TORONTO—If you didn’t already know it was there, you'd never spot the Morgentaler abortion clinic in Toronto’s upscale Leaside neighbourhood. On a quiet, tree-lined residential street, around the corner from a natural foods grocer and a gourmet pizza shop, is a nondescript grey door.
On either side of it are the entrance and exit to an underground parking lot. There’s no sign, only the words “clinic entrance” printed in white lettering on the door.
An elderly lady with a pink sweater tied around her waist began her slow march back and forth in front of that door at 9 a.m. May 30. She was holding a large sign printed with an illustration of a baby and the words, “Why mom? When I have so much love to give.”
For the next few hours, she continued without pause, except for brief, subdued exchanges with young couples and multiple women on their way into the clinic. Long ago, she had walked through a door like that as a pregnant young woman, and she has regretted it ever since.
Linda Gibbons, 75, told The Epoch Times on May 30 that she had every expectation police would show up to arrest her. She was breaking an Ontario law that prohibits demonstrations within 50 metres of an abortion clinic. She had been arrested in the same location several days earlier, on May 23.
“I’m answering the cry of the unborn,” she said.
The women Ms. Gibbons spoke to as they entered the clinic did not appear to react strongly. Around 1 p.m., a woman yelled at Ms. Gibbons to “get out of here.” It was the only overtly hostile encounter since 9 a.m.
Many passersby discussed Ms. Gibbons and her sign, wondering why she was there, surmising there must be an abortion clinic nearby despite being unable to see it.
Ms. Gibbons raised her six children in Toronto and now has six grandchildren, the youngest of which is 4 years old. She was an atheist at the time of her abortion, and it was years later, after finding her faith, that she had a heart-to-heart with God about it.
She asked why he hadn’t helped her find faith before her abortion. “Then my baby wouldn’t have died,” she said. She said she heard the response: “You destroyed your child. I gave my child to pay for that.” The reference is to Jesus having died on the cross to pay for the sins of the world.
Ahead of her arrests, Ms. Gibbons doesn’t feel nervous, she said, because “I give it to God. What he wills, when he wills, as he wills.”
She was not arrested on May 30 after all, and spent a few more days in early June “witnessing,” as Christian pro-life advocates call it, in front of Morgentaler. But she was arrested on June 6.
She went to court the next day, but no charges were laid against her, said Pete Baklinski, spokesperson for the Campaign Life Coalition pro-life organization.
Toronto Police Service told The Epoch Times it cannot confirm information about arrests unless criminal charges are laid. The Ontario Court of Justice did not reply to an Epoch Times inquiry regarding Ms. Gibbons as of publication.
Ms. Gibbons remained silent when questioned by the judge, Mr. Baklinski said. She wouldn’t even nod yes or no when questioned. Ms. Gibbons told The Epoch Times this is her approach. “I go silent,” she said.
She doesn’t speak a word after being arrested, and even refrains from eating and drinking beforehand so she won’t have to ask for the washroom.
Her silence symbolizes “remembrance of the pre-born who have no voice,” Mr. Baklinski said via email.
Safe Access Zone Laws, Protests
British Columbia was the first to pass a bubble zone law in 1995 after heavy protesting outside two clinics and the shooting of abortion provider Dr. Gary Romalis. Since their inception, bubble zones have had their violators.Activists Donald Spratt and Gordon Watson were arrested outside Everywoman’s Health Centre in Vancouver in 1998 for holding pro-life signs within the bubble zone. They were convicted in 2000 of breaching the Access to Abortion Services Act. They appealed the decision on the grounds of free expression, but lost the appeal in 2008.
Prohibited activities within the zone include “advising a person to refrain from accessing abortion services, abortion-related protests, activities that intimidate or physically interfere with individuals accessing or providing abortion services.”
The penalty for a first-time offence is up to $5,000 in fines and/or imprisonment up to six months. Subsequent penalties could include up to $10,000 in fines and/or imprisonment up to 12 months.
Multiple pro-life activists besides Ms. Gibbons have broken the law in Ontario. Cyril Winter was the first, in 2018, but died of heart disease before his case went to court.
She spent three months in prison before the charges were withdrawn, reported the Catholic Register at the time.
Ms. Gibbons took a hiatus on her activism after 2016. She dedicated several years to caring for a friend, who died recently at the age of 97. Now, Ms. Gibbons is getting back out there and she says she won’t stop.
“I’ve made it my calling in life to defend the unborn with my last breath.”