Over 104,000 students from the largest school board in Canada participated in a Respect for Life Week in May. Toronto’s Metro Separate School Board (MSSB) passed a resolution that the second week in May would be set aside for discussion, activities and prayer. This coincidentally tied in with a youth celebration at Skydome and the commemoration of abortion in Canada. The MSSB [...]
It’s been a generation since the struggle began. May 14 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the infamous Omnibus Bill, passed by the federal Liberals under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Justice Minister John Turner, which legalized widespread abortion in Canada. The pro-life movement has been there from the beginning, dogging the steps of the abortion movement and providing a witness to the [...]
The promoters of abortion are currently engaged in some wild contortions in logic in their campaign to portray pro-lifers as violent. What occasions these efforts is the Ontario government’s attempt to get an injunction barring all pro-life protests at 23 locations across the province, including clinics and hospitals. Among the evidence presented to the court in support of this ban is a [...]
Lawyers defending the 18 pro-lifers against the persecution of the Ontario Attorney General have mounted a spirited defence of the rights or their clients – and all Ontarians – to the very basics of free speech and assembly. Now it’s up to the judge to decide whether to grant the government its extraordinary request for an injunction banning pro-life activity at 23 [...]
Three B.C. pro-lifers were found guilty of civil contempt of court on December 13 for counselling outside the Everywoman’s Health Centre in Vancouver. In making the decision, Mr. Justice Low admitted the term “watching or besetting” which is in the 1989 court order restricting pro-life activity outside the clinic, is “difficult to define.” However, he decided the actions of one of the [...]
In a time of massive government cutbacks, the Attorney General’s office has spared no expense in its single-minded effort to gag pro-life expression in the province. There are at least four government lawyers working on the case plus four articling students. Two lawyers representing the province are present at most cross examinations. When they were before Justice Adams to get the order [...]
Attorney General Marion Boyd has been ordered to testify under oath as to why she is pursuing an injunction banning pro-life picketing. Justice J. Adams ruled on November 3 that Boyd should be examined under oath. Lawyers for the Attorney General sought leave to appeal that order but Justice O’Driscoll decided on November 25 not to grant it. Counsel for the Attorney [...]
The Attorney General office has faced an unexpectedly well-prepared and aggressive defence from the lawyers representing the 18 pro-life defendants. David Brown, a civil litigation lawyer with Stikeman, Elliott in Toronto, is an expert in injunction and constitutional law. Brown has been involved in a number of high-profile cases and, along with John Sopinka, now a Supreme Court Justice, represented Susan Nelles, [...]
Attorney-General moves to gag peaceful expression The Ontario government wants to make it illegal to peacefully protest abortion or to counsel women in selected cities across the province. The Attorney General, Marion Boyd, began a court action in April of this year restricting pro-life activity. She was acting on the recommendation of a Task Group Report on access to abortion in the [...]
It was ignored again by the media but Lifechain’s message still got out as about 45,000 Canadians held signs in more than 100 cities to try to stir the conscience of a country on the abortion issue. Louis DiRocco, Lifechain organizer, says the event, which has pro-lifers standing silently holding signs and praying for a stop to abortion, is still one of [...]
Life Chain organizers in both Canada and the U.S. are emphasizing the spiritual in this year’s Life Chain on October 3. Suggested prayer topics for the conversion of abortionists and all abortion industry workers. for the healing of women suffering from abortion. for the forgotten fathers of aborted children. for a law to protect human life from conception to natural death. for [...]
Another shooting of an abortionist in America has prompted calls for tough legislation against pro-lifers on the streets. The media, along with many pro-abortion groups, have used the incident in an effort to step up pressure against pro-life activity. Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortionist who works at an abortion centre in Wichita, was wounded slightly in both arms by the shooting [...]
Nine people arrested for civil disobedience outside the Morgentaler abortion clinic in Nova Scotia last October hope their case will become pivotal in the abortion debate in this country. Anne Marie Tomlins, one of the rescuers arrested, says the group faces charges of public mischief which could lead to six months in jail or a $2,000 fine. They declined to plead guilty [...]
Five pro-lifers in British Columbia faced charges for activities outside a Vancouver abortuary at the end of August. The pro-life trails coincide with the court hearings for the environmental protests in the Clayoquot Sound region of the province. The anti-logging activists received international attention for their attempts to save the old-growth forests in the western part of Vancouver Island. Many pro-lifers are [...]
Victoria, B.C. marks end of cross-Canada walk for Ontario woman On August 6, Therese Weiler put her foot into the Pacific Ocean and hurled the stone she had been carrying for nine months into the sea. The mother of six from Hanover, Ontario had just finished her “Walk for Life” across Canada, from Newfoundland to Victoria. She did it, she says, to [...]