Toronto Woman, 75, Arrested for Pro-Life Display Near Abortion Clinic—Had 25 Prior Arrests

Linda Gibbons stands outside the Morgentaler Clinic, an abortion clinic, in Toronto on May 30, 2024. (Tara MacIsaac/The Epoch Times)

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.

Ms. Gibbons estimates she has been taken into custody “roughly” 25 times since her first arrest in 1989. A case regarding her pro-life activism even made it to the Supreme Court in 2012. Ms. Gibbons has served jail time totalling about 11 years—a month here, a few months there, she said.

“I’m answering the cry of the unborn,” she said.

“Safe access zone” laws around abortion clinics exist in many provinces. They are sometimes called “bubble zone laws” or “buffer zone laws.” Manitoba and Saskatchewan are exceptions, although a bubble zone bill was introduced in Manitoba in March.

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada says these zones protect “the safety, dignity, and privacy” of patients and abortion providers. They also protect the women seeking abortion from “emotional distress from the presence of protesters,” the organization says.

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.

She is scheduled to appear in court in July, he said. She plans to resume her march in front of Morgentaler clinic on June 12.

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.

A Court of Appeal for British Columbia decision states that the “purpose or objective of the Act is sufficiently important to justify a limitation on the way in which freedom of expression is exercised.” The objective of the bubble zone, it said, is “to protect vulnerable women and those who provide for their care to have safe, unimpeded access to health-care services.”

Ontario passed its bubble zone law in 2017 following protests at the Morgentaler Clinic in Ottawa. It established a bubble zone of 50 metres around abortion clinics and 150 metres around the homes of clinic staff.

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.

Catholic priest Tony Van Hee, 83 at the time, breached the bubble zone around Ottawa’s Morgentaler Clinic in 2018. In 2022, when he was 87, Ontario Crown Attorney Meaghan Cunningham dropped the charges against him, saying it was not in the “public interest” to proceed with prosecution.

When Ms. Gibbons’ case came before the Supreme Court in 2012, the bubble zone law did not yet exist. But a 1994 court order prevented activists from demonstrations within 60 feet of certain abortion clinics. She was charged with disobeying that court order in 2008 at the Morgentaler site she is now frequenting again. The Supreme Court dismissed her appeal.

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.”