Let’s get one key thing straight: If there had been no honour killings against Muslim girls in Canada in the first place, this wouldn’t be happening.

In 2013 a group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) paid for five ads on Edmonton buses that read “Is Your Family Threatening You? Is There a Fatwa on Your Head?”

Then it showed the photos of deceased Canadian girls above the line “Muslim Girls Honor Killed by Their Families.”

The ad says “We can help” and directs the reader to FightforFreedom.us.

Yet within 48 hours of the ads going up, they were taken down. The city received, in their own words, a “handful of complaints.”

City councillor Amarjeet Sohi, who ordered officials to take them down, was quoted in the Edmonton Sun saying: “Honour killings is a very serious concern in every community and we need to speak up against it, but targeting one particular group, and singling out one particular group, does not help resolve it.”

But the evidence proves it’s not an equally serious concern for girls from every walk of life. And, even if you believe it is and want to help resolve it, doesn’t it then make sense to create more anti-honour killing ads rather than less?

On Monday the Canadian group Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced it would represent AFDI in a court action.

They’ll argue in an Alberta court next February that AFDI’s freedom of expression was stifled by the city.

That this is even happening is chilling. Why were the ads taken down immediately following just a few complaints? What made Sohi and others feel emboldened to do so?

In response to my e-mail, Sohi wrote this: “Advertising on Edmonton Transit vehicles must meet all the requirements of Advertising Standards of Canada. Advertising Standards of Canada's Canadian Code of Advertising Standards contains 14 clauses that set the criteria for acceptable advertising that is truthful, fair and accurate. The complaints the City received about the ads related to a breach in these clauses (in particular negatively singling out one particular religious group) and therefore warranted the removal of the ads.”

However no judge would read those clauses that way. Sure, they state an ad can’t “condone any form of personal discrimination, including that based upon race, national origin, religion, sex or age” nor can it “demean, denigrate or disparage one… group of persons.” But how does simply pointing out that there have been honour killings in some Muslim circles demean anyone?

Sadly, political correctness these days means the truth is no defence.

In early 2012 a study published in the Canadian Criminal Law Review found that honour killings were on the rise in Canada. There were three between 1954 and 1983, yet 12 between 1999 and the time of the study. The perpetrators were usually Muslim or Sikh.

In 2007 a study by Memorial University professor Amin Muhammad found that immigrants from countries where honour killing was more acceptable brought such views with them to Canada.

Pamela Geller, president of AFDI, explained in an e-mail why the ads didn’t just urge girls to call law enforcement: “Many times, law enforcement sends them back to their families. We refer girls to safe houses: law enforcement cannot and will not do that until there has been a crime. We help girls before they have to suffer or die for wanting to live free.”

Yet the City of Edmonton removed the ads. Their priorities are cowardly.