On October 10, York South Right to Life wrote to the Canadian Judicial Council, arguing that Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, has been placed “in a position incompatible with the due execution” of her office as a Supreme Court Justice The Right to Life group cited tow grounds:

–     In 1982 she accepted an award from a radical feminist organization, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. This group lobbied actively to have a woman with a feminist perspective appointed to the Court. Mrs. Wilson’s opinion in the Morgentaler case upheld the radical feminist position even to the extent of using a radical feminist writer as her main reference in support of her arguments.

–     In 1975 she served as chairman of the United Church Commission on Abortion, which advocated a gestational approach. This view was affirmed by the General Council of the Church in 1980; though Mrs. Wilson had resigned from the Commission some time before this, the report of the General Council referred to her “extraordinary and sensitive leadership” in assisting the Commission to set the course for its deliberations. It would seem, then, that she applied both the policy and the actual language of the United Church in her Morgentaler judgment.

–     If the people of Canada are to retain confidence in the judicial system, the York South group contends, they must have confidence in the impartiality of judges and their willingness to evaluate cases on judicial merit rather than personal bias. “We lack all confidence in Madame Justice Bertha Wilson,” says the complaint. “Her continued presence on the Court undermines the integrity, impartiality and respect of the Court.”