As the opening date for the new Mogentaler abortuary in Toronto approaches, opposition from local residents and businesses is heating up.

A contentious meeting, December 7, saw opponents and supporters of the abortuary square off.

Tom McDonnell, a local resident, and chairman of the meeting said the overwhelming majority of the neighbourhood is against the proposed location.  But a vocal minority took over the meeting shouting at the chairman and causing it to end in chaos.

“We’re at our last gasp here,” McDonnell admitted.  “A legal agreement entered into by parties is a very difficult rock to move.”  But he said with the community solidly opposed to the abortuary there might still be time to stop it.  Businesses within the building at 1670 Bayview, where abortions are scheduled to begin as early as January, have begun litigation to break their lease.

The Let’s Preserve south Bayview committee which opposes the abortuary won’t take a stand on Morgentaler’s right to commit abortions they just don’t want it done in their neighbourhood.  Speakers for the committee were at pains to distance themselves from the moral debate.

This didn’t stop a contingent from the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League who set about disrupting the evening.

Don Wright, a pro-abortion resident from the area, began what was obviously an orchestrated attempt to take over the meeting.  To the cheers of his supporters he moved to the front calling opposition to the abortuary “obnoxious” and an “insult to the community.”

Extensive polls of the community have shown 81 per cent of the residents of Hillsdale Road, where the abortuary is to be, are opposed to the location.  Up to 77 per cent of the businesses in the strip adjacent to the abortuary “would prefer the clinic to be located in a less sensitive area.”

One resident in the area said she was “outraged” and “flabbergasted” by the meeting.  “There were only about three people who were part of the disruptive element from Leaside.”  She said most residents are firmly opposed but “it was as if the community was for this.”