Campaign Life Coalition

Don't Take Away Freedom of Expression and Peaceful Assembly

Background on the Issue

On May 29, 2017, MPP Yasir Naqvi, the previous Attorney General of Ontario, announced that he would table a bill in the fall to transform public sidewalks into “No Free Speech Zones” outside every abortion facility in the province. The bill was passed in October later that year, and has been put into force since February 1, 2018.

These bubble zones within which pro-life speech and expression are banned, prevent pro-lifers from demonstrating or counselling within a certain radius of an abortion facility where children are killed by abortion. That includes hospitals and clinics where abortions are committed, and pharmacies are now able to apply as well. These bubble zones are expected to resemble British Columbia's and Newfoundland and Labrador’s, which have bubble zone laws “not exceeding 50 metres” around abortion facilities.

Use the automated tool below to quickly send your local MPP a pre-written message. You can also add to the pre-written message with your own, personalized note. To view and select an alternate pre-written message, refresh your browser screen. After sending your email, a blind copy will also be sent to your inbox, for your own records.

Ottawa’s Mayor, Jim Watson, kicked off a campaign to transform Ontario’s public sidewalks into “no free speech zones”, where constitutional rights are null and void.

He sent a letter to the previous Attorney General of Ontario, Yasir Naqvi, asking for an “Access to Abortion Services Act” that would effectively ban pro-life speech and the right to assemble peacefully, on every public sidewalk in Ontario that falls within a certain radius of abortion facilities.

The pro-abortion Mayor suggested that peaceful pro-life demonstrators outside an Ottawa abortion facility were intimidating and violent to women and to abortion staff.

In a clearly orchestrated reaction, Naqvi announced that he would table a bill to create “no free speech bubble zones” in the fall, covering all facilities in the province.

In October of 2017, the bill was passed, and on February 1, 2018, the bubble zones came into effect.

According to the previous Attorney General, the bubble zones would help ensure the “safety” and “rights” of women and abortionists travelling to and from these facilities. This is a specious argument given that pro-life demonstrators are peaceful and often pray in silence on the public sidewalk. Pro-lifers who regularly attend vigils at Ottawa’s Morgentaler abortion flatly deny they are unruly or that they block anybody’s ability to enter the abortion centre.

It stood out that in Naqvi’s announcement, he made no mention of the impact this law would have on the “safety” of the child in the womb, nor on the rights of Canadians to assemble peacefully on public property and to engage in free speech as protected by the constitution.

These bubble zones are expected to resemble British Columbia’s and Newfoundland and Labrador’s, which have bubble zones “not exceeding 50 metres” around abortion facilities. A first offence can result in a fine of up to $5,000 and six months’ imprisonment, and repeat offences can result in a fine of up to $10,000 and a year’s imprisonment. Quebec’s legislation is somewhat different, but their bubble zones are also 50 metres.

Due to this law, the ability of pro-lifers to provide crisis pregnancy help, to save the lives of unborn children, and to connect post-abortive women to counselling is greatly inhibited. Pro-life demonstrators and sidewalk counselors are denied their constitutional right to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly. It is imperative that this bill be withdrawn.

Use the automated tool below to quickly send your local MPP a pre-written message. You can add to the pre-written message with your own, personalized note. To view and select an alternate pre-written message, refresh your browser screen. After sending your email, a blind copy will also be sent to your inbox.

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Pro-lifers don’t pose a threat

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Dear [Recipient's name will be automatically inserted], Member of Provincial Parliament:

Ontario’s legislature has passed a bill that would bar pro-life demonstrators and sidewalk counsellors from “bubble zones” surrounding abortion centres. The ostensible motivation behind the bill is to protect the “safety” of women who are getting abortions. That insinuates that pro-life demonstrators are violent, which is simply untrue.

Not to say that it was justified, but Ontario’s 1994 injunction in Ontario establishing bubble zones was put into place a couple years after the Morgentaler clinic in Toronto was firebombed.That firebombing was not done by any pro-lifer, but by the mentally-disturbed father of a child who was aborted at Morgentaler’s facility. The pro-life movement was falsely accused in that incident.

Nonetheless, neither the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada in their Anti-Choice Violence and Harassment position paper nor the National Abortion Federation in their up-to-date list of violence statistics record any instance of extreme anti-abortion violence in Canada since 2000.

Nevertheless, Ottawa mayor Jim Watson, who requested bubble zones, wrote in his letter to the Attorney General: “I am hoping that you will agree that the concerns that moved the Ontario government to action for the people of Toronto in 1994, are no less pressing than they are today, for the people of Ottawa.” The situation today is in no way similar to the situation in 1994. Abortion centres don’t get firebombed today. Using an event from over two decades ago, perpetrated by a mentally-disturbed man with no affiliation to the pro-life movement, to justify the creation of bubble zones reveals the flimsiness of the case against pro-life demonstrators.

Catherine MacNab, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Ottawa, is quoted in Ontario government’s news release saying: “For many years, people seeking reproductive services at clinics across Ontario have been subjected to escalating hostility and aggression.” This claim of “escalation hostility and aggression” is simply not supported by evidence. This is being made up.

Women seeking abortions are not in danger from pro-life demonstrators. They may very well be in danger from the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder which abortion so often causes, as well as sepsis, uterine perforation, infertility, and a host of other serious side effects caused by abortion. But they are not at risk from pro-lifers who are actually doing what health professionals ought to be doing, and warning pregnant women about these risks.

The idea of pro-life demonstrators as ‘violent’ is a myth created to push for the annihilation of free speech on the issue of abortion, and to help the profits of the abortion industry —please don’t let this myth continue. Please educate your fellow Members of Provincial Parliament on this issue, and revoke the bubble zone bill.

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Action Centre

Don't Take Away Freedom of Expression and Peaceful Assembly

Background on the Issue

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