Their inquiring minds want to know, but so far, the Centre for Inquiry Canada (CFI) can't find the answer.

The group claims something strange has happened to their notoriously controversial bus ads, reading 'There's probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life'.

The company responsible for the ads is calling their disappearance sabotage.

"It really falls under the guidelines of sabotage, vandalism is a ripped poster or graffiti, but somebody has taken it upon themselves to take the ad and destroy it or get it out of sight." says Byron Montgomery, spokesperson for Lamar Transit Advertising.

Photo: Kelly Hayes The two bus ads purchased by the Centre for Inquiry have vanished.

CFI purchased the advertising space from Lamar for one month, and the contract still has two weeks left.

"We were told on Tuesday by Lamar Transit Advertising that they had been discovered to be not on the buses in the bus yard," says Jamie Williams, Executive Director of CFI Vancouver. "Apparently it looked like they had been professionally removed, they hadn't just been ripped down."

So far, he hasn't been able to find out why.

Williams claims he called Kelowna Transit and was told they didn't know why it happened and referred him to service provider First Canada ULC.

Bus service in Kelowna is provided by First Canada ULC under a contract with B.C. Transit. The Crown corporation uses contractors to operate 80 of the 81 transit systems it oversees, with Victoria the lone exception.

"Apparently they have people working there all hours of the night, so it would be extremely difficult for someone to slip in there, take off the signs and get out un-noticed. The whole thing is quite puzzling," says Williams.

CFI has ran this campaign in other Canadian cities and the ads have also run in other countries through different organizations.

While there has been controversy and some vandalism, Williams says to his knowledge they have never just disappeared before.

"I think some of the people involved have some questions to answer for how this could have happened from a secure bus depot under the eye of a number of workers supposedly." says Williams.

CFI hopes to replace the ads before the "Imagine No Religion"conference they are sponsoring in Kamloops this weekend, but that appears unlikely.

Williams says he was told by Lamar Advertising that his group would have to pay for new signs. "They said 'We will reprint them for you at your cost and install them for the rest of the time,' but I'm not sure we should be liable for the removal of the ads in this way."

Ironically, the advertising company can argue to invoke an "Act of God" clause in the contract to avoid paying for the reprints.

Montgomery says that's not unusual. "It's a standard clause. We just wrote it twice to make it very clear. The Centre for Inquiry was made very aware that Lamar had this in it's contract, and we are not responsible for graffiti, vandalism or sabotage."

Montgomery says despite the controversial nature of the ads, they did not single out CFI. "That's a standard clause, it doesn't matter who it is."

Meanwhile, he says Lamar is also trying to determine what happened.

"We don't know where they were removed. We don't know if it was in the yard or in the street, we have no idea. They were removed in an authorized fashion and there is an investigation going on."

What's troubling Montgomery is only Lamar personnel are authorized to remove the signs. "And I can tell you that a Lamar employee did not take those ads down. Over the last decade there have been very few incidents like this anywhere involving Lamar advertising."

Phone calls by Castanet to Kelowna Transit were not returned.

