Police Constable David Packer can keep a secret. His wife, Anne, didn’t find out for six months that her husband was a hero. He had been cited for bravery by the Metropolitan Toronto Police Department for saving a three-month old infant from a fire in a building on Spencer Avenue. The child’s deaf-mute mother had put her arms together and made a baby rocking motion, indicating to P.C. Packer that her baby was still in the burning building.
David Packer, the father of five children, from 17 months to 11 years old, recalled in an interview with The Interim, the December 1984 morning, when he raced back into the burning building three times. Crawling on his hands and knees, he located the crib and was able to escape unscathed with the baby in his arms. He and another police officer gave the unconscious baby mouth to mouth resuscitation until the ambulance arrived. Thai Seto is alive and well today and owes her life to David Packer.
Anne Packer remembers that she thought her husband’s clothes smelled smoky that night, but she thought perhaps he had spent the day in a cruiser with a police officer who smoked! Bragging obviously doesn’t come easily to P.C. David Packer.
David was hailed as a hero for his “unselfish action” by his superiors on the police force then. Today, however he faces disciplinary action for failing to protect the abortion clinic on Harbord Street.
“It’s a matter of conscience,” Packer said, explaining why he refused his assignment on April 8. “It’s also a strictly scientific fact as to what is being killed in the womb.” He added that he: “won’t guard the clinic now or in the future.”
When his wife showed him Right to Life source photographs of aborted babies, it didn’t sit well with David.
“Instead of lumps of protoplasm or formless cells, as in the back of my mind I was led to believe they would be like, I saw perfectly formed tiny human beings,” said Packer, “and I saw that they had been torn apart or burned by saline solutions.”
“I was charged basically because of my conscience and perhaps I need some help here and some support,” he told the press at the time that he was charged.
His wife, an attractive lively person, stated that he has received strong support. Fellow police officers at 14 Division, David said, have congratulated him privately. None have criticized him. Countless phone calls to the Packer home, including calls from Father Ted Colleton and Joe Borowski, approve of his stand. And Bishop Pearce Lacey, at all recent confirmations in Mississauga has cited David Packer as the example of “Christian in action.”
“It came to a head on April 8,” Packer said. “Looking over my notebook, I found that I had spent seven whole 8-hour shifts at night, and one 10-hou day shift at the abortuary. I just became incredibly sick, sad and angry about the whole situation.” P.C. Packer described the closed Morgentaler abortuary when he was on night duty as “a gloomy-looking building and it’s just the idea that there is only arrow of bricks separating me from people who are killing babies every day.”
“I figured being that close, and obviously associated with the place because I was the guard on the front door, that I was getting blood my hands-that I was-in a way, guilty by association.”
When I interviewed Officer Packer, it brought back to my mind articles that I had read about the elite police force of Paris, during World War Two. They were acting under orders from Marshal Petain and his Vichy, pro-Nazi government, forced hundreds of crying Jewish children into buses knowing full well that they were sending them to their deaths in a concentration camp. The disgraced Parisian police force (20000) of them said afterwards they were only following orders-after all the Vichy government was the legitimate government of the country. Sound familiar?
Police complaints
Packer told The Interim that many of the police officers in 14 division had complained among themselves about having to protect the illegal abortuary. The unrest was acknowledged about 18 months ago when a lawyer police officer was sent in to speak to 14 Division. All the officers were told that anyone objecting to duty on Harbord Street would be allowed to decline the assignment without penalty.
How short their memories, David thinks now. It is hard to believe, with 400 police officers working out of 14 Division, and about 60 foot patrol officers, that P.C. David Packer could not have been assigned to some less objectionable and obnoxious work. The police association, although described by Packer as very weak, is supporting him financially on this occasion. Paul Walters, the president of the association is solidly behind him. And Packer is determined to take his case to the Supreme Court of Canada if necessary.
“I acted alone” David Packer insisted. His wife who is very supportive and is also an active member of Right to Life and Campaign Life, and has picketed the abortuary on a number of occasions, confirmed that she was unaware that her husband was going to decline to protect the abortuary on April 8.
“I always thought that the picketers walking up and down in front of the clinic were great people” said Packer. “Some of the other police officers see them as just an annoyance.”
My sworn duty, I feel, is to stop the operation of this illegal clinic-not to protect it! It was my conscience that called me to do it. It is God speaking in your ear,” he said. “It is God telling you what is right and wrong.”
“I’m back in the yellow cars for life. That means that I’ll never get to be a sergeant-never get a promotion as long as I live, and I was even turned down when I tried to routinely transfer to another division. I went public when I called the newspaper (The Toronto Sun). I knew when I went public that I was committing the most serious crime in the police lexicon because the police department thrives on secrecy. Henry Morgentaler’s illegal operation is a slap in the face for Jack Marks and every other police officer in Toronto. Now that I’m charged-I want my side known in a public form.”
When I asked him why more pro-life police officers didn’t come forward, he replied: “I guess they’re ambitious and they don’t want to hamper their chances of getting promotions. It’s a good job-but if they fire me, I can always get another job although it may not pay as well. Besides, my wife is a nurse-she could always help out by going back to work.” He had been quoted in the newspapers as describing the length of his marriage as “13 glorious years,” and as I looked at Anne and David with their five kids milling around them, I saw strong evidence of a happy home life.
Packer is a medium-sized policeman-not your tall, giant-type-trim looking with a cherubic face and a sporting a big mustache, and very expressive eyes. He looked at me angrily said: “I think it’s a sham the Toronto General Hospital is doing, with its ‘rubber stamp’ therapeutic abortion committee-sham. With respect, our Attorney-General should look to Manitoba and see that the police chief of Winnipeg shut down the abortuary in short order, and should ponder any lessons he could learn from that. I consider Ian Scott’s position on this utterly incomprehensible for a public official.”
If chief Marks, he claims, had been determined to close the illegal abortuary permanently he could have laid these same charges daily until Scott was embarrassed into giving up his “stay of proceedings” tactics.
Other police officers, contracted by the Interim, cited police regulations and refused to comment for publication. One said if he made any statement to the press, he’d be right up on trial with packer.
“The Fellowship of Christian Police Officers, although very silent are not ready to take a public stand. The support in private behind closed doors in 14 Division has been utterly overwhelming but to my dismay no one will publicly stand up with me on this,” said Packer.
At present, Officer Packer is getting little support from his colleagues, apart from a lot of good wishes. David is a brave man-a rare individual these days. His courage to stand up for his convictions knowing all that he has at stake, makes him a man worthy of our admiration, respect and support.
