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An Embrun dentist who wanted to run bus ads in Winnipeg protesting Ontario’s separate school system says his rights have been violated by the ad company that rejected the campaign.

Dr. Richard Thain planned to run the ads to coincide with the opening of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in September. The $10,000 campaign was to have run for four weeks and consisted of six ads with slogans such as “This is a human rights disgrace” and “Human rights violations in Canada.”

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Instead, the company, Pattison Outdoor, rejected the ads, saying they might violate the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.

“I was stunned when they said, ‘We won’t run these,'” Thain said.

Part of the contract Thain signed said the company could reject ads that violated the code, but Thain said there is nothing wrong with his ads. Some of them are fact, and others are opinions, “and people express opinions all the time.”