On October 24, I padlocked the back gates of the Morgentaler abortion clinic in Toronto. As expected, I was arrested; I was charged under Section 387 1 (c) of the Criminal Code (mischief against private property).

Later in the day I was taken before a judge. The Crown Attorney requested that bail consist of a simple agreement not to come within five feet of the abortuary gates. When I declined to sign, I was sent to jail. The next day when I appeared before another judge, the Crown dropped the previous condition leaving the judge no choice but to release me. I had prepared myself mentally to return to prison but I was very glad to be set free. Toronto’s Don Jail is a grimmer prison than most, and even though police officers and guards were very decent to me, a stay in prison remains an unpleasant experience, as it is meant to be.

Padlocking the gates is not the consequence of mere political planning or lobbying. As the Dutch priest, Titus Brandsma, beatified on November 3, stated some time before his death in Dachau concentration camp in the summer of 1942, “He who wants to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come into conflict with it.”

This has been the spirit of pro-lifer’s counter-actions all along. The thousands of people in the pro-life movement are almost without exception believing, practicing Christians. They understand that the legalized killing of the unborn is unlike any other issue in the country, one which symbolizes the imminent collapse of all family, sexual and personal morality in our society, unless it is stopped.

On Sunday, October 20, 1985, the Gospel of St. Mark, 10:35-45, told us about the young disciples John and James offering to risk their all for heavenly life. “Are you able to drink my cup and be baptized with my baptism,” said the Lord to John and James, who had asked for a place at this throne in heaven, one on the left and the other on the right. “They said unto Him: we are able.”

As we know, the Lord accepted their venturing out on His behalf, which was a true act of faith, precisely because they did not know where the Lord was to lead them before they would receive their desired eternal life. It is in this spirit that we are prepared to go to prison, if that is what is necessary in stopping the overflow into other areas of medical and family morality such as infanticide, pornography, prostitution or mercy-killing. If Morgentaler can break the law with impunity through sheer defiance, so will every other champion of permissiveness and immoral “freedoms.”

Why now?

One might ask: Why not wait until the courts decide?  Why not leave it alone until then?  The answer is threefold.

First, it is unheard of that criminal actions are permitted to be repeated on the claim that the original charge by the police is “before the courts.” Yet, this is the reason given by the current Attorney General, Mr. Ian Scott, for not upholding the law and closing the abortion “clinic.” This ludicrous argument alone is sufficient ground for action and no other reasons are needed.

Second, court cases take time, some a great deal of time, during which the slaughter continues. Unless this slaughter and its illegality is protested, society and the court will follow the legal maxim that silence betokens consent.

Third, while stopping the operation of this abortuary may appear to be only a holding action, in reality is a great divide or watershed in the battle against unlimited permissiveness of all kinds.

  • If Morgentaler wins in Toronto, he will win elsewhere and on other issues (such as his 1968 demand for the abolition of all restrictions on drugs, pornography, prostitution and mercy-killing).
  • If politicians become convinced that there is no penalty for their silence and co-operation with people like Morgentaler, Christian moral principles will disappear from the public forum altogether and anti-Christian secularism will triumph in politics, medicine, law and education.

Finally, if Christian leaders continue to refuse to speak to their communities on their social, legal and political duties to publicly defend the teaching of Christ and His law in matters of family and sexual morality when it is still possible to do so, we in Canada shall soon be faced with the question Our Lord Jesus asked: “But when the Son o man comes, will he find any faith on earth?”  (Lk. 18:8).

While there still are consciences to appeal to in our society, let us not fail to do so. Let us rally, instead of passively submitting to the propaganda for permissiveness.

Please also support with your prayers all those willing to picket, willing to sacrifice their time, willing even to go to prison.