Activists win ruling against racist bus ad

by Allan Wood

Thanks to work from local trade union and peace and justice activists, Mississauga’s Advertising Review Panel ruled that an anti-immigration campaign advertisement for Mississauga mayoral candidate Paul Fromm should not have been approved for placement on city’s buses.

In October 2010, Fromm’s ad was prominently placed on many city buses, with the tag line “Fight Gridlock: Freeze Immigration.” Local activists from the Mississauga Coalition for Peace and Justice and the Brampton Mississauga Labour Council organized formal complaints and letter writing to Mississauga Council and triggered a review.

The panel ruled that the ad violated policies regarding advertisements on public vehicles, likely causing “deep or widespread offence.”

Mississauga Transit currently outsources its bus and shelter advertising to CBS Outdoor, a private corporation that has little financial incentive to reject an ad.

In 1997, Fromm was fired as a Peel District teacher after refusing to end his association with white supremacist groups and the neo-Nazi website Stormfront.