May 13, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The organizers of the National March for Life in Ottawa are crying foul after the police shortened their route to avoid a clash with pro-abortion counter-protestors who were blocking the road.
The approximately 100 abortion protestors failed to “end the March for Life,” as they aimed to do according to their materials, but they can nevertheless claim a small victory courtesy of the Ottawa Police Service.
Campaign Life Coalition, the March organizers, had obtained a permit, which allowed the city to send a travel advisory so drivers could avoid disruption.
Nevertheless, because the pro-abortion protestors set themselves up to block the road in the middle of the route, Ottawa police forced the 22,000 pro-life marchers to stop for about ten minutes after walking only a block, and then to turn several blocks early.
The pro-abortion marchers, dubbing themselves the “Proletarian Feminist Front,” clashed with police – over 50 of them – as they took over a series of streets in downtown Ottawa. “Whose street? Our street!” they chanted. After attempting to push through a police line, they ran away down another street, and one of their members was arrested after another stand off at a police blockade. Eventually the protest turned into a march on the downtown police station in a failed attempt to rescue their “comrade” from police custody.
Watch highlights of the pro-abortion protesters' stand-off with Ottawa police:
The police had already allowed members of the same group to disrupt a candlelight vigil on the night before the March for Life. The pro-abortion demonstrators blocked the stage at the Canadian Human Rights Monument with their signs, shouted in a failed attempt to drown out the speakers, and even pulled out microphone cords at one point. Police handcuffed three, and pepper sprayed a group who were trying to free them.
Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) believes the police failed to do their duty by allowing both the pro-life vigil and the March to be disrupted. Jeff Gunnarson, CLC’s vice president, emphasized that March for Life had a permit for the route, and said the police should clear the way for them.
“Instead of the cops doing their duty and clearing the streets for us, and making it safe for us, they allowed the pro-abort protestors to be a presence in such a way that they were forced to reroute our march, and so thereby really giving them a sort of victory,” he said.
“I just can’t help but think that why do peaceful protesters have to be diverted? Why not take the ones that are causing the trouble and getting them moved away? That’s just common sense to me. And the fact that we have a permit, they don’t, so they’re in our space, and yet we have to be diverted to avoid them.”
Gunnarson commended the police for maintaining peace, but said “it shouldn’t be at our expense.” The counter-protestors “should be inconvenienced, not us.”
“They need to do their job. Do we have a permit to walk down that street or not?”
Sgt. Chuck Benoit, a spokesperson for the Ottawa Police Service, told LifeSiteNews that it is not illegal to block city streets for a protest without a permit, and that even with a permit police use their discretion and can reroute to ensure public safety.
A permit advises police of the event, and of the possibility of incidents, he said, and is a sign of a partnership with the city and police. It allows them plan ahead and assist the marchers, by blocking roads for example. But if protestors show up without a permit, the police will negotiate with them.
Nevertheless, Gunnarson says Canadian police are using a double standard, pointing to an incident in 2012 when Christian pastor David Lynn was shut down by the police at the Toronto Gay Pride Parade for preaching. Lynn has also faced charges for preaching in Yonge-Dundas Square without a permit, though they were later dropped.
“He was bullied by many of the people there,” Gunnarson said. “He was really insulted by their words, he was threatened, and the cops came and eventually they surrounded him so that he couldn’t be effective anymore. In fact the police forced him to turn off the equipment.”
“The police should do everything they can to avoid any kind of disturbance or violence,” he said. “You certainly don’t get violence coming from our side. But I think they should clear the pro-abortion protestors out. ‘You’re not allowed to be here. These people have a permit.’ I mean, can you imagine if we all decided to lie down on the streets in front of the Gay Pride Parade to protest their actions within the parade? We would be pepper sprayed and handcuffed and picked up.”
Contact:
Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau
E-mail via contact form here.
Mayor Jim Watson
E-mail: [email protected]
Ottawa city councillors' contact info here.
Watch highlights from Thursday's March for Life:
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