TORONTO, Apr 16 (Lifesitenews.com) – In a deal thought completed, eight pro-life nurses at Markham Stouffville Hospital were granted the right to refuse to participate in abortions since it was contrary to their religious faith. However, the deal which, according to the nurses and their lawyers was finalized, is still a little uncertain.
LifeSite sources revealed that the parties in the dispute had negotiated a deal with the hospital committee, hands were shaken and only the final authorizing signature of the hospital was outstanding as well as the signature of Ontario Human Rights Commission Chief Keith Norton. These signatures were originally delayed because of time constraints and other temporary technicalities.
Yesterday, The National Post reported that a good number of Tory MPPs strongly favour conscience legislation and quoted four who expressed their support for the nurses settlement. But, according to yesterday’s National Post, a spokesman for Ontario Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer said that “the government had no intention of even considering such legislation.”
Steve Jalsevac, the director for the Coalition for Concsience – a coalition of diverse groups and individuals working towards establishing conscience legislation, said that the group has encountered great support for the legislation. “Every MPP (from various parties) we visited was sympathetic to the need for such legislation and saw it as a reasonable solution to this labour discrimination problem,” said Jalsevac. He added that “they were previously unaware of the discrimination and stress suffered by health care workers.” The Coalition had also commissioned an Environics poll which indicated strong support for conscience legislation in every category of the public that was polled.
Considering the strong support for such legislation both from the MPP’s and the public, the strong opposition to conscience legislation from the highest echelons of the Ontario Conservatives is puzzling. High level government interference in the case of Markham Stouffville Hospital has thus not been ruled out as a possibility.
For the background on the hospital agreement:
HOSPITAL TO ALLOW NURSES TO REFUSE ABORTION DUTIES