TORONTO, December 8, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new book about Chief Justice Brian Dickson, based on his private letters, was recently published by authors Robert Sharpe and Kent Roach. The text reveals a legacy of pro-abortion sentiment. One of the published letters describes Chief Justice Dickson’s regret over his “harsh” decision to reverse Henry Morgentaler’s 1974 Quebec jury acquittal on charges of performing illegal abortions. This reversal led to an 18-month prison sentence for Morgentaler, who later won an appeal and his release after serving only 10 months. In 1988, Dickson made Canadian history by striking down Canada’s abortion law as unconstitutional. Dickson said that the law was found to violate section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and wrote: “Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction to carry a foetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus a violation of her security of the person.”
Later, in 1989, Dickson refused to decide on the claim of Joe Borowski that fetuses have a constitutionally guaranteed right to life, saying his case was moot, due to the abortion law being struck down. And in 1989, an ex-boyfriend obtained an injunction from a Quebec Court to halt his former girlfriends’ abortion. The woman, Ms. Daigle, appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada under Chief Justice Dickson, who quickly overturned the injunction against Ms. Daigle’s abortion, even after learning that Ms. Daigle had already obtained her abortion in the U.S.
Brian Dickson was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1973 by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau; he served as Chief Justice from 1984 to 1990. Dickson Died in 1998. Read Globe and Mail article about the new book at: https://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031205.wxcourt05/BNStory/Front/