LONDON, May 17, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A peaceful protest organized by Campaign Life Coalition with nearly 250 participants took place Sunday outside the home of University of Western Ontario (UWO) President Paul Davenport. The group was protesting the planned UWO honorary Doctorate of Laws to be conferred on Canada’s notorious abortionist Henry Morgentaler in June.
Campaign Life Coalition’s Nikki Cooke the official spokesman at the protest told LifeSiteNews.com that while the university intends to honour Morgentaler for his legacy in legalizing abortion, “his real legacy is the tens of thousands of babies he has killed, the thousands of women and men he has scarred for life by these killings.” The happily married mother of seven explained, “Women are bombarded on every side to have abortions. Yet, the dignity of women and their families are actually violated. They are physically, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually damaged forever.”
Cooke added, “My oldest son Jacob, is fifteen years old. I found out I was pregnant when I was nineteen. If I had listened to people in my life who had an influence on me at the time he would have been one of Morgentaler’s statistics.”
Retired UWO professor Dr. Barrie DeVeber took part in Sunday’s demonstration. Dr. DeVeber told the Toronto Star that he considered the move by UWO “a terrible insult.”
Both UWO board of trustees Chair Don McDougall and retired professor Don Thain admit that the abortion scandal has cost the university millions in donations. Thain puts the figure at $50 million and calls the Morgentaler honor the “worst public relations nightmare in the entire history of Western.”
Ana Andrade a UWO student who graduated last year was at the demonstration and told the press she would not consider a graduate degree at the university due to the Morgentaler controversy. ”(The decision to honour) Morgentaler made me almost shameful to have a B.A. from Western,” Andrade said. “I feel terrible for the students who are graduating. Some aren’t going,” she told the London Free Press.
Nearing the end of the protest, a full pop can was hurled from a passing car striking Cooke’s husband Brian on the shoulder. Although the man was not seriously injured, several mother’s with young children were only a few feet away and could easily have been seriously hurt had they been struck.
The can was thrown by a teenage male in a car of teenagers who had driven by the protest several times cursing the protestors. Police apprehended the culprit but Mr. Cooke said he would not press charges if a written apology was tendered. That apology, received last night, said in part, “Throwing a pop can at protesters was an act of stupidity and there should be no tolerance for what I did. Fortunately, I was not charged. I’d like to thank you greatly for not pressing charges. I am truly very sorry, I showed lack of respect and I am very lucky no one was seriously injured.”
Local television news coverage by the NewPL station demonstrated media bias in the extreme. NewPL reporter Gerry Dewan presented the peaceful protest in the context of the shooting death of abortionist Barnett Slepian.
Dewan’s report lead, “The fact that Dr. Davenport does live here with his family leads to the question – that does having the protest here put him (Davenport) and his family at risk of the more extreme elements of the anti-abortion movement.” What followed was a video clip from the 1998 shooting complete with a mugshot of the killer. Dewan continued, “In 1998 Dr. Barnett Slepian was gunned down in his suburban Buffalo home by anti-abortionist extremist James Copp. But organizers of this protest don’t think by holding the protest at Dr. Davenport’s home puts him at risk.”
An online petition against the Morgentaler honor has thus far ammassed over 10,000 signatures.
A picket of the Western University Board of Directors meeting will take place Wednesday May 18 at the Stevenson Lawson building (across from the UCC) at 11 am.
For more information contact CLC London at: 519-473-7077
