By Tony Gosgnach
TORONTO, January 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Apparently not taking the hint from two judges who successively released Linda Gibbons from custody in her last two sessions in court, Toronto police have charged the diminutive grandmother with obstructing a peace officer and mischief to property after she appeared outside the Scott “Clinic” abortion site in downtown Toronto this morning.
On Jan. 12, Judge John C. Moore of the Ontario Court of Justice quashed a charge of disobeying a court order that had been laid against the pro-life demonstrator in connection with her arrest last Oct. 8 outside the Scott site. Moore ruled that she couldn’t be criminally charged, since a 1994 “temporary” court injunction banning pro-life activity within a specified distance around the abortuary had been pronounced by a civil, not a criminal, court.
Earlier, on Sept. 30, Judge S. Clement Ford acquitted her on a charge of obstructing a peace officer, ruling that her silent and peaceful conduct, as well as acquiescence with law enforcement officials, could not have made her guilty of an offence. It has been Toronto police and Crown attorneys’ practice to charge Gibbons with obstructing a peace officer throughout her 15-year history of challenging what she sees as an unjust injunction.
An onlooker at the Scott site this morning told LifeSiteNews that Gibbons could be seen peacefully pacing back and forth outside the abortion facility with a sign she usually carries, reading: “Why, mom? When I have so much love to give.” He said two police officers arrived on the scene, followed soon after by about three more, in a total of four cruisers. A sheriff’s officer then attended and read to Gibbons what appeared to be the text of the injunction from a sheaf of papers.
Gibbons was arrested and placed in the back seat of a cruiser and driven away. The onlooker said at no time did he see anything that could constitute mischief and suggested that the charge of “obstructing a peace officer” was a concocted charge.
Gibbons is to appear tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in Room 501 of the Ontario Court of Justice at College Park (Yonge and College Streets). In light of the previous dismissals of obstructing a peace officer and disobeying a court order charges, coupled with an apparently trumped-up mischief to property charge, pro-life activists will be watching closely to ensure justice is properly served.