This one's name is Mary Wagner and her legal troubles go way back too. (All links come from LifeShite; I can't find any other reporting of this momentous case.)
She was charged with mischief and two counts of failing to comply with probation orders (indicating previous brushes with the law, yes?).
She'd been harassing patients and workers at the Bloor West Village Women's Clinic. But she's not content to stand on the sidewalk with gory pictures; she enters the clinic with flowers, brochures, and
First on the witness stand was Patricia Hasen, who described herself as a nurse and 50 per cent owner of the abortion centre Bloor West Village Women’s Clinic Inc., which was established in 2005. . . .
On November 8, she said there were 10-12 patients and their escorts at the site when she was alerted by a co-worker that “Mary is in the clinic” and called the police, as she usually does in such circumstances. She said she then asked Wagner, whom she saw carrying roses and pamphlets, to leave several times, but Wagner refused to do so.
Hasen claimed, “People were getting upset, crying, asking why we weren’t doing something” about Wagner’s presence. She then asked the patients’ escorts to leave the site and brought the patients themselves into a secure area behind bulletproof glass, where “counselling” takes place and abortions are committed. She said Wagner moved to enter the secure area and tried to “push” her way through by holding the door open, but the door was eventually closed and police arrived in 15-20 minutes.
Toronto police officer Douglas Eaton was the second Crown witness and testified that he arrived at the abortion site to find “a lone female standing in the lobby” and arrested her under the Trespass to Property Act after asking her to leave and she refused. He noted she was holding a bag and flowers at the time. Under cross-examination by Browne, Eaton acknowledged no attempt had been made to interview any of the patients who were allegedly so upset at Wagner’s presence.
Her lawyer argued there was reasonable doubt. The Crown countered:
Ishak continued there was no evidence that Wagner was there simply for the purpose of communicating with patients. Holding the door, he added, went beyond simple communication. Finally, he said, there was no justification for Wagner’s presence in the first place, as she was forbidden to be there by a probation order.
The next hearing was held March 21 and that's when the shit hit the fan.
An Ontario Court of Justice judge erupted in a lengthy, angry tirade against pro-life activist Mary Wagner – and ejected a spectator from the public gallery – in a downtown Toronto courtroom Wednesday. The judge then sent Wagner to jail for an additional 92 days, added to 88 days already served prior to trial, after finding her guilty of mischief and two counts of failing to comply with probation orders.
The Crown and defense had agreed to ask for time served and a three-year probation.
But [Judge S. Ford] Clements emphatically rejected the submission.
“She can sit in jail, if that’s the only way to protect people,” he fulminated, calling Wagner “cowardly” for “abusing other human beings” and not having the courage to make her views known through other channels. “This is an extraordinary waste of resources. Get a grip!”
“You don’t get it, do you? What’s the rule of law? You’re required to abide by it … You’ve lost the right as a citizen to be anywhere near an abortion clinic or to speak to an employee,” he said.
“You’re wrong and your God’s wrong,” he continued. “You have complete contempt … There is a right to (abortion) in this country … You don’t have a right to cause (abortion-seeking women) extra pain and grief the way you do.”
“[Abortion] is legal,” he continued, “that’s all you have to understand … You start causing people emotional pain and harm, you think that’s okay?”
He then asked Wagner whether she would stay away from abortion sites for three years as required by the proposed terms of probation.
“I will not,” Wagner replied firmly.
“Then you’re going to jail,” said Clements.
Oo. Sounds like at least one member of the judiciary has had it with these time-wasting, grandstanding fetus fetishists seeking martyrgasms.
Natch, LifeShite is going berserk.
No word yet on an appeal. But you can betcha there will be.
Time-wasting and grandstanding. . . Right. Have we reminded you to sign the petition opposing M-312 aka Woodworth's Wank in the last couple of hours? No? Then do it.
ADDED: For them's as can stomach it, the The Freaks are freaking out. There is one brave soul over there, calls himself smallLliberal, taking some serious heat. They are all twisted up over dissing the Christian god, activist judges, free speech, baby murdering. FUN!
16 comments:
From me and my wife...
BRAVO!!!
Long past time these folks learn that the rule of law applies to all, and if they decide that their precious morality trumps it that the legal system shows that to be the fantasy it is supposed to be under a rule of law governed society. It is especially nice to see this coming from a male judge, makes it harder to claim this was just another "extremist feminazi committing judicial activism supporting her cause" crap we all have seen/heard time and again (the fact that the judge is simply actually just following the law and throwing the book at someone who blatantly openly stated she would not follow the law yet again despite several chances to do so notwithstanding of course). Personally I wish she could serve her entire probationary period in jail since she has stated it is meaningless to her, maybe THAT would start to drive home the point!
For that matter why can't she be held for the probationary period, I thought probation if broken in criminal charges meant you serve the time instead, but then we are a progressive society when it comes to the courts so I guess it is what it is. Bet we don't hear CPCers using this example of legal defiance as grounds to make this kind of illegal activity more harshly punishable though, got to love law and order Cons in this country, only the laws they agree with matter, the rest of them are at their whim, exactly why I have opposed this variant of conservativism all along.
Thanks for one of the best pieces of news we have seen in a while fern hill, it really picked up the mood around here. My wife's grandmother is in hospital recovering from major cardiac surgery, had an ruptured artery at the exit of the heart blow last week, barely made it to surgery with a 1/3 chance of survival, so things have been a little tense around here since then, this though really gave us both something to feel good about, nice to see a judge doing the right thing with these people for a change..
Glad I could lighten your day, Scotian.
These sorts of scofflaws are the ones I think deserve the Tough on Crime treatment. Think you're above the law? Serve as guest to Her Majesty for a while and think that over.
Positive thoughts for Gran.
Yabbut Mary is fuelled by, and addicted to martyr juice.
Kicking that kind of monkey is impossible, when you have a whole posse of fundamentalist zealots enabling your dysfuntion.
If the situation was reversed, the pro-choice activist harassing the guards at forced birth centres would be hanged.
They're all 'poor mary' with her innocent martyrdom, so silly of the eeeevul 'crying wolf' abortionists to fear for their lives around her.
Says the crowd ignoring fire bombings, shootings, murders and other fun times around clinics. This time she was alone and carrying flowers, but still unwilling to let them get on with it without verbal bullying. Let her step across the line like this unpunished and then they'll be going 'ok, we got this inch, let's go for the mile'.
Imagine picketing and harassment of blood donation clinics by Jehovah's Witnesses.
Imagine picketing and harassment of non-religious hospitals that don't utilize prayer as an official healing method.
Imagine picketing and harassment of tattoo parlours and tattooed people in the street, that includes firebombs and murders.
Imagine picketing and harassment of clothing companies that use cloth of mixed fibers in their garments.
Imagine picketing and harassment of all stores open and doing business on Sundays, Saturdays or Fridays. That one isn't even so old. Stores uniformly closed, -by law- for Christian reasons, on Sundays all over this country back just back in the 1960s. That legal hold was broken during the same time period birth control was legalized and popularized. Must be a connection. Turn back the clock to religious virtue!
This woman decided her religion meant more than the secular law of the land and evidence-based science. Not for herself, but for others that don't follow her religious creed and didn't ask to hear it and don't want to follow her creed and weren't harassing her except for the grievous flaw of existing while dissenting from the dictates of her private religion.
And the Lifesite commentariat is pissed *their* approved form of theocracy has not prevailed. Later, they will be gathering for a witch burning.
omg Janet, I have been reading FD for over a month and those people are batshit crazy! They hate people of colour, and want to make white women have as many babies as possible in order to preserve the white race and not be overrun by dirty coloured people coming to Canada!
I love how the FD idiots think smalllib is a troll simply b/c he disagrees with them and isn't all about worshipping God and the mighty fetus all day long.
The idiots also want to ban porn b/c it victimizes innocent women who, you know, can't be exhibitionists or like sex on their own! Nooo, any woman who is into sex for it's own sake has been victmized by nasty porno pedos!
I just wish there was another source for this story. If true, there's a chance it could be appealed if Justice Clements actually said "your God's wrong," isn't there?
Note the number of ellipses in the quoted bits. Quite a lot left out, it appears.
But yes, it would be good to have independent reporting.
If. It *is* Lifesite. The idea they'd report everything factually is immediately up for review. As in, the judge directly responding to someone in the public gallery calling out agreement with the defendant?
The FD thread is a live one, ha.
I'll never understand how they think these clinic protest situations are free speech issues. Nobody is silencing them: they're free to make their case a block away from the clinic, just not AT the clinic. The right to free speech doesn't guarantee that your speech gets the audience of your choosing (or any audience at all). Besides...
...the clinic in this story is private property, so the owners can boot whoever they want. I thought private property rights were important to conservatives, guess I was mistaken.
JJ: they seem to think they are fighting some moral 'holy' war, so everything is ok! even violence is acceptable, b/c they are on God's mission!
I have been visiting FD for about a month now and every day I am shocked at the extreme violence.
One nutcase there, Edward Kennedy, has wanted to exterminate blacks, pro-choicers, ALL Liberals, or 'lieberals' as he puts it, and anyone involved in pornography. He feels completely justified in saying these things, as GOD is on his side. It's funny but at the same time very scary that people as violent and on the edge as this actually *exist*
Maybe someone should report him to the police. It's guys like that who go on shooting sprees.
She said Wagner moved to enter the secure area and tried to “push” her way through by holding the door open, but the door was eventually closed and police arrived in 15-20 minutes.
Did anyone else do a double-take at this one? It sounds like something out of a zombie movie, seriously.
I had the exact same thought when I read that description for the first time too. But then I have been of the opinion that hard core fanatics, especially religious fanatics are essentially zombies anyway given how their brains have clearly been switched off and how they let someone/something elses will drive their bodies. Needless to say I have a very low opinion of fanatics wherever they are, I find religious fanatics the worst because not only do they have all the vices of regular fanatics they also have this insane belief that since God approves/told them so/etc than any evil they would normally decry is suddenly acceptable to use to fight the greater evil that they are currently focused on, be it abortion rights, Gay rights, or even simply the right of other faiths to be present in our society.
"she enters the clinic with flowers, brochures"
And you're scared by that.
Liberals are monumentally pathetic.
Hey Anonymous - if I wanted to protest Lifesite's views, could I bust in to their office with my flowers and a bag and just harangue them for hours?
Abortion is a medical procedure that is between a women and her doctor, and at a private clinic, Mary Wagner has NO rights.
Post a Comment