By Tony Gosgnach
TORONTO, June 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The results of an Ontario Superior Court of Justice hearing held June 5 in Toronto may have significant implications for the application of a “temporary” 1994 injunction barring pro-life activity around specified abortion sites in the province. The Crown attorney’s office is appealing the Jan. 12, 2009 quashing of a criminal charge of disobeying a court order that had been laid against longtime pro-life demonstrator Linda Gibbons.
At the time, Justice John C. Moore said the matter was being heard in a criminal court inappropriately, since the 1994 injunction was pronounced in a civil one. “Why use criminal modes to deal with civil matters?” Moore had asked. “There are rules for civil matters and there are rules for criminal matters. They are separate and apart … We can’t drive into criminal court everyone who disobeys a court order.”
Should Moore’s decision stand, it may mean prosecutors will have to pursue future actions against Gibbons, and any other accused violators of the injunction, in civil courts. However, Crown counsel Emile Carrington argued on June 5 before Madam Justice E. Eva Frank that Justice Moore had not given adequate consideration to the question of in which court the injunction matter should be dealt with.
He posited that Moore did not cite case law and made a ruling too soon after the final submissions. Carrington then presented case law that demonstrated how civil matters have been dealt with in criminal courts and said such modes of proceeding are quicker and less expensive for the justice system.
Gibbons’s lawyer Daniel Santoro, however, replied that criminal courts cannot get bogged down in dealing with endless civil matters when their criminal dockets are already overbooked. He, in turn, presented case law that demonstrated how civil matters should be dealt with only in civil courts and said there are numerous advantages to trying violators of the injunction in such courts.
Gibbons was present in the courtroom, sitting in the prisoner’s box wearing green prison wear as several of her supporters watched the proceedings from the public gallery. She is in custody awaiting trial on new charges of disobeying a court order and mischief to property, laid in connection with her arrest outside the Scott “Clinic” abortion site last Jan. 20.
Justice Frank reserved her decision after the two-hour appeal hearing. Sources told LifeSiteNews that the Crown will withdraw the other pending charges against Gibbons should its appeal be unsuccessful; however, the Crown has also indicated it may take the matter to a yet-higher court if it loses.
During another court hearing on June 8, Gibbons was remanded in custody to July 8 at 10 a.m. in Room 503 of the Ontario Court of Justice at College Park in downtown Toronto to set a trial date on her current charges.
To read numerous previous LifeSiteNews reports on Linda Gibbons, who has spent a total of almost 6 years in prison for her peaceful protests, enter the phrase “Linda Gibbons” into the LifeSiteNews search.