Controversial billboard comes down in West Kelowna

A controversial ad that had been posted on billboard along Highway 97 in West Kelowna for 10 days has been taken down.

The billboard asked the question: "What are your kids really learning in school?"

It included a caricature of a teacher wearing a mask and a website address for a group that is against children learning about gender identity, sexual orientations and race relations at school.

Wilbur Turner with Advocacy Canada in Kelowna said it was anti-queer propaganda. He launched a petition against the billboard and collected 350 signatures.

“We’re incredibly happy that people in Kelowna, West Kelowna, and the surrounding area spoke up to bring awareness to the agenda of anti-queer propaganda which is to have us be invisible,” Turner said in an online exchange. “Advocacy Canada’s mission is to unite and amplify community voices on this type of targeted harassment and we feel we were successful on this issue.

"The important message in all of this is to ensure queer youth know they’re valued, valid and loved, and have every right to be visible and supported in their schools and communities.”

Getawake.ca posted to its page today, Feb. 15, after the billboard came down.

“Speaking about verboten subjects in Canada gets you cancelled,” it read. Cancel culture and gender bullies are included as hashtags.

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