On March 9, twenty people from Toronto, Brampton, Brantford, Port Perry and Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, met for quiet prayer in the lane behind Henry Morgentaler’s Toronto abortuary.
Injunction
Planning to pray for two hours, the participants did not obstruct the lane; neither did they carry sign, hand out the literature nor speak to anyone. They just prayed the biblical devotion of the Stations of the Cross, sang hymns in a low voice and meditated in silence.
At eleven o’clock, York County Sherriff Ken Foster read out the Ontario Supreme Court injunction (banning demonstrations) three times while the participants continued to pray.
All except 83-year-old Mrs. Gwen Barnett of Brantford were charged with obstructing a police officer when none answered the request to depart under the terms of the injunction (which does not mention prayer as a prohibited action).
Police transported the group to 14 division in paddywagons. They spent the day there being fingerprinted and photographed. They were treated well by the police and released after signing an undertaking not to return to the Harbord Street abortuary until the time of the trial.
Mr. William de Marois refused to sign and spent the weekend in jail. He was released March 12 without having signed.
On Monday, March 18, Mr. Justice R.B. Dnieper set the trial for May 13.
