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!
