EDITORIAL: When freedom of speech hurts mail carriers’ feelings

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New Brunswick mail carrier Shannon Aitchison, the mother of a transgender adult, was suspended from her Canada Post job for three days recently for refusing to deliver a Campaign Life flyer she believes is harmful and discriminatory to trans people.

In a CBC story, she said she’s proud to have taken a stand.

“I believe that I’ve done the right thing. I can sleep at night,” she said.

We disagree with her view, but applaud her for standing up for her beliefs and accepting the consequences.

She’s misguided, however, if she believes carriers have the right to dictate what can’t be sent through the mail. So long as it’s not obscene, illegal or sexually explicit, then it’s mailable.

One Moncton resident who got the flyer complained to Canada Post that the leaflet was hate mail.

The flyer says, in part, “No child is ‘born in the wrong body.’ God doesn’t make mistakes.”

While controversial, possibly offensive, and while many people may disagree, it’s hardly hateful. God also gave us garbage cans so we can dispose of material we don’t like.

With an election underway, the tact is political. It supports Premier Blaine Higgs’ policies limiting gender-affirming surgeries and prohibiting students under 16 from changing their pronouns at school without parental consent.

Aitchison is grieving the suspension. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers said recently its workers have been given the option of not delivering offensive material “if it would cause them mental anguish or if they fear for their health and safety.” Given that statement, it’s unclear why Aitchison was suspended.

Carried to an extreme, that policy could severely restrict what materials can be delivered during an election. It gives postal workers control over the agenda. Any one of them can claim they’re mentally anguished by a political leaflet. Too bad, so sad for the rights of the political party to freedom of speech.

Canada Post is in dire financial straits right now. It can’t afford to turn away business. It’s a flyer. These are words. It’s one opinion among many in an election. If carriers are so fragile they can’t handle what they’re paid to deliver, perhaps they’re in the wrong profession.

Or perhaps Campaign Life should send out its material in a plain brown wrapper.