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November
26, 2008
Brethren,
please write Linda a short note or send a simple card.
From individuals as well as from CFC-FFL in the different
provinces, states and countries. Tell her how much
she inspires us and assure her of our prayers. She
is a real hero. She has spent over 5 years in prison,
on and off, for her silent protest for life! She is
doing what is pleasing to God, suffering persecution
for the sake of righteousness. She is suffering now
what many pro-lifers may be faced with later, as the
anti-life forces impose their policies on the general
public, supported by the judiciary and police.
Can
we have the same courage and conviction that will
allow us to stand for what is right even in the face
of such assault, when the time comes?
God
bless you.
frank
p.s.
My brethren in Ontario, can you find out how you can
bring Linda some additional Christmas cheer?
Send
a Christmas Letter to a Pro-Life Heroine in Jail for
Silently Witnessing to Life
By John-Henry Westen
TORONTO, November 24, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life
heroine Linda Gibbons will spend another Christmas
in jail this year for her refusal to abide by an injunction
which forbids even silent prayerful pro-life witness
on the public sidewalk in front of the Scott abortion
mill in Toronto.
Rosemary Connell of Show the Truth Canada informed
LifeSiteNews.com today that Gibbons appreciates very
much the letters and cards she receives from pro-lifers
all over the world. She assures them of her prayers
as well.
"I know she appreciates letters and cards and
the effort to send them," Connell told LifeSiteNews.com.
"She enjoys letters and art work from children
also. She is very humble about the number of letters
she gets each day. Please consider sending a Christmas
card and short letters regularly. It is great for
her spirits and important that the employees of the
prison know of her supporters. It reminds people of
the plight of little babies being threatened by abortion."
The rules for such letters are:
-
handwrite or type address and return address on
envelope
-
no stickers or stamped images etc. on envelope or
in letter
-
put return address on letter as well as envelope
-
no plastic prayer cards or bookmarks - paper prayer
cards and bookmarks are fine
-
she is allowed a couple of pamphlets but not many
-
no questions about day to day workings of the prison
- baby saves, prayer groups, difficulties she faces.
She cannot comment on the day to day workings of
the prison but will call Show the Truth with any
news.
-
please number your letters so she can be sure she
is getting all that you send
- please
include a pro-life comment in each letter - facts
of numbers of children being executed, loss of God's
children, our prayer for everyone involved in abortion
industry
Gibbons' upcoming trial is Jan 12, 2009 in Toronto.
Letters should be addressed to
Linda Gibbons - Vanier Women's Detention Centre
655 Martin St. - Box 1040 - Milton, ON
Canada
L9T 5E6
See related coverage:
Pro-life Hero Linda Gibbons Arrested Again, Only Days
after Acquittal
Lifesite Special: Linda Gibbons, Prisoner of Conscience
Gibbons
Shouldn’t Have Been Sent to Mental Health Court:
Judge
Homosexual activist Michael Leshner serves as Crown
attorney at hearing
By
Tony Gosgnach
TORONTO,
October 23, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – During
a hearing yesterday in downtown Toronto a judge remarked
that Linda Gibbons shouldn’t have been sent
to the Mental Health Court in the first place to determine
her psychological fitness to stand trial. The longtime
pro-life demonstrator had been sent to the court during
a bail hearing the day before by a justice of the
peace, who had construed her failure to speak as evidence
of a possible mental disorder.
The
judge promptly sent her right back to where she came
from - Room 507 at the Ontario Court of Justice at
College Park, for the continuation of the bail hearing,
scheduled for 10 a.m. this morning, regarding a charge
of disobeying a court order. She has been held in
custody at the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton after
her arrest outside the Scott “Clinic”
abortion site in downtown Toronto on Oct. 8.
Gibbons
has made it a practice not to speak during court hearings
out of solidarity with voiceless preborn human beings.
That has resulted in her referral to the Mental Health
Court on other occasions during her 14-year history
of challenging court injunctions forbidding pro-life
activity within specified zones around certain Toronto
abortion sites.
Looking
very haggard after about six hours in holding cells
that she has in the past described as dirty and noisy,
Gibbons took her seat in the prisoner’s box
to the exclamation of Crown attorney Michael Leshner
that she has “been before the courts for year
and years on abortion-related issues.” That
remark drew a stern rebuke from the judge, who chided
Leshner for inappropriately putting on the official
record past history that had no bearing on the issue
at hand and may have had the effect of creating bias
in the court.
Interestingly,
Crown attorney Michael Leshner constitutes one half
of “the two Michaels,” who in 2003 entered
into the first civil same-sex “marriage”
in Canada. Leshner was later heard characterizing
arguments against same-sex “marriage”
by churchmen such as Calgary Catholic bishop Fred
Henry as “religious intolerance” and added,
“I think the bishop has eaten too much mad cow
... the Charter of Rights trumps the Bible.”
Gibbons,
not represented by a lawyer, remained silent when
consulted by the duty counsel lawyer assigned to the
court. A psychiatrist then came forth to explain that
Gibbons has told her on several occasions that her
silence is actually elective and part of a strategy
of protest. That was when the judge remanded her to
the Thursday morning appearance.
Gibbons
Charged With Disobeying a Court Order
New charge a radical departure from past practice
By
Tony Gosgnach
TORONTO,
October 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A court official
has confirmed that longtime pro-life demonstrator
Linda Gibbons has been charged with disobeying a court
order after her arrest outside the Scott "Clinic"
abortion site in downtown Toronto last Wednesday.
The
charge marks a radical departure from the Crown attorney
office's practice since 1994 of prosecuting Gibbons
for "obstructing a peace officer." At her
last trial on that charge, completed Sept. 30, Justice
S. Clement Ford ruled that her silent and peaceful
conduct, as well as acquiescence with law enforcement
officials, could not have made her guilty of an offence
- simply refusing to follow the verbal requests of
law enforcement officials in itself does not constitute
obstruction, the judge said.
The
change in the nature of the charges appears to be
a response from the Crown attorney's office to that
ruling. Pro-life activists have long held that the
attorney-general and Crown attorney offices' practice
of using an inappropriate charge to keep Gibbons in
jail for several of the past 14 years has been a politically
motivated tactic. It has served to deny Gibbons a
jury trial and the opportunity to challenge the constitutionality
of a 14-year-old "temporary" court injunction
that prohibits pro-life activity of any sort within
a 20-metre zone around the Scott abortion site.
That
may change with the latest development. Instituted
in 1994 at the behest of the virulently pro-abortion
provincial regime of NDP then-premier Bob Rae and
attorney-general Marion Boyd, the injunction has been
assailed by groups including the Canadian Civil Liberties
Association. "The injunction tends to cast too
wide a net," said CCLA general counsel Alan Borovoy
in 1993, just prior to the injunction being imposed.
"It operates not simply against people who have
committed wrongs in the past, but against those who
might do so in the future… The terms of the
proposed injunction in this case are so broad that
they could arguably prohibit even silent, peaceful,
informational picketing within easy view of the impugned
abortion clinics."
History
has shown that the injunction has done exactly what
Borovoy predicted it would, which appears to have
been fine with not only the Rae-Boyd regime, but also
all those that have succeeded it, including the Mike
Harris and Dalton McGuinty governments.
Having
appeared in court Thursday, Gibbons is being detained
at the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ont. Her
next court appearance is Wednesday, Oct. 15 at 10
a.m. in Room 507 of the Ontario Court of Justice at
College Park, Yonge and College Streets in downtown
Toronto.
Linda
Gibbons Acquitted of Charge Used by Province to Avoid
Challenge to 14-year-old "Temporary" Injunction
By
Tony Gosgnach
TORONTO,
September 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Canadian pro-life
hero Linda Gibbons has just been acquitted by a provincial
court judge in Toronto on a charge of obstructing
a peace officer and has walked out of court a free
woman. Justice Clements rightly ruled that Gibbons's
conduct of being peaceful and silent could in no way
be interpreted to mean she was making any peace officer's
job more difficult when she was arrested outside the
Scott "Clinic" abortuary in Toronto earlier
this year.
The decision brings into question the whole Crown/police
tactic of charging Gibbons over a 14-year period with
disobeying a peace officer, when the correct and more
appropriate charge should have been disobeying a court
order. Clements suggested Gibbons would have been
guilty of that charge on the basis of the evidence
with which he was presented ... but that charge was
not laid.
A charge of disobeying a court order would have given
Gibbons the right to a jury trial and the opportunity
to challenge the constitutionality of the 14-year-old
"temporary" court injunction -- something
minions in the attorney-general's office seemingly
want at all costs to avoid.
Gibbons
has spent a total of over five years in prison for
her repeated peaceful witnessing and offering of help
to distressed pregnant women outside the Scott abortuary.
More details to follow ...
Canadian
Pro-life Hero Linda Gibbons' Trial Commences
Pro-Life
Heroine Linda Gibbons Sentenced to Only One Additional
Day in Prison
Canadian
Pro-Life Hero Linda Gibbons Celebrates 60th Birthday
Behind Bars
PRO-LIFE
HERO LINDA GIBBONS RELEASED TODAY
Linda
Gibbons: Arrest History
"For
to me life is Christ, and death is gain." (Phil
1:21) |