On Friday December 16, the Toronto Star released the findings of a Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) report called The Heritage Front Affair. The report has been tabled in the House of Commons the previous day.
Among other information, the Star reported that, “the [CSIS] source believed the bombing of Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s Toronto abortion clinic in 1992 was done by a left-wing activist and designed to make the government take action against the pro-life movement. The identity of the activist was deleted in the report.”
This shocking information prompted immediate response from pro-life groups across British Columbia. Ted Gerk, President of the Pro-Life Society of B.C., called on the RCMP to immediately launch a full scale investigation into Canada’s pro-choice movement, particularly its activities in B.C.
“Given the announcement… we must ask ourselves the logical question… were members of B.C.’s so-called pro-choice community responsible for the shooting and assassination attempt against Dr. Garson Romalis?” Gerk queried.
“We have evidence that suggests that a member of the BC Coalition for Abortion Clinics, who is also involved in security at Everywomen’s Health Centre abortion clinic, has been involved in a radical pro-abortion group in San Francisco who were responsible for recent calls (distributed widely on the Internet) to attack members of the pro-life community.”
Citing the politics of B.C. Attorney General Colin Gabelmann and his unswerving support of the local pro-abortion community, Gerk concluded that it is completely plausible that an attack was perpetrated upon Romalis by someone in the pro-abortion camp whose main goal was to discredit the pro-life movement and make the government take action against the pro-life movement.
“We said from the start that the response to the shooting of Dr. Romalis from B.C.’s pro-abortion community was too quick and too smooth… We have repeatedly asked their leaders to disavow violence … Joy Thompson and Kim Zander have refused. Now it’s time for all of us to set the spotlight of inquiry on them … including their links with left wing groups such as the Communist Party, Socialist Challenge and the Trotskyist League. We also call upon Colin Gabelmann to broaden the scope of the anti-harassment squad that he himself initiated … to include as investigation of the activities of B.C.’s pro-abortion movement.”
Campaign Life Coalition B.C. President John Hof said, “It is time that the spotlight of investigation be focused on those groups that would most stand to benefit from the repercussions of this shooting. We have said all along that pro-lifers are interested in saving life – not taking or harming it in any way.”
The Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province and the Globe and Mail conveniently omitted the startling information contained in the Star report. However, reporting on the Bristow affair, the Vancouver Sun recounted that blood was poured on the front steps of a Vancouver Jewish community leader’s home just before he testified in a human-rights tribunal hearing in the summer of 1992.
Michael Elterman told reporters that he never found out who did it and he wasn’t aware the incident coincided with a visit to Vancouver by Grant Bristow, who later turned out to be a CSIS informant.
Upon learning that Bristow was in the province in 1992. Vancouver Right to Life President Betty Green remarked on the similarity between the actions of the Heritage Front individuals and those of the Coalition United to Fight Oppression (CUFO) who are also leaders in the pro-abortion fight.
Green noted that on Mothers’ Day of the same year, pro-lifers gathered at the Vancouver General Hospital in an annual event to collect baby items, and gifts for young mothers. When the Right to Life truck arrived it was immediately mobbed. The CUFO group ripped up pro-life signs, pushed and shoved pro-lifers, screamed vulgarities and generally caused havoc. The onslaught continued for over two hours.
When the back door of the truck was opened, the disgruntled group pounced into the opening, frantically waving their signs, shouting “F…. off, born again bigots.”
Even as they attempted to leave the scene, pro-lifers were spat upon and threatened. Officers investigating the incident recommended charges be laid against the group, but these were vetoed by the crown prosecutor.
Green sees no difference between the radical left or right. They are both totalitarian and violent. She wouldn’t be surprised to find CSIS working both sides of the political spectrum in order to pressure the pro-life movement and manipulate Canadian public opinion.
The SIRC report concluded that Bristow had acted wrongly, in the process testing the limits of what most Canadians would deem acceptable behavior by a government agent.
How far he went and how involved he has been in discrediting the pro-life movement remains to be seen.
