Freed Canadian pro-life activist thanks the many thousands who supported her

TORONTO, September 15, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Canadian pro-life activist Mary Wagner, 43, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months’ probation and 50 hours of community service on convictions of mischief and breach of probation arising from her December 12, 2016, arrest at the Bloor West Village Women’s Clinic, where she tried to persuade women to choose life for their unborn babies.

When Ontario Justice Rick Libman told Wagner she could submit character references at her sentencing hearing, she asked pro-lifers to send letters defending the unborn child’s right to life. Libman received 850 letters, 34,000 emails and 67,000 petition signatures.

While he hadn’t “contemplated” receiving “essentially a petition” to exonerate Wagner, Libman said letters from Wagner’s family and friends influenced his decision not send her back to jail. Wagner had served six months awaiting trial.

This is Wagner’s note of thanks to all who supported her:

Dear Friends of Life,

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the many, many who offered their prayer for my recent sentencing hearing, prayer not only for me but especially that justice would be served.

Thanks as well to the great number of people who took the time to write letters of support for me and on behalf of our littlest brothers and sisters. It certainly was amazing to see the volume of letters and emails, and the range of thoughts expressed in giving a voice to the tiny voiceless ones.

It would not have been possible to have received and processed all the correspondence without the help of members of Campaign Life Coalition, who offered the email address and mailing address and who meticulously handled everything that was sent, along with the help of volunteers and others who work closely with them. A big thank you!

I would also like to thank the many who came to court and those who have been present for so long when I have had to be there. Your presence during the often tedious proceedings is a strong, silent witness to concern for justice for God's littlest ones.

Thank you to those who offered sacrifices and who were elsewhere doing whatever God was calling them to do … especially those who were praying and reaching out to abortion-minded mothers at the killing places, consoling the Heart of Jesus rejected and forgotten there.

It is good not to be sent back to jail, (though it is true that our faith encourages us to rejoice in any hardship, because of the wisdom of the Cross); we are called to give thanks in everything, and in this case as well.

To those who are familiar with the usual treatment of people charged with “crimes” related to defending the littlest ones, Judge Libman's approach stands out in a relatively positive light, and as [president of Campaign Life Coalition] Jim Hughes remarked, it is “a step forward.”

I would like to add that I pray we would only become more fervent in faith and remember that no matter how lenient a sentence could be given, a guilty finding in itself reminds us that our littlest brothers and sisters do not count at all in the eyes of the courts, to our great shame.

May God give us his Light and and Love to be his joyful witnesses!

Mary