WINNIPEG, Manitoba (LifeSiteNews) –– Canada’s top pro-life group has blasted a proposed new bill by the socialist New Democratic Party provincial government of Manitoba which would ban pro-life speech around abortuaries by mandating buffer zones, calling such a bill an “utterly totalitarian” censorship law that would violate Charter rights.
“This proposed bill is utterly totalitarian,” said the president of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) Manitoba Maria Slykerman, in press comments sent to LifeSiteNews.
“It makes an enemy of every Manitoban who values the freedoms that make Canada such a great place to live – including the freedom to gather and speak in the public square, no matter who you are or what your views are.”
On March 7, the NDP Manitoba government under its new Premier Wab Kinew announced it was planning to introduce a new law that would “establish protected access zones outside clinics and facilities that provide abortion services and at service providers’ residences and offices.”
As noted by CLC, the new law would in effect create a “buffer zone around abortion mills” as well as other facilities that provide “surgical or chemical abortion services.”
Additionally, the new law, if passed, would give special protections to physicians and pharmacists who prescribe chemical “at-home” abortion drugs such as Mifegymiso to women.
Slykerman said that the bubble zone censorship laws are “contrary to our Charter Right to freedom of expression and to gather” and have been “entirely unwelcomed in every province in which they have been introduced.”
“Passing such a law in Manitoba will only make this province a more repressive and dangerous place to live,” she said.
CLC’s National President Jeff Gunnarson noted that the NDP used to be the party for the “little guy,” but have now abandoned the “littlest of those among us, the preborn child, by banning the free speech rights of those who are committed to being a voice for these little voiceless ones.”
“Let’s be clear: preborn babies are being killed in these centres. These are humans we’re talking about here, humans with human rights, including the right to life. But they have no voice. So, pro-lifers become their voice and try to convince mothers to choose life for their babies,” he said.
The new bill comes after a similar bill was voted down in the Manitoba legislature in 2021.
In 2021, Manitoba was governed by a Conservative government when it voted against an “anti-free speech and pro-abortion” bill seeking to bar pro-life activists from peacefully protesting in front of abortion clinics.
‘Simply evil’
Gunnarson observed that it is “simply evil” that a government wants to “criminalize those voices at abortion centers who are trying to save lives, who are trying to stand up for the victim of a violent and cruel death,” before taking a shot at Manitoba’s new premier.
“Shame on Wab Kinew and the entire NDP for abandoning the preborn child with this anti-human-rights legislation. May God have Mercy on us,” he added.
Other Canadian provinces, such as Alberta and Ontario, already have in place laws that ban protests outside places where abortions are performed.
In 2017, Ontario passed the misleadingly titled “Safe Access to Abortion Act” that barred pro-life activists from demonstrating or ministering within 50 meters (roughly 150 feet) of the property line of an abortion clinic.
In 2018, Alberta passed a province-wide “bubble zone” law that came into force under then-Premier Rachel Notley of the NDP. The law makes it illegal for pro-lifers and counselors to come within 50 meters of an abortion facility for any activism-related purposes.
Under the harsh law, first-time violators face a $5,000 fine and up to six months in prison.
In 2022, Calgary City Council passed a motion directing its managers to draft a bylaw that would severely limit the distribution of pro-life flyers to people’s homes in what is being described by a leading pro-life group as a direct attack on “pro-life speech.”
When it comes to abortion, the reality is that Canada has some of the most relaxed laws in the world, with there being no law banning the grisly procedure after any particular gestational period.
According to CLC, abortion has killed over four million preborn babies in Canada since its legalization in 1969, which is roughly equivalent to the total population of the province of Alberta.