Judy Rebick named to council
On March 5, NDP Premier Bob Rae appointed Judy Rebick to the Ontario Judicial Council. Short of Henry Morgentaler himself, Ms. Rebick is one of Canada’s most strident defenders of abortion on demand. The appointment is for three years.
A few years ago, the Liberal government of David Peterson had appointed pro-abortion feminists Doris Anderson and June Callwood to the Council.
The Judicial Council is responsible for recommending appointments of provincial judges.
A present, Ms. Rebick is President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC). She is a member of CARAL (Canadian Abortion Rights Action League), and was at one time Henry Morgentaler’s spokeswoman in Toronto.
Appeal judges named
On March 13, two well-known feminists were appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal by Federal Justice Minister Kim Campbell.
One, Rosalie Abella, has been Chairwoman of Ontario’s Law Reform Commission since 1989.
The second, Madam Justice Karen Weiler was a judge of the Ontario Court’s General Division.
In the past Ms. Abella, 46, has served as executive member of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), as sole Commissioner of Ontario’s Equality in Employment Commission (1984), and as member of the Ontario Labor Relations Board.
Her lifelong mission has been the promotion of equality between men and women in all areas of life and the abolition of women’s role in any traditional sense.
She has had the undimmed devotion of the Toronto Star for many years.
In 1986, as President of the Toronto-based (Catholic) Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Toronto, Karen Weiler strenuously objected to the Guild taking a negative stand on the Morgentaler abortuary when it was an illegal operation and threatened to resign if it did so.
Justice Minister Kim Campbell is well-known for her feminist views.
As a member under former B.C. Social Credit Premier Bill Vander Zalm, she broke with the party over his 1988 attempt to stop provincial funding of abortion.
Switching to the federal Progressive Conservatives, she was elected to the House of Commons later that year. Prime Minister Mulroney appointed her Justice Minister in February 1990 in order to pilot bill C-343 through the Commons. (Bill C-43 was an attempt to re-legalize abortion and provide legal protection for abortionists.) This she succeeded in doing, but the Bill was defeated in the Senate in a tie vote on January 31, 1991.
Not surprisingly, Campbell has used her position to the advantage of the cause she espouses. The two new appointments bring the number of women named as judges by the federal government to 100. The Minister of Justice controls some 800 judicial posts.
Callwood on fundraising team
Financially beleaguered St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto has created a team of high-profile personalities to raise $15 million over three years. The fundraising board includes writer June Callwood.
Callwood is a foundress of CARAL. As a newspaper columnist, she has attacked pro-lifers on various occasions, and a recent CARAL fundraising letter featured an appeal from her with her signature.
