Pro-Choice Presence during the anti-choice «March for Life»

 Thursday, May 12 2011 · 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Parliament Hill and near 160 Elgin street

Noon: we meet on parliament hill (during the anti-choice christian ho-down) and take space with our sex-positiveness. Generally, the strategy here has been to sit or stand quietly. We will meet directly on the Hill this year, on the east side of the grass (you can generally spot us as we tend to have colourful homemade signs)

1:30pm: Like previous years, we will be near the Human Rights monument on Elgin street during the anti-ch...oice march *the exact spot is decided the day of as antis always get a permit for the monument before we know the exact date* it will likely be in front of 160 Elgin street.

What to bring; Yourself, lots of creative reproductive justice signs (see below), instruments (like drums or a trumpet), lovers, children, siblings and friends ready to loudly chant that «this fucked up shit has got to go». Bringing snacks to share is also always appreciated!

After march: park debreif. Info will be given by word of mouth on the day of :)

Note: Despite not communicating with the police, they have been present every year. We recognize that having police at events can be a barrier for many people to participate fully in this type of activism, yet, as people who can, we attempt to realize our privilege of doing so, and holding ourselves accountable to the communities that do not.

This can be an IMMENSLY triggering event and we lovingly encourage people to set themselves up with lots of love and self-care that day.

PLEASE READ THE STATEMENT BELOW AND CONSIDER YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THIS WORK AND YOUR ROLE IN IT :)

What is reproductive justice?

As defined by Sistersong, Reproductive Justice is “the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, economic, and social well-being of women and girls, and will be achieved when women and girls have the economic, social and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, sexuality and reproduction for ourselves, our families and our communities in all areas of our lives. For this to become reality, we need to make change on the individual, family, community, and institutional levels to end all forms of oppression, including forces that deprive us of self-determination and control over our bodies, and limit our reproductive choices. This oppression has been implemented through the controlling and exploiting of women and girls through our bodies, sexuality, and reproduction (both biological and social) by families, communities and institutions.
- http://www.sistersong.net/reproductive_justice.html

Reproductive Justice includes, and goes beyond abortion, contraception, choice and access. Reproductive justice means fighting for all people to create and sustain the kinds of families they want, how they want, when they want. This movement takes its leadership from the communities most affected by these issues. Indigenous communities and communities of colour founded this movement because of exclusion and continue to be at the forefront.

Colonialism ...
Racism ...
Dis/ability rights ...
Two-Spirit, Queer & Trans rights ...
Environmental Justice ...
(Im)migration ...
Poverty ...
Health ...
Gender ...
Ageism ...
Violence ...
Housing ...
Food ...
Education ...
Labour (including Sex Work) ...

…is a Reproductive Justice issue.

For more information, keep on reading

Reproductive justice – for real, for me, for you, for now
By Jessica Yee
found here: http://doularightthing.blogspot.com/2010/11/reproductive-justice.html

http://www.sistersong.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=141&Itemid=81

Letter writing - Pizza eating - POWER social!

Tuesday, January 11 · 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Venus Envy (Corner Bank and Lisgar)

Calling on all sex workers, their friends, their allies!
POWER needs your help!

On December 2nd POWER asked the Ontario Human Rights Commission to inquire into the Ottawa Police Service Treatment of Ottawa area sex workers

JOIN US FOR AN EVENING OF LETTER WRITING AND COMMUNITY BUILDING:

•Let’s remind the commission of our determination to see this happen
•Let’s eat pizza and hang out
•Let’s meet new people who are interested in fighting for sex workers' rights and let's share stories

Tuesday night! Jan 11th, Come and join us! There shall be pizza!

If You can't make it, please spread the word and contact POWER (over our fb page) if you want to send a letter to the Commission too!

More information here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=181906745161515&index=1

Oppose Bill C-150

The vote for this is happening soon! Please write your MP with a copy of the letter, or your own letter urging them to vote against C-150.

From: joycearthur@shaw.ca
To: arcc-friends@lyris.zapbox.com
Subject: [arcc-friends] Updated sample letter to MPs on Bill C-510
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 19:32:07 -0800

Hi everyone, below is a rewritten sample letter to send to your MP on Bill C-510. Even if you've already sent a letter, please consider sending another! It won't hurt - especially now that we're closer to the vote - December 15. We (ARCC) will also be attempting to convince Ignatieff to ensure his anti-abortion MPs will abstain or absent themselves from the vote.

One thing that's not mentioned in the sample letter, but which may be of interest, is the use of the word "child" in the bill to refer to a fetus. Rod Bruinooge has said that he simply adopted the existing language of the Criminal Code but that this could be changed in committee (like we could rely on that!). In a letter that ARCC sent to MPs today (those with a pro-choice or unknown stance), we said: "The bill is trying to smuggle fetal rights into law because it refers to an embryo/fetus as a "child," even though the Criminal Code reserves that term for born children, while "unborn child" is used only to refer to the fetus immediately before or during birth."

Although this bill seems unlikely to pass 2nd reading, we don't want another Bill C-484 fiasco, so your help in pestering your MP (or Ignatieff Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Joyce

---

http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/action/C510-sample-letter.html

Sample Letter Opposing Bill C-510,
to prohibit "coerced abortion"

December 6, 2010

Please send a letter to your MP asking them to vote against the private member's bill C-510, "an act to amend the Criminal Code (coerced abortion)." The bill was introduced in April and debated on November 1st for the first time. It is scheduled for a second round of debate on Dec 13, and the vote is expected to take place on December 15.

Below is a sample letter that you can copy and paste into an email or a letter. Feel free to edit the letter or write your own.

Look up your MP here: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC

For more info on the bill, see ARCC's press release:
English: http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/press/ARCC-CDAC-release-apr19-10-english.pdf.
Français: http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/fr/press/ARCC-CDAC-release-apr-19-10-francais.pdf

Also, a clever alternate bill banning coerced childbirth can be found here: http://pamelacross.blogspot.com/2010/04/rewriting-bill-c-510.html

Thank you! (and please send this link to your friends!)

---

Subject: Please vote against Bill C-510

Dear [insert your MP's name]

I'm writing to ask you to please vote on December 15 against Bill C-510, an act to prohibit "coerced abortion." This bill is just another disguised anti-abortion bill pretending to help women. In reality, it's designed to promote abortion stigma, paternalize women, and open the door to re-criminalizing abortion.

Bill C510 is a private member's bill that would amend the Criminal Code to prohibit coercing a woman into an abortion via physical or financial threats, illegal acts, or through "argumentative and rancorous badgering or importunity". It was introduced in April by anti-abortion Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge (Winnipeg South), who chairs the "Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus." The bill was debated on November 1st, and is scheduled for a second debate on Dec 13, with a vote expected on December 15.

I am against this bill because it patronizes women by implying they are frequently coerced into abortion. However, the vast majority of women make their own decision to have an abortion and take responsibility for it. Further, if a pregnant woman is coerced, it is just as likely - if not more likely - that she will be pressured to bring a pregnancy to term. I am against any type of coercion, and must point out that the main purpose of the anti-choice movement is to force women to carry every pregnancy to term by recriminalizing abortion. Further, many women are emotionally harmed by anti-choice people pressuring them NOT to have an abortion, in particular staff at "crisis pregnancy centres." (See http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/Exposing-CPCs-in-BC.pdf)

If the intent of this bill is supposedly to protect pregnant women from abusive partners, we need better and more comprehensive solutions than a criminal law approach. Women need pay equity, affordable childcare, legal aid, and other measures that will empower them to leave abusive relationships.

Bill C-510 is an unnecessary and redundant bill because threats and illegal acts are already illegal under the Criminal Code, and counselors at clinics already screen for possible coercion in women seeking abortion. However, the anti-choice movement falsely believes that abortion providers coerce women into abortions, so I worry that this bill may encourage frivolous charges against providers and add to the atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Providers have lived with the constant threat of harassment and violence by anti-abortionists for over 20 years in Canada, and they do not need even more to worry about.

Thank you in advance for voting against Bill C510.

Sincerely,

Statement by No Bill 94 Coalition

Quebec Premier Jean Charest has proposed legislation which, if approved by the National Assembly of Quebec, would deny essential government services, public employment, educational opportunities, and health care to people who wear facial coverings. Bill 94 specifically targets Muslim women who wear the niqab (face veil). The bill is an exaggerated response to a manufactured crisis that will allow the government to deny women services to which they are entitled. A truly democratic society is one in which all individuals have the freedom of religious expression and a right to access public services.

Although touted as a step toward gender equality, Bill 94, if approved, will perpetuate gender inequality by legislating control over women’s bodies and sanctioning discrimination against Muslim women who wear the niqab. Instead of singling out a minuscule percentage of the population, government resources would be better spent implementing poverty reduction and education programs to address real gender inequality in meaningful ways. Barring any woman from social services, employment, health, and education, as well as creating a climate of shame and fear around her is not an effective means to her empowerment. If Premier Charest’s government is truly committed to gender equality it should foster a safe and inclusive society that respects a woman’s right to make decisions for herself. Standing up for women’s rights is admirable. “Rescuing” women is paternalistic and insulting. Further marginalizing Muslim women who wear niqab and denying them access to social services, economic opportunities and civic participation is unacceptable.

Forcing a woman to reveal part of her body is no different from forcing her to be covered. Both the federal Conservative and Liberal parties have expressed support for Bill 94, which raises the very real possibility that similar legislation will be proposed across Canada. We demand that Bill 94 be withdrawn immediately, as it has no place in a democratic state that values autonomy, liberty and justice.

No Bill 94 Coalition is made up of concerned individuals, organizations and grassroots movements that are demanding that the proposed Quebec legislation, Bill 94, be withdrawn immediately.

We invite all individuals and groups of conscience inside and outside of Quebec to publicly or privately endorse this statement by emailing their name(s), location (city, state/province, and country), and contact information to nonbill94@gmail.com.
For more information please go to nonbill94.wordpress.com

Where we stand- A Statement on the Ottawa Police

A Statement on the Ottawa Police

please forward widely*

statement on the Ottawa Police

endorsed by:

No One Is Illegal (Ottawa)
POWER
Pro-Choice Coalition of Ottawa
Agitate!
Under Pressure
Common Cause Ottawa
Indigenous People's Solidarity Movement Ottawa (IPSMO)

On Saturday November 20th two queer activists were arrested for unfurling a banner as part of the Trans Day of Remembrance events. The banner, which read ''Remember Stonewall?'', was dropped from a highway overpass near the Ottawa Police station on Elgin street, where a flag-raising ceremony for TDOR was about to take place. Many in the queer and trans community were upset that some TDOR organizers would choose to host an event with the police, given how tense the relationship between queer and trans groups and the cops has become. The flag-raising ceremony at the cop shop was supposed to turn into a march to Parliament Hill, but many in the community chose to gather at Minto park, a few blocks away, as an alternate to the police ceremony – making it clear that the police do not have the trust of many in Ottawa's queer and trans community.

Many groups have found it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to work with the police, and so we would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our opposition to the idea that we must always work with the cops.

Many of us come from communities that have long been targeted by police forces, and continue today to be harassed by and experience violence from those same forces. We are queer, poor, non-status, trans, racialized, sex-workers, indigenous, disabled and homeless. We have been victims of violence, wrongful arrests, sexual assaults, intimidation and ridicule by the police.

This has been the case for many many years. But recently, in the last year, the systemic nature of abuses on the part of the Ottawa police has been so exposed that even the most sympathetic can no longer excuse it as 'a few bad apples'.

Earlier this year Ottawa Police released the photograph of a man who didn't disclose his HIV-positive status to partners, using the words "sexual predator” in media communications. The young man is now being charged with aggravated sexual assault for allegedly spreading a sexually transmitted disease. His picture made the front page of Ottawa newspapers. Despite this being widely condemned by HIV activists and community organizations, Police Chief Vern White stood by his decision earlier this year to release the photograph. By flatly rejecting a community proposal to review and develop policy guidelines for prosecution for HIV non-disclosure cases, Chief White showed no interest in collaboration and chose to ignore the expertise of HIV/AIDS community organizations and legal opinions denouncing this intensification of the criminalization of HIV. The outrage over this incident caused deep divisions in the queer community during Ottawa Pride in August, when official Pride organizers invited the Ottawa police to speak at the human rights vigil as part of the week's events, prompting an outcry from community-based HIV/AIDS organizations and activists in which they stated that if the police were not uninvited from the event they would be forced to withdraw and organize independently.

This summer well over a thousand people were arrested at the mass anti-G20 mobilizations in Toronto. Some were beaten, some were dragged from their beds in the early hours of the days of action, some were captured on their way to or from the protests and some were caught in mass arrests. Most of the arrestees have had their charges dropped, though some still face serious Conspiracy charges, draconian bail conditions, while some remain in jail and others face deportation.

On June 18th of this year three local activists were arrested. One was released a few days later under strict conditions, another spent months in jail, and another remains locked up today. Charges have been stayed for two of the arrestees, but the damage to their lives has already been done. In addition, through the court proceedings it was discovered that police had not only had active surveillance on local activist groups, but actually had an undercover agent infiltrating social justice organizations.

Recently, an Ottawa police officer who followed a cab driver to the airport, in a fit of road-rage after being cut off on the road, and broke the cab driver's arm after uttering racial slurs, was acquitted. Despite the obvious racist motivations behind the attack, and the complicity of other officers in the incident, the Police Chief chose to defend his officers and faced sharp criticisms from the taxi driver's union who could not be appeased, and demanded that the entirety of the Ottawa police force be reviewed and that Chief White address the systemic racism of the force.

Recently, a number of women have gone public with charges of harassment and assault against Ottawa police officers, many of them implicating the same officers in a more than one incident of abuse – officers who remain employed by the Ottawa police. We learned about the case of a young woman who was arrested, sexually assaulted – violence which was caught on police video – and held for hours by the Ottawa police after having committed no crime. Walking through the Byward Market late at night she was a victim of social profiling. A judge called her treatment a ''travesty.'' Two weeks later, another woman came forward with a lawsuit against the same officers, among others, for assault while in custody and wrongful arrest. And this past weekend, another Ottawa woman also came forward with charges of sexual assault and mistreatment while in custody after being arrested without cause.

We say that these are not random or unrelated incidents. And they are also just the tip of the iceberg, further proof of a bad system that must be changed immediately.

These are not just a few bad apples – this is a corrupt, illegitimate, and violent institution. More than the high profile cases that we see on the news, it is the institutionalized discrimination and day-to-day abuses of the police that worry us the most: systemic racism and misogyny, the continued arrests of sex workers, the ticketing of panhandlers, the lack of any real action for the hundreds of missing aboriginal women, the harassment and criminalization of drug users and countless other offences. Despite mountains of proof that criminalization does more harm than good, it continues to be the only agenda that this city is willing to put money behind. This dangerous strategy is being implemented by a police force with a long and troubling history of violence, abuse of authority, and impunity. This is not a system that we deem fair and democratic and this is not a system that we will cooperate with.

We applaud the efforts of all those struggling for justice and freedom, and those who have risked or lost their freedoms in this fight. We stand in solidarity with all prisoners and all those struggling to survive in the face of a system that would rather see them dead. We will continue to support all political arrestees and all those subjected to police brutality, and continue to proclaim loudly that the police are not our friends.

For more information and recent articles about our local police force:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+woman+files+lawsuit+alleging+mistreatment+hands+Ottawa+police/3902052/story.html

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/story_print.html?id=3898089&sponsor

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Chief+fails+defuse+drivers+anger/3875705/story.html

http://www.xtra.ca/public/Ottawa/Ottawa_Police_chief_will_decide_whether_info_is_released_in_future_HIV_cases-9448.aspx

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/11/19/ottawa-hiv-status-police-review.html#ixzz168vhuhbr

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/city+outraged/3852404/story.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/882189--are-these-cops-above-the-law

http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2010/11/19/16219531.html

http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Two_arrested_at_Trans_Day_of_Remembrance_in_Ottawa-9459.aspx

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Strip+search+police+cell+travesty+judge+rules/3839408/story.html

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=92f9f5ca-cfe5-414c-b6ee-63dd2fbb88e2

http://www.ottawamenscentre.com/news/20040827_ottawa_cop_sentenced.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/02/19/shoplift.html

http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101120/OTT_trans_arrests_101120/20101120/?hub=OttawaHome

www.nooneisillegal.org

Sex work 201 + sex positive position statement workshop

Location:
AIDS Committee of Ottawa

251 Bank street

Ottawa, ON

We, members of PCCO, would like to make loud and clear our feminist support for our sisters and brothers who engage in sex work. As many of you are aware, on September 28th, the Ontario Superior Court struck down three Criminal Code provisions that marginalized and victimized sex trade workers. We applaud this move.

We're quite pissed off by all the sex negativity going around following the Bedford ruling. While certain organisations would like to think that they can speak for all feminists, we would rather speak for ourselves. And we encourage other activists groups to do the same.

On Friday Dec 3rd we will take part in a sex work 201 workshop, with the intention of creating an informed and genuine sex positive position statement.

This will be a 3 hour gathering, with the first 2 hours dedicated to the workshop and the 3rd to a discussion. PCCO already has a draft to work from. We encourage other organisations to do the same.

We're in the news!

we're in the news... (it should be noted that no phone calls or emails were received from lifesitenews, despite their assertion that "LifeSiteNews.com did not hear back from the Pro-Choice Coalition of Ottawa by press time")

Pro-choice group wants anti-abortion protest permit revoked
http://centretownnewsonline.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1803&Itemid=94

Ottawa Pro-Aborts Trying to Get 40 Days for Life Permit Revoked
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10101903.html

Bodies of dissent: a panel discussion on building radical support for our sexual justice movements

The pro-chocie coalition of Ottawa / Coalition pro-choix d'Ottawa
invites you to a pro-choice, sex-positive event

Bodies of dissent: a panel discussion on building radical support for our sexual justice movements

...Monday, Nov1st, 6:00-9:00pm

a fundraiser for an abortion emergency access fund, in response to the anti-choice harassment campaign sanctioned by the City of Ottawa, and currently happening on Bank street (40daysforlife.org)

Tania Dopler, a member of the Ottawa Aboriginal community and an outreach worker with the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy, will be there to offer a smudge.

Feminist support workers from the Carleton Sexual Assault Support Line will be present to offer support on site.

SHAG, a youth advisory group from the Youth Services Bureau that is dedicated to educating, advocating and acting as a resource on sexual heath and wellness for our peers in Ottawa, will be selling us some sexy baked goods.

Panelists:

Rayna Farr-Dutchin has been alive since December 1994, she is an Ottawa native with a penchant for music and poutine. She became involved with RJ at a very early age but never really thought she'd be doing anything like this in the future since she's a bit of a goof-ball. Rayna's favorite colour is rainbow and her favorite word is a swear so it can't be written here (note from organizers: fuck ya it can!). Since the age of 13 Rayna has watched the slow but steady sexual progression of her peers with interest, disgust, and horror. At the same time she has been blessed to experience a Catholic High Schools Sex-Ed curriculum. After attending a Young Women's Leadership Institute in New York City this summer Rayna realized that there was a need in society to hear from a teen when it came to sex. Instead of some adult who thinks they're "with-it" enough to be able to speculate how a 16 year olds mind works.

A proud Two Spirit youth, Jessica Yee is the founder and Executive Director of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, the first and only organization of its kind in North America by and for Indigenous youth working within the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health throughout the continent. Jessica is currently serving as the first Chair of the National Aboriginal Youth Council at the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network, the International Indigenous HIV/AIDS Working Group, and is the co-chair of the North American region for the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She is a strong believer in the power of the youth voice and agency, and you can see her writing on sites like Racialicious, or pick up her recently released book "Sex Ed and Youth: Colonization, Communities of Colour, and Sexuality" and look for her upcoming book in Winter 2011 "Deconstructing the Academic Industrial Complex of Feminism: Feminist Education Now - Youth, Activism, and Intersectionality". She is the 2009 recipient of the YWCA Young Woman of Distinction award, named one of 20 International Women's Health Heroes by Our Bodies/Our Blog and was recently awarded the Miziwe Biik Aboriginal Youth Entrepreneur Award for her founding of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network.

POWER is a non-profit, voluntary organization founded on February 17th, 2008. Membership is open to individuals of all genders who self-identify as former or current sex workers, regardless of the industry sector in which they work(ed) (i.e. dancers, street level workers, in and out call workers, phone sex etc). POWER envision a society in which sex workers are able to practice their professions free of legal and social discrimination, victimization, harassment and violence and in which sex work is valued as legitimate and fulfilling work making an important contribution to society.

Tomee Sojourner is an Organizational & Community Development Consultant, Social Entrepreneur, Diversity and Social Inclusion Expert, Social Commentator, Artist, and Motivational Speaker. For over 15 years, she has situated her activism, professional, and personal work on developing socially transformative courses/workshops/resources covering various topics including, anti-racism, oppresshun awareness, intersectional diversity, health care, sexual and mental health, and organizational/community development. Tomee has as M.A. in Social Justice and Equity Studies. She has been a College Professor and guest lecturer for high school, graduate and undergraduate students.Tomee’s professional work is informed by her intersectional diversity, and her lived experiences as a Black, masculine-identified queer woman, educator, and social entrepreneur thriving with a learning disability.

tickets are sliding scale
5$-unlimited
35$ at the door
(no one will be turned away)

Advanced tickets are really appreciated and help with the organizers anxiety levels.

Tickets sold at Venus Envy- 320 Lisgar St
Ottawa University Women's Resource Center- UCU 220
Ahora's Mexican Restaurant - 307, Dalhousie St
or with your friendly neighborhood activist.

ASL interpretation available. Please contact us for further accessibility needs. Please register for free childcare before oct 25th at prochoiceottawa@gmail.com

online petition demanding that we revoke the antis permit to harass and intimidate

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/revoke-the-anti-choice-permit/signatures?page=11

Sample letter demanding that the City of Ottawa revoke the permit for the 40days of harassment campaign

Hello there Pro-Choice Folks,

I urge you to contact the City of Ottawa and your councillor to ask that they immediately revoke the permit given to the Anti-Choice 40 days for "life" protesters who are currently demonstrating in front of the Morgentaler Clinic on Bank Street. I have attached a form letter for inspiration with contact info for the people responsible for giving permits at the City of Ottawa and your councillors. Please forward this widely to your Pro-Choice friends. If anyone is interested in translating this form letter in to French or in providing their own form letter in French this would be appreciated very much!

In solidarity,

Jessica Oliver

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Form letter:

 

YOUR NAME

YOUR ADDRESS

September 28, 2010

Pertrina Bonia, Special Events Clerk

Todd Allinotte, Coordinator By-Law Services

Patricia Ann Belanger, Case Coordinator

Diane Holmes, Councillor Ward 14 - Somerset

Dear Ms. Bonia, Mr. Allinotte, Ms. Belanger, and Councillor Holmes,

I strongly object to the decision of the City of Ottawa to give anti-choice activists a permit to protest across the street from the Morgentaler Clinic on Bank Street as part of their 40 days for “life” vigil. Women who choose to exercise their legal right to access abortion services at the Morgentaler Clinic should not be subject to the intimidation and harassment of anti-choice activists. Whether these anti-choice activists are waving signs, shouting, praying, chasing down women with their pamphlets or just staring menacingly at women who enter the Morgentaler Clinic, it is intimidation and harrassment – whether these anti-choice activists are across the street or not. Women should not have to run the gauntlet of anti-choice activists in order to access legal health services. The City of Ottawa must immediately revoke this permit in order to respect the dignity, privacy, and legal rights of women to unimpeded access to health services at the Morgentaler Clinic.

As I urge you to revoke this permit, I suggest that you consider the legal precedent. Protesters have the right to protest where they like unless that right infringes upon the rights of others to unobstructed access to legal medical services. Court injunctions bar anti-choice protesters from protesting across the street at certain clinics in Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec. In British Columbia, the Access to Abortion Services Act or “bubble zone law" protects two clinics and a hospital that perform abortions from protesters. The legal precedent in this country demonstrates that protests in front of abortion clinics violate the constitutional rights of women accessing a necessary medical service; these protests have also been shown to endanger the health of women patients. Although no specific injunction or law is in place to protect the Morgentaler Clinic in Ottawa from anti-choice protesters, it is highly inappropriate to issue permits for activities which are illegal in other Canadian jurisdictions because they violate women’s rights, endanger their health, and put the clinic and its staff at risk of violence. 

                                                                                                    

This permit must be revoked immediately. I look forward to hearing your response.

Sincerely,