisers wishing to appeal a September 25, 2019 ruling by the Quebec Court of Appeal,1...

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Sean Griffin
Sean Griffin
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On May 7, 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an application by commercial advertisers wishing to appeal a September 25, 2019 ruling by the Quebec Court of Appeal,1 which upheld the City of Montréal's (the "City") principal appeal on the matter of the legality of a ban on billboards in the Plateau Mont-Royal ("PMR") borough.2 Consequently, the commercial advertisers will have to remove and/or demolish the billboards still in place in the borough.

 

The Superior Court decision 

In a judgment rendered by Justice Marc-André Blanchard on September 22, 2016,3 the Superior Court declared null and unconstitutional article 487.1 of Urban Planning By-law for the Plateau-Mont-Royal Borough 01-277 (the "Urban Planning By-law") , which prohibits billboards on its territory, barring certain exceptions. This finding followed a two-step analysis, first of the municipal law issues, then of the constitutional ones. 

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