Tell Justin Trudeau to condemn attack on pro-life woman. Sign the petition here.
TORONTO, Ontario, October 15, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — Toronto cops are investigating the assault caught on video two weeks ago in which a pro-abort threw a metal dolly at a pro-life woman at Ryerson University.
In the video, Gabriela (Gabby) Skwarko is seen throwing the metal dolly, trying to yank a backpack off a woman, throwing her stainless-steel thermos to the ground, and then pushing her victim around.
Later in that video, she chest-bumps a pro-life man who has videotaped the incident.
Despite the video, though, no arrests had yet been made as of early Monday afternoon and Toronto police are not yet calling Skwarko a suspect. Police spokeswoman Katrina Arrogante identified Skwarko only as “a person of interest.”
“At this stage, the detective is gathering and reviewing all of the relevant evidence, and we've been doing our best to cooperate and provide all of the requested materials as quickly as possible,” said Blaise Alleyne, one of the two Toronto Against Abortion pro-lifers assaulted in this unprovoked, pro-abort attack.
“We expect charges will be laid,” said Alleyne in an interview Monday.
In addition to the police investigation, Ryerson's student conduct office is undertaking its own inquiry into the incident.
“Interim measures have been applied to Gabby under the (university's student conduct code), forbidding contact with me and requiring that she stay 100 metres away from me and any pro-life demonstration that I'm a part of while the student conduct office investigates the matter,” said Alleyne.
The assault against Alleyne and Katie Somers, the woman wearing the backpack in the video, took place at Ryerson on Monday afternoon, October 1, according to the information on Toronto Against Abortion's YouTube page.
“(Skwarko) kicked the stack of signs I was holding and, with two hands, she shoved me,” said Alleyne. “As she did, she brought the entire stack of signs down on Katie's leg.”
It was the weight of that stack of signs that caused most of the injuries Somers suffered, said Alleyne.
Toronto Against Abortion has a strict policy of not responding to violence with violence. Alleyne thinks his attacker may have been trying to get him and other members of the pro-life organization to break with that policy.
“It was like she was trying to goad us into fighting somebody,” he said. “We don't fight back. We de-escalate.”
Skwarko is a member of the Ryerson Reproductive Justice Collective, an assistant at the university's office of social innovation, and was last year the faculty of arts director with its student union, said Alleyne.
Although her Facebook page has been taken down since the assault, Skwarko has previously identified her girlfriend as Emily Mae, another member of the Reproductive Justice Collective. In an ironic twist, Mae has previously warned other students on Facebook of the alleged threat she thinks is posed by pro-lifers on campus. That post has since been removed.
A member of Reproductive Justice Collective also attempted to block one of the cameras from filming the attack, said Alleyne.
The unprovoked assault has left members of the Toronto Against Abortion group, especially Somers, shaken but more determined than ever to continue their work.
“We will not be intimidated by pro-choice violence,” said Alleyne. “All of Toronto Against Abortion's scheduled activism are moving forward as planned.”
The attack against members of Toronto Against Abortion is just one in a string of recent incidents of pro-abort violence against pro-lifers.
In a video that has since gone viral, another pro-abort, Jordan Hunt, was seen earlier this month roundhouse-kicking pro-lifer Marie-Claire Bissonnette on a Toronto street corner in broad daylight, knocking her phone from her hands, and hitting her on the shoulder. According to Bissonnette, he then tore a Campaign Life ribbon from her jacket before running off.
Just prior to the attack, Hunt was seen talking and standing next to a woman holding a pro-abort sign that read, “My body, my choice.” Around his neck on a chain, Hunt was seen in that video wearing an inverted pentagram, a symbol commonly associated with Satan.
In the wake of that September 30 attack, the 26-year-old lost his job at Noble Studio 101, a hair salon, and is facing eight counts of assault and seven counts of mischief under $5,000. He has been released on bail.