VANCOUVER, December 3, 2001 (LSN.ca) – On Friday, former abortionist Dr. Mark Walter Stewart, 57, was sentenced to four yearS in prison after being found guilty of having “violated the sexual integrity” of nine of his former female patients. The Naniamo Daily News reports that StEwart received four years for twice raping a vulnerable and emotionally fragile woman. He was also sentenced to three years and two years on the other nine counts against the other women. However, he will not serve additional time on the other sentences since they will be served concurrently under what has been referred to as “Canada’s bargain basement for repeat offenders.”
Justice David Vickers said Stewart had shown no remorse and made no apologies. The Daily News reports that the woman who first went to police in 1997 after going to the College of Physicians and surgeons in 1994, said she is concerned about the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons. It held a disciplinary hearing in 1996, which resulted only in Stewart being told to change his examining technique. His offences, which began in 1985, continued until 1998.
In reporting this case, the media have consistently failed to admit that Stewart performed abortions. Past coverage by the Canadian Press referred to him as a “retired doctor” and said the assaults occurred “at Stewart’s family practice.” The Daily News refers to him only as “a former Campbell River doctor.” When the case hit the media in July 2000, Campbell River-area pro-lifers told LifeSite that Stewart was an abortionist. John Hof, President of Campaign Life Coalition BC, told LifeSite: “If Stewart were in dentistry or psychiatry he would be identified as a dentist or a psychiatrist, however, since he is an abortionist he is only referred to as a local physician. Interesting.”
Stewart is appealing the sentence to the B.C. Court of Appeal.
(The Daily News (Nanaimo) Saturday, December 1, 2001)
(with files from Pro-Life E-News)