Was the Morgentaler jury fairly chosen? The pro-life observers who were in the courtroom when the jury was being selected last October were convinced that the process was irregular, and that the defence and the Crown co-operated to exclude prospective jurors who admitted having religious or moral beliefs.
In April, Hamilton Right to Life, in co-operation with the Catholic Women’s League of Canada, Alliance for Life and the Coalition for the Protection of Human Life, asked the Supreme Court of Ontario for leave to intervene in the appeal of the Morgentaler trial. We argued that the questions asked of the prospective jurors had the effect of unjustly excluding from the jury men and women professing a doctrinal or traditional position against abortion, such as Catholics, Jews, Baptists, Christian Reformed, Mennonites and others.
