Toronto pro-lifers are mourning the loss of one of their most stalwart and longstanding compatriots.
Helen Burnie passed away on Dec. 3 at the age of 80. She was a prominent fixture on the Toronto pro-life scene ever since Henry Morgentaler opened his first freestanding abortuary on Harbord Street in 1984.
“There weren’t many like Helen,” said fellow Toronto pro-life activist Dan McCash, who with Burnie was one of the first picketers at Morgentaler’s. “She was scared of no one – not the police chief, not Morgentaler. She was very faithful to the picketing and to witness. She’ll be missed by a whole bunch of charities and organizations that she supported and helped.”
“Helen was feisty and full of life,” said Linda Gibbons, another Toronto pro-life activist now living in Alberta. “Even when she was sick, she cast a very long shadow. She would say, ‘I have this sickness and God gives it.’ She didn’t make any bones about that. She said, ‘I offer up my sufferings for the children’.”
Gibbons said Burnie taught her much about the qualities of suffering and endurance. “You never heard her complaining about why she had to suffer.”
Aid to Women director Joanne Dieleman remembered Burnie especially for her ministry to the police who were guarding abortuary sites. Burnie would often tell the police that they were traitors to their profession because they were guarding houses of death and protecting killers, instead of serving and protecting innocent people.
“She was always hanging around police cars and striking up conversations with the police,” said Dieleman. “She was good at it – never antagonizing The police liked us basically because of Helen. But then, she did tell them what it was all about.”
Dieleman said Burnie also helped out physically and financially at Aid to Women as her health would allow.
Along with her surviving sisters Rita, Ruth and Mary, Helen Burnie was born and raised in her parents’ 90-year-old home in downtown Toronto. After a career as a private-duty nurse, she became involved in pro-life activism while recovering from painful treatment for a serious illness.
She vowed to do all she could for the unborn until the day she died, and kept that promise by witnessing at abortuaries, supporting Operation Rescues and letter-writing, among many other activities.
Her toughness was once reflected in a conviction for an alleged assault against an abortuary security guard. Although pro-life witnesses to the incident said it was a ridiculous setup by abortuary staff, the frail, five-foot-tall Burnie was handed an 18-month probation term and was prohibited from going near the abortuary.
Despite the hardships of illness and pro-life activism, Burnie said her years of pro-life work were one of the best times of her life. She added that the efforts of pro-lifers have paid off in raising public awareness of the abortion issue and the true nature of Henry Morgentaler.
“Even with her illness, Helen did more courtroom time than I ever did,” said Gibbons. “If a court was riding roughshod over pro-lifers and the babies, Helen would start nattering. The court staff would say, ‘Quiet!’ but Helen considered it an indignity to the babies. She would often be very vocal. Her heart was always for activism – street counselling, picketing, biting the bullet.”