CALGARY—A billboard in Calgary promoting the People’s Party of Canada that opposes “mass immigration” is coming down after the advertising company hosting the cross-Canada series said it received overwhelming criticism over the weekend.

The billboards, seen in Calgary, Halifax, Regina and Vancouver, urge people to vote for the People’s Party of Canada and read, “Say NO to Mass Immigration.” Social media users expressed their outrage and a petition by Leadnow calling for Pattison Outdoor Advertising to take down the billboards collected more than 11,000 signatures.

Randy Otto, president of Pattison Outdoor Advertising, said in a statement posted to the company’s website on Sunday it would inform True North Advertising Corp., the third-party advertising group who commissioned the billboards, on Monday of their removal.

Earlier that day, Pattison Outdoor said it took a neutral view on any ads compliant with Ad Standards Canada’s code. In their later statement, Otto said they’d followed the protocol for advocacy advertising.

“That being said, it was never my or Pattison Outdoor’s intention to offend, alienate or in any way insult the public by allowing this ad to be run,” he said in the statement. “We will be reviewing our advocacy guidelines, specifically relating to political messaging.”

At the People’s Party national campaign launch Sunday in Sainte-Marie, Que., People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier said he agreed with the ad’s message, though noted they were placed by an outside group. He said the current number of immigrants Canada accepts annually — 350,000 — is too high and needs to be scaled back.

“For me, mass immigration is 350,000 a year, so yes, we’re against mass immigration,” he said.

Everyone’s Canada, a nationwide advocacy group for multiculturalism, pluralism and increased immigration in Canada, denounced the billboard in a press release on Saturday, saying it demonizes immigrants and spreads falsehoods and mistruths. Mass immigration is defined as the migration of large groups of people from one geographical area to another.

“There is no mass immigration to Canada,” said Avnish Nanda, an Edmonton-based member of Everyone’s Canada.

“We have set targets in Canada and that number of migrants we allow, that’s studied to ensure that we can accommodate the amount of people we let in, but also so the amount of people who are already here can thrive,” he added. “We’ve never hit those targets … so this is all, essentially, lies.”

He was alarmed to see this type of misinformation making its way into public discourse in Canada, saying that it uses very deliberate language meant to sway Canadians towards fear and division.

“It’s creating this sense that there is a mass migration to Canada, that there’s something perhaps nefarious around it and that we need to do something about it,” Nanda said.

“Most Canadians look at this now and scoff at it and say, ‘This is ridiculous, this is not who we are.’ But the goal is to kind of build a continuing narrative of ‘Maybe we do have a problem with mass migration’ … and, later on, direct that to immigration generally and just the makeup of this country.”

Bernier has advocated lowering immigration to somewhere between 100,000 to 150,000 people per year, much lower than the current target of 330,800 for 2019 set by the federal government. He’s also said he would impose a values test on people trying to immigrate to Canada.

The PPC’s website also rails against “extreme multiculturalism” and pledges to repeal the Multiculturalism Act if they form government.

On Friday, Calgary Liberal MP Kent Hehr tweeted a similar photo of the billboard with the words “What absolute garbage. There is no place for this in our city, province or country.”

At least one Twitter user defended the billboard’s existence as a matter of free speech.

“Much as this man and his party’s ideas are distateful (sic), freedom of speech should prevail. Shutting down the voices that we disagree with is not democratic,” said a user with the handle CoyteMarc.

According to a filing with Elections Canada, True North Strong & Free Advertising Corp. is run by Frank Smeenk, the chief executive of a Toronto-based mining exploration company. Earlier this week, Smeenk declined to comment on the billboard beyond what appeared in the Elections Canada filing.

Billboards have emerged as a proper anti-Liberal tool leading up to the federal election. Earlier in the summer, other billboards targeting Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale popped up in his Regina riding, also the product of a third-party group, the Canada Growth Council.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Similar billboards urging voters to “Send Trudeau a Message” and targeting Liberal MPs Hehr, Amarjeet Sohi and Randy Boissonnault have appeared in both Calgary and Edmonton.

In June, Star Edmonton reported about how a group called Alberta Fights Back paid for electronic billboards at two Edmonton intersections with the words, “Is Trudeau leading us to a civil war?” Above the main text was a series of phrases provided without context, among them: “firearms ban,” “normalizing pedophilia,” “eco-hysteria,” “globalism” and “mass migration.”

With files from Kevin Maimann and The Canadian Press

Read more about: