After leading the battle against graphic, disturbing images displayed in public, Katie Dean is stepping away from the fight and is now looking for others to take up the cause.
Dean is the co-founder of VDLC London, which stands for Viewer Discretion Legislation Coalition. The group opposes abortion images being displayed in public and won bylaw legislation preventing them from being sent to homes in the mail.
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The City of London is also now awaiting a bylaw banning such images being displayed in public. But Dean, 54, is busy with work and her family and is looking to step away, she said.
“I can’t lead it. I don’t have the time and energy. It’s been a lot of work, but we’ve come so far,” Dean said. “I need to step back and reassess.”
She fears that without anyone taking over, VDLC London will end its work. But she’s hoping it continues under new leadership.
“There’s still work to do,” Dean said.
Nine communities now have bylaws on the books guarding against such images being distributed thanks largely to the work done by VDLC chapters.
London North Centre MPP Terence Kernaghan in 2023 introduced the Viewer Discretion Act, a private members bill guarding against display and distribution of the images. If passed, the legislation would require graphic images to be delivered in an opaque envelope with a warning label attached.
“I want it changed throughout the country and it’s exhausting,” Dean said.
Dean and Natalie Wakim founded VDLC London in 2020 in response to the graphic anti-abortion pamphlets being distributed across Canada by the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.
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Dean is open about how she came to the fight, having to terminate her pregnancy at 19 weeks for medical reasons. She then, by coincidence, received graphic images in the mail.
“They enraged me. I thought I was being targeted,” she said. “I thought, they should not be doing this. We have to fight it.”
She built a team that will scramble at a moment’s notice to block graphic signs being displayed.
“The images are triggering and traumatizing,” she said. “These are shame tactics. It’s bullying.”
In 2022, due to the work done by VDLC London, city council banned the distribution of such images to homes with fines up to $5,000 for those defying the order.
“London owes her a lot, her work has been foundational,” said Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow, who offered legal advice to VDLC London before he was elected. “Their impact has been felt.”
City council in March approved a second bylaw governing sign use and it was referred to staff to write the bylaw.
“London needs more people like her,” Trosow said of Dean. “She has been a leader.”
ndebono@postmedia.com
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