The old quotation “Any client who defends himself has a fool for a lawyer,” tottered nervously on its foundations in a Vancouver courtroom recently, when a veteran pro-life activist was tried on charges of interfering with business at an abortuary.

What made this trial different was the fact that Jim Demers, a cabinet-maker from Nelson, B.C., was defending himself and was not disputing facts submitted by the prosecution.

Mr. Demers, the father of five children, already had six convictions for rescuing women when he went to Everywoman’s abortuary last October, armed with colored illustrations of preborn babies.

He proceeded to counsel mothers entering the abortuary, offering sound alternatives to abortion.  When this failed, he laid down across the doorway.  On October 10, abortuary guards called the police.

Following his arrest, Mr. Demers refused to give an undertaking to stay away from the abortuary and consequently spent three weeks in Vancouver’s Pre-Trial Segregation holding facility, preparing his own defense.

Mr. Justice Maczo, who appeared to display some semblance of sympathy for Mr. Demers, allowed him to base a substantial part of his defense on international law.

Citing the Nuremberg Trials, in which Nazi officials were tried for obeying laws, constituted by the Third Reich, which allowed the murder of millions, he argued that bad laws never stand the test of time because of their intrinsically evil character.

Although he had earlier ruled the defense to be based, in part, on international law, Justice Maczo ruled that it did not apply and that Mr. Demers was in contempt of court indictment and, therefore, under Canadian law, he must be convicted.

Before asking the judge to give him an absolute discharge, Mr. Demers stated, “We are our brother’s keeper.  We must love and protect each other as we would protect our lives.  I can only be convicted of being incapable of shutting off my conscience and denying my own humanity.”

Responding that he did not make the laws but was bound by his oath of office to follow the rulings of other judges, Justice Maczo gave the most lenient sentence possible – a month in jail, suspended upon the defendant’s undertaking to be of good behavior for 12 months.

Mr. Demers went back to the Everywoman’s abortuary on November 1.