LSN:
Gibbons had been imprisoned since the arrest, with no bail hearing ever held and disclosure never provided to the defence. That raised the ire of her counsel Daniel Santoro, who told the Sun News Network in an interview after the hearing that justice was not served in the case, since she could have been released long ago and probably should never have been arrested in the first place.
Crown attorney Daniel Brandes told the court that his office had been waiting for will-say statements from the sheriff’s officers involved in the arrest, which never came forth. He added that, based on the evidence he otherwise had before him, there was no reasonable probability of a conviction and he was withdrawing the charges.
Brandes harkened to Gibbons’ victory at the Ontario Court of Appeal earlier this year, in which Justice Gary Trotter acquitted her of charges related to her arrest at the Morgentaler site in 2012. The Crown had previously won a conviction by arguing in lower court that Gibbons had engaged in “intimidating” conduct – mainly because she was brandishing a sign depicting a crying infant – but Trotter rejected that reasoning and substituted an acquittal.
Linda Gibbons may be slowly winning back our right to protest in front of Morgentaler's in Toronto.
