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Opinion: Explicit flyers are blanketing New Westminster homes

The delivery by hand of explicit flyers to New Westminster neighbourhoods is rightly being criticized by local residents. This disgusting anti-abortion material has started arriving in New West mail boxes and mail slots.
burnaby anti-abortion flyers
Flyers being delivered by hand to Burnaby residents. Screenshot

The delivery by hand of explicit flyers to New Westminster neighbourhoods is rightly being criticized by local residents.

This disgusting anti-abortion material has started arriving in New West mail boxes and mail slots.

The flyers are being called out for the terrible images displayed and the anti-choice message.

“Hey #NewWest, someone just put a very graphic anti-choice/anti-abortion flyer through my mail slot,” tweeted New West resident @IjustKat. “It appears there is active campaigning in our city attacking the rights and autonomy of people with uteruses over our own bodies .., it’s gross enough on its own but something about putting it through my mail slot into my house that makes it extra offensive.”

That’s a key point for people. Someone coming onto your property and inserting it through a mail slot also exposes children to the graphic images, which can be seen embedded in this blog post.

burnaby flyers anti-abortion
Flyers being delivered by hand to residents. Screenshot

I wrote recently about a father of two named Dustin whose children sadly saw the graphic flyers.

“My kids went to get my neighbours mail as they were away,” Dustin said. “I found our 7 and 4 year olds sitting on my neighbour’s front lawn looking at that disgusting anti-abortion pamphlet. My 4-year-old ran to his room screaming. I phoned the RCMP and they said they would call the company to suggest they don’t distribute them that way. They didn’t care to find the person distributing them.”
I’ve included a photo below of one of the images because some readers said they wanted more "proof," but I have blurred out the more disgusting parts of it.

People legally have a right to print up flyers like this, but I don’t feel they have the right to step on private property and inflict this on people.

I wrote recently about Keith, a Burnaby resident with two young children who get a kick out of going to grab the daily mail from the box outside his home.

Luckily, Keith’s kids didn’t see the flyers.

“(They) would have been greeted by very explicit images that should not be shown to kids,” said Keith.

Keith checked the footage from the security cameras he had installed and they show a woman with a stack of the flyers dropping one off.

 

The flyers were not delivered in a sealed envelope and Keith thinks that, at the very least, they should be.
“As the pamphlets are not delivered in a sealed envelope, they often end up in the hands of children,” he said. “And the girl delivering the flyers could clearly tell we have kids by the amount of kids’ stuff around our yard. Distributing graphic images like these, which easily end up being viewed by children, should be illegal. Movies, books and games all have a rating system and packaging must be made appropriate. These images are worse, and should be provided only with a warning.”

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.