Toronto police released photos of a man and a woman wanted for assault and criminal mischief against pro-life demonstrators who were holding signs on March 18 at a demonstration at Harbord Collegiate Institute in Toronto. The demonstrators were holding signs depicting first-trimester aborted babies with the word “choice” printed above them, and distributing leaflets to high school students when a man wearing a black toque and fleece spat on a member of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform’s “Choice” Chain demonstration. The alleged assailant left and returned with a woman and both individuals threw coffee at the members of CCBR. According to the police, the pair then damaged several signs.
The man then assaulted a member of CCBR who was filming the incident.
Detective Jospeh Matys of the Toronto Police Service told reporters that no one was hurt during the assault, joking, “the group’s signs luckily took most of the damage.”
CCBR has been using the “Choice” Chain demonstration five days a week at Toronto-area high schools to illustrate the reality of abortion. They stand on public sidewalks outside schools for the lunch hour and ask students what they think about abortion.
Stephanie Gray, CCBR’s executive director, told LifeSiteNews.com the “Choice” Chain members peacefully and respectfully held their ground that day, despite the abusive language, spitting, and assault with scalding beverages. She said the assault of CCBR members reflected society’s “culture of violence” who also shouted obscenities at the pro-life activists. Gray said, “what we always like to ask people is that if abortion is such a good idea, then why would a picture of it bother people so much.”
Gray also said that their signs were stolen by supporters of the man who arrived at the “Choice” Chain in a van.
Devorah Gilman, CCBR’s activism coordinator and the “Choice” Chain team member who was assaulted while filming the incident, told LifeSiteNews.com that what happened to her is “nothing in comparison” to the decapitation and disembowelment of the unborn in abortion.
Gray told LifeSiteNews that police informed her organization yesterday that the owner of Sam James Coffee Bar, a shop close to where “Choice” Chain was demonstrating, was charged with two counts of mischief for spitting and throwing coffee and for assault for when he tried to grab the camera from the team member. Police are still looking for the man’s accomplice.
Gray and Gilman say they will not be deterred from getting out the truth about abortion and that the persecution, in fact, “firms their resolve to press forward.” Gray said, “we will not allow violence to stop us because we know that whatever happens to us is nothing compared to what happens to pre-born children” in abortion.
– with files from LifeSiteNews.com
