News

By Tony Gosgnach

TORONTO, Ontario, October 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Linda Gibbons will continue to languish in prison until at least Oct. 29 after a brief appearance in the Ontario Court of Justice in downtown Toronto on Sept. 30.

About a dozen supporters looked on from the public gallery as Gibbons was led into the prisoner’s box to hear defence counsel Nicholas Rouleau and a Crown attorney agree to put the hearing off until that date. The hearing pertains to a criminal charge of disobeying a court order, over which the defence is raising a motion of abuse of process.

According to co-defence counsel Daniel Santoro, the defence needs time to investigate the circumstances surrounding a civil court hearing that was held in 2001. That hearing was aimed at moving forward on what was then already a very aged “temporary” court injunction prohibiting pro-life activity surrounding specified Toronto abortion sites. A 16-year temporary injunction is unheard-of in legal annals. Apparently the government – the plaintiff in the case begun in 1994 – and pro-life counsel failed to agree on how to proceed and the matter was allowed to whither.

The defense argues that the government’s failure to act on the issue of the temporary injunction renders it incapable of using that order to criminally prosecute anyone accused of violating it. However, Madam Justice Mara Beth Greene has already ruled that the defence is not entitled to disclosure of Crown documents related to why it has failed to proceed with the matter. She has also rejected constitutional arguments against it.

During the hearing on Thursday, Greene said that she was troubled by the delays in hearing the current matter and stressed it will be the last adjournment to be granted in the case. She added that regardless of the outcome of the proceedings, Gibbons will not be subject to any additional jail time beyond that which she has already served.

In regard to another, earlier charge of disobeying a court order, the defence is appealing the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada, if it will agree to hear the case. At issue is whether an injunction pronounced in a civil court can then be prosecuted in a criminal court. The Ontario Court of Appeal, in a lengthy decision, ruled that it can, setting the stage for the matter to move to Canada’s highest court.

The Oct. 29 hearing will be held in Room 504 of the Ontario Court of Justice at College Park, Yonge and College Streets in downtown Toronto.