Interim staff A Toronto-area businessman may be one step closer to victory in a long-running legal battle involving leased property located one floor above Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s abortion clinic. Robert Blondell, head of a funeral consultant and casket sales company, leads a group of former tenants of 1670 Bayview Avenue who have been sued by the landlord for evacuating the premises prior [...]
Interim Special Canadian pro-lifers stung by recent setbacks in Nova Scotia and British Columbia took some comfort in two positive international developments. In Washington March 21, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill banning a late term abortion procedure many have described as infanticide. The bill was approved by a vote of 295-136. It would outlaw partial-birth abortion and impose fines [...]
The Unites States Supreme Court February 26 ordered lower courts to reconsider the validity of laws in Arizona and Colorado that restrict the activities of protesters outside abortion clinics. The lower courts had upheld both measures. The action, contained in two brief orders, was not surprising in light of an earlier Supreme Court ruling supporting the free-speech rights of protesters outside abortion [...]
VANCOUVER – Pro-life activist Jim Demers of Nelson, B.C. was released from prison in February on condition that he stay away from the city of Vancouver, unless accompanied by his lawyer, or travelling to a court appearance. Demers was arrested in December for violating B.C.'s "Bubble Zone" legislation against pro-life demonstrations. He spent the Christmas and New Year's holidays behind bars. An [...]
Interim special A new program of international awards will expose the absurdity and injustice of legal decisions that cheapen human life. To be called the Bumble Awards, they are named for the character in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, who said “the law is an ass.” Winners of the Bumble Awards will each receive a scroll or certificate depicting a donkey wearing a [...]
Pro-life political prisoner Linda Gibbons has added a powerful voice in her one-woman challenge of the Ontario injunction against pro-life demonstrations. New York defense attorney John Broderick, best known for defending Joan Andrews and other Operation Rescue participants in the late-1980s, officially joined Gibbons’ defense in early January. Broderick also gained a reputation by defending several members of the Lambs of Christ, [...]
Pro-lifers must continue to lobby federal politicians if the unborn in this country are to have rights at all. That message came through loud and clear after a 28-year-old Ontario woman walked to freedom two days before Christmas after being charged with shooting her unborn son with a pellet gun. Brenda Drummond, a postal worker in Carleton Place, south of Ottawa, was [...]
What, exactly, was the Gag Law? M.S. Nepean Gag Laws are the attempts by Parliament to muzzle "third parties" such as Campaign Life Coalition, at election time. There have been two attempts: one in 1983, and the one in 1993 which was finally defeated in October 1996. In essence the 1993 law attempted to shut out all but the elite of registered [...]
British Columbia’s pro-life community will appeal a provincial Supreme Court decision upholding the province’s “bubble zone” legislation. Despite growing disenchantment with the legal system, pro-life supporters plan to continue to press for their rights to peaceful public witnessing against abortion. The bubble zone law was ruled unconstitutional by B.C Provincial Court Judge E.J Cronin in January. The decision was immediately appealed by [...]
Interim staff Pro-life prisoner of conscience Linda Gibbons was found guilty of obstructing a peace officer and breaking probation at her latest court appearance October 2. In keeping with previous court appearance to express her personal solidarity with the innocent, unborn children killed each day at Toronto abortion clinics. Her latest arrest occurred August 26, just three days after being released from [...]
The British Columbia Supreme Court has reinstituted Bill 48, the provincial legislation severely restricting pro-life activity near abortion clinics and hospitals. In an October 8 decision, Justice Mary Saunders overturned an earlier court ruling that found restrictions on pro-life activity violated freedom of speech and religion guarantees. Justice Saunders ruled that a January 23 decision by Provincial Court Judge E.J. Cronin is [...]
CHARLOTTETOWN - a PEI court ruling has upheld the province’s policy of paying only for hospital abortions deemed medically necessary. The ruling came September 17 after a court action launched by abortionist Henry Morgentaler who is attempting to establish another of his free-standing abortion clinics on the island. No hospitals on PEI perform abortions and island women seeking the procedure must travel [...]
A group of U.S. physicians has joined Catholic and Evangelical Protestant churches in condemning President Bill Clinton’s veto of a Congressional bad on the partial-birth abortion procedure. A group called Physicians’ Ad Hoc Coalition for Truth (PHACT) began a print and TV advertising campaign in mid-September to educate Congress and the public about partial-birth abortion. In the meantime, the U.S. House of [...]
For one glorious month this year, from August 8 to September 14, there were limited yet real rights for the unborn child in Canada. For the past eight years, an unborn child has had no rights. Only if the mother is found to be mentally incompetent can society protect her unborn infant. In March, 1989, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected Joe [...]
A group of nurses in Ontario is finding that the principle of choice doesn’t always work both ways on the abortion issue. The five nurses have filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission on religious grounds after they were put in the position of having to participate in abortion procedures at Markham Stouffville hospital, just outside Toronto. One of them [...]