Halifax – On September 22, nine protestors accused of mischief for blocking access to the Morgentaler clinic in October of 1992, received suspended sentences.
The nine included Kenneth Biso, Paul Cheverie, Ellan Chesal, Paul Morre, Noreen Mosher, Pauline Mullen, Sharon Keddy, Anne Ashford-Hall and Anne Marie Tomlins.
They were also placed on probation for a year and ordered to refrain from blocking access to and exit from the clinic and to stay off its property.
Herm Wills of Campaign Life Coalition N.S. notes that “They were not forbidden to picket across the street from the clinic.”
Sentencing of the nine had been delayed because the judge who presided over the trial left the judiciary following hospitalization for a drug overdose.
Over the two years since the Rescue, the defendants attended court 11 times, a particular hardship for the three out of province.
After sentencing, feisty Ann Marie Tomlins, now of Borden, Ont., informed the press that this criminal record is something to be proud of. “It proves that I have done my Christian duty by trying to save lives,” she said.