A 60-year-old Toronto grandmother who has been arrested more than a dozen times for silently protesting in front of a Cabbagetown abortion clinic was acquitted today of her latest charges.
Over the last 14 years, Linda Gibbons estimates she has spent a total of about 75 months in jail. It’s because she continues to violate a 1994 court order that prohibits counseling and pro-life outreach within 60 feet of The Scott Clinic on Gerrard Street.
She was charged with obstructing a police officer after she was arrested on July 31. This afternoon, Justice S. Ford Clements said simply disobeying a court order does not constitute obstructing justice.
Cowards-- they don't want to charge her violating the court injunction because they know she'll challenge it at the Supreme Court.
“No one has a Charter right to interfere in another person’s medical care,” said Maria Corsillo, manager of The Scott Clinic, which opened in 1986. “The question every patient asks is, ‘Why is she allowed to do that?’”
Who's interfering with medical care? Was any woman prevented from having an abortion because Linda Gibbons stood in front of the clinic?
She used the example of people opposing blood transfusions for religious reasons. “Do you see those people standing and obstructing entrances to blood donor clinics?”
Obstructing entrances? Who? No one is blocking the door.
“If I had to spend a lifetime in jail to save one baby, it would be worth it.”
She is a hero.
