VICTORIA, British Columbia, November 24, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-abortion MLAs from the opposition New Democrats and a handful of municipal politicians are again pressing the Liberal government of British Columbia to push 40 Days for Life volunteers out of sight of the local abortion facility, and out of the minds of the thousand-plus young women who abort their unborn children there yearly.
But the Liberals maintain that the existing “bubble zone” of 10 meters around the Vancouver Island Women’s Health Centre in View Royal is enough to protect its customers and there is no need to expand it.
“We applaud the government for standing up for free speech and free assembly rights,” said Alex Berns, the co-ordinator of 40 Days for Life and vice-president of Choose Life Victoria, which has sponsored nine of the twice-yearly vigils in View Royal since 2011.
“But we deplore the lies being told about our volunteers by Mayor David Screech of View Royal and by the local NDP MLA, Maureen Karagianis,” Berns told LifeSiteNews.
The MLA made a private member’s motion in mid-vigil this fall, that the bubble zone of 10 meters automatically placed around all abortionists’ offices in B.C. by 20-year-old legislation be widened by cabinet order to 20 or 25 meters.
She told the Legislature, “The very aggressive nature of the 40 Days protestors creates a very intimidating and harassed environment,” adding, “I have received numerous requests, over and over again, from the community to step in and try and provide some help with this. Community members are intimidated in their ability to get back and forth to the clinic, even throughout the course of doing their daily business in the neighbourhood — getting to the bus. We have a woman who feels so deeply threatened and intimidated by this…. She’s living in very-low-cost housing. She’s on a limited income, and she has now found herself having to move.” The MLA claims the police have been called 50 times to the scene in the past year.
But Liberal MLA Jane Thornthwaite was unmoved by the NDP’s claims. “We recognize that in some cases, clinics and patients may still feel uncomfortable with the presence of protestors, even outside the ten-metre access zone,” she told the Legislature. “However, we have to respect people’s rights to protest their opinions and carry out peaceful protest, as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In Victoria, the View Royal women’s clinic often does experience protests, especially during the 40 Days for Life campaign, and Island Health is committed to supporting the clinic in any measures it needs to take to ensure its staff and clients feel safe.”
Meanwhile View Royal Mayor David Screech visited the assistant deputy minister of Health, Doug Hughes, to plead for a bigger bubble zone, arguing that pro-life volunteers are guilty of “harassment and intimidation.”
Berns said, “If we were doing all those things, and the police came 50 times, then why have there been no charges or even warnings issued to our volunteers, not even a single warning or ticket from bylaw officers? Surely we can’t stop people from getting to the bus stop without breaking a law. Surely harassment and intimidation fall under the Criminal Code as disturbing the peace. I unequivocally deny these claims and challenge our critics to produce a shred of evidence that doesn’t come out of the mouths of an ardent pro-abortion person.”
Berns adds that he knows what real harassment is because 40 Days volunteers have been subjected to it. “They have threatened us physically, uttered the foulest combination of sexual obscenities with anti-religious bigotry, stalked us around the city, dumped food waste on us, displayed anti-religious signs, and thrown bottles at us. And Screech and Karagianis both know this because I told them.”
In fact, several pro-abortion activists have been warned by police and made to leave their protest site. The low-rent resident allegedly threatening to leave over the protest, said Berns, “has been threatening to leave since we got here in 2011. She has also exposed herself to us.” She and other pro-abortion residents of the row housing behind the vigil site were warned by police to cease their harassment and one was charged and jailed but, when he agreed to desist from his threats, his charge was withdrawn.
“Nothing they say is true. There have not been 50 clashes between us and anybody, but it is true that when we come close to the 10-metre line somebody at the clinic calls the police. The clinic just doesn’t want us interfering with their business,” said Berns. “We believe we have had a negative impact on their revenue stream. That translates into lives saved, as far as we are concerned. We just hope the clinic staff would put their skills and experience to good use saving lives, not taking them.”
British Columbia’s Access to Abortion Services Act was passed by the New Democrats when they were in power in the late 1990s, and an American attempted to shoot and kill Vancouver abortionist Garson Romalis. Several MLAs invoked that event, as if a 20 meter bubble zone would stop a gunman. The act allows Cabinet to expand the bubble zone, and, under the NDP, this was done for two Vancouver abortion facilities.