In June 1992 a letter was sent out on Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) stationary with a handwritten message on the envelope: “In Toronto they bombed a clinic. I need your help today!” In the top left-hand corner of the envelope was the writer’s name: June Callwood.
The letter, addressed to “Dear Friend,” began as follows:
“I have a direct warning for you. A warning that anti-choice groups in Canada are embarking on an all-out-attempt to curtail reproductive freedom.
“Increasingly vicious anti-choice extremists bombed Toronto’s Morgentaler Clinic in May.
“Quite simply, their goal is to stamp out the right of each woman to control her own body and destiny. To get what they want they are using tactics we never thought we’d see in Canada.”
The letter is an appeal for donations to CARAL; it contains a form on which amounts can be ticked off – $40, $60, $100, $200, and other. A handwritten message on this form says, “We need your help more than ever because the anti-choice factions are stronger than ever!”
The letter accuses pro-life groups of targeting MPs for defeat, publishing lurid newsletters, targeting schools and sending them inflamed anti-choice videos, and encouraging some who have had abortions to sue their doctors. In contrast, it lists the wonderful things which CARAL is going, such as distributing literature “to provide Canadians with accurate information on reproductive choice.”
The letter, which is three pages long, concludes with a postscript “The bombing of the Morgentaler Clinic may be the start of the most dangerous attack yet on abortion rights in Canada by the anti-choice forces. We must stop these terrorist tactics. Show your opposition by supporting Canadian Abortion Rights Action League today. Thank you.”
Comment: Again Miss Callwood is accusing pro-life groups of using terrorist tactics. Does she have any evidence?
If she knows who bombed the Morgentaler abortuary, why doesn’t she tell the police?
If she does not know, then she is deliberately spreading false information in order to foment hostility against those who are trying to defend the lives of unborn babies.
