The fact remains that the judge’s decision cannot be taken to mean that the jury was properly composed.
Moreover, although we did not succeed in getting our complaints raised in the appeal, we did succeed in putting them to the press and the public. In order to ask permission to intervene we had to show why intervention might be justified, and that meant discussing much of our argument, if only briefly, before Judge Howland and a large courtroom audience.
We hoped for a day in court. We didn’t get it, and our position will not be entertained in Judge Howland’s final decision on the case. But we did get a hearing, and our arguments were reported for several days running in the Globe and the Toronto Star. “Justice was not done,” we said, and, quite as important, “was not seen to be done.”
Was the jury fairly chosen? The question is still alive.
Dr. Janet Ajzenstat is president of Hamilton Right to Life
