New Brunswick Right to Life
                                                                        P.O. Box 113, Station A, Fredericton, NB E3B 4Y2
                                     Tel. (506) 459-8990 or toll-free 1-888-796-9600. Fax (506) 454-8093. Email nbrl@nb.sympatico.ca
                                                    Office: 562 Brunswick St., Fredericton, NB. Website: www.nbrighttolife.ca

                                                                Life for All. Love for All.

The mission of the New Brunswick Right to Life Association is public education concerning the most basic human right, life.

NB Right to Life does not sponsor protest activity in front of the Morgentaler abortion facility next door to us. We do believe
strongly in the right of individuals to peacefully and publicly oppose the killing of unwanted children in their mother’s wombs.
We take strong exception to any effort to outlaw the peaceful expression of the pro-life message of non-violence.

I want to say something about the language I am using today, the language that is the prime target of the proposed repressive
bubble zone law. I’m talking about the language of "babies" and "killing."

It is universally acknowledged in the medical and scientific community that pregnancy involves a living, growing BABY.
Health Canada calls it a baby - just look on a pack of cigarettes, it shows a pregnant woman and says "Cigarettes hurt babies."
The only people who deny that it’s a baby are those who are ignorant and those who have a pro-abortion agenda.

When pro-lifers speak about abortion killing babies, we are not making an assertion merely of religious faith, or using
inflammatory rhetoric. We are simply doing justice to the clinical facts. The violent death of innocent children should surely
not be minimized or euphemized.

Since the Morgentaler clinic opened in Fredericton in 1994, there have been over 6,000 abortions carried out, which means
6,000 children who are not with us today. This incredible fact - about the violent death of 6,000 children - has not to my
knowledge been publicly reported. The public needs to know what’s going on here in our capital city. They need to understand
why some people are protesting. It’s not about imposing religious views. It’s about the death of innocent children.

A recent editorial in one of our daily papers read, "Through silent vigils, a nation shows respect," referring to gatherings held
in honour of the Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. It’s the same kind of thing with the silent pro-life vigils that take place
 outside Morgentaler’s: it’s a loving way of showing respect for innocent lives being taken.

On days when children are killed at the abortuary, a number of pro-life individuals are usually present nearby in the public areas.
They quietly bear witness to their beliefs by silently praying or by holding pro-life signs such as "Choose Life" or "Let Babies Live."

Help and information are also kindly extended to mothers approaching the abortion facility, without in any way blocking their way.

The National Abortion Federation’s recent press release (FOLDER) links peaceful pro-lifers like myself to incidents of violence.
This linkage, and the other allegations made, are spurious, impugn the reputations of law-abiding citizens, and are aimed not so
much at public safety as the intolerant repression of pro-lifers’ free speech so as to expedite the aborting of unwanted children.

The aim of the bubble zones, then, is to facilitate abortions. The push for these exclusion zones must be seen in the context of
the larger current agenda of abortion advocates (SEE PETITION IN FOLDER). The end game is to eliminate all restrictions
against abortion in New Brunswick - the restriction against GP’s doing abortions, the need for 2 doctors to certify the medical
necessity of an abortion, and the ban on funding private clinics. The result would be many more individuals and facilities
performing abortions. As two doctors recently pointed out in an opinion piece, if the abortion activists get their way the result
 could be a dramatic increase in the number of New Brunswick children aborted - doubling or tripling to 2 or 3,000 a year
(ARTICLE IN FOLDER)

The practice of abortion on demand is utterly alien to our New Brunswick culture, and is opposed by the vast majority of our
people and both major political parties.

We wish to point out that any argument that a pro-life presence in front of an abortion facility interferes with a woman’s
constitutional right to an abortion rings hollow. No such right has ever been established in Canadian law. That’s exactly what
 the Morgentaler lawsuit is all about - the effort to secure such a right. On the other hand, freedom of expression is clearly
established in our Charters of Rights, as is the right to life! Therefore our public expression of pro-life views has strong legal
grounds.

I am one of the ones who is sometimes in front of the abortuary next door when children are being killed. I want to say
 something about myself, since I am one of the leading suspects as far as the abortion supporters are concerned.

I am a native New Brunswicker, grew up in Saint John, the descendant of Irish farmers who settled near Sussex. I have
worked full-time work in the pro-life movement since 1977. I became involved because as a Catholic I felt Christ’s words,
"Whatever you do to the least of my brethern, you do unto me," applied to all of the little ones in the womb. I was also
motivated by the fact that the only two siblings I had died before birth from miscarriage.

After doing pro-life work for several years in British Columbia, I returned here in 1999 with a desire to save the children
and mothers of this province from the violence of abortion. We moved the head office of NB Right to Life to Fredericton,
because our capital city had become the main abortion centre for the province. Concerned especially about the
destructiveness of the Morgentaler abortuary, I initiated a move to buy the building next door as a pro-life centre. The
Mother and Child Welcome House opened its doors in 2000, offering mothers an alternative to abortion, which it does
through the Women’s Care Centre. The House also serves as a visible sign of the New Brunswick heritage of fearing God
and respecting life.

The House here was opened for another important purpose: to manifest Christ’s love for everyone without exception -
love for the unborn, for mothers seeking an abortion, for mothers who have had abortions, love also for the very people
engaged in the taking of innocent life. The motto of NB Right to Life is, "Life for all, love for all." In other words, our
location here is designed to manifest that we do not hate anyone, we try to bear good will toward all including those
who perform abortions and those who work for an abortuary. We are peacemakers, we shun violence, and I believe our
track record at this House exemplifies that we have been reasonably good neighbours.

Being good neighbours does not mean we do not express our views, our disagreement with what takes place take door.
But it does mean we endeavour to express those views respectfully, through civilized dialogue and debate.

I want to tell you about my meeting with Henry Morgentaler. In the fall of 2003 he came to Fredericton to talk about
his lawsuit against the province .... (STORY).

The meeting I have related proves it is possible for deeply committed pro-lifers to peacefully dialogue with deeply committed
 pro-choicers. Yet the legislation that is proposed may well make that dialogue illegal. The disturbing fact is that there are some
 on the other side of the issue who are so extreme that they reject dialogue, they refuse our invitation to debate, and now they
wish to coercively squelch dialogue and debate via repressive legislation. To give you a portrait of what we are dealing with,
on April 11 there was a public meeting at UNB sponsored by various abortion advocacy groups. The question was asked,
"Did you invite the other side?" To which one of the panel speakers said to applause, "There is no other side." That’s scary.
 That’s intolerance.

So, not only do abortion advocates seek the unfettered, publicly funded licence to suppress the lives of those who have no
voice, namely the unborn, they also seek to harshly snuff out a quiet voice for the voiceless, which some of us try to be.

Such people are not only extreme but a threat to others. Those who kill the unborn, or promote violence, are by definition
dangerous to the community. Those who would also intolerantly deny the civil liberties of those who try peacefully to defend
innocent life are doubly dangerous.

Yet we, the advocates of peace, are the ones called dangerous! If ever there were a case of the pot calling the kettle black,
I think this is it.

I would to introduce some of supposed troublemakers, people like myself who believe in life and love for all and who often
come, when abortion days take place next door, to peacefully express their values and concerns.

These, and the others who come regularly are good, law-abiding, kind-hearted Christian people. I and my association cannot
 stand by while such people are implicitly maligned in the press and stand in danger of losing their free speech.

Let’s get into what really goes on on abortion days.

In the course of trying to convey our message of good will, peace and respect for life outside the abortuary, people like us have
 repeatedly had to endure incidents of harassment and abuse, both verbal and physical, occasionally from passersby or clients
at the clinic, but above all from those working for the clinic. We have been cursed at, spat upon, had eggs thrown at us, been
 pushed, shoved, threatened, maligned before others, had our signs blocked, had our quiet offers of help drowned out, had our
 literature grabbed away from clinic clients who had taken it, had the cops called after us for no reason other than intimidation,
 and been wrongly accused of all kinds of outrageous behaviour.

Our House here has also suffered several incidents of vandalism undoubtedly as a result of our pro-life views.

My wife Suzie was manhandled and hauled away in a paddy wagon by the Fredericton Police Department and preposterously
charged with the crime of "corrupting morals" and "obscenity." Why? Because she was peacefully protesting outside the clinic
while holding a true image of an aborted baby. Thankfully, the Crown has dropped all charges. We await an apology from the
Police Department for making an unjustifiable arrest and for stifling the lawful expression of free speech.

Adding further insult and injury, peaceful pro-lifers like us are now linked to "violence and harassment by anti-abortion
extremists" according to the NAF press release. It is said that "security measures" are needed along the lines of British Columbia’s
infamous bubble zone law, imposed by an ideologically driven, pro-abortion NDP government when I lived in that province,
currently the subject of constitutional challenge, and opposed by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association as an infringement
of free speech (SEE FOLDER).

Any suggestion that law-abiding pro-life citizens like us pose a safety or security threat to anyone is ludicrous. Nor to my
knowledge has there ever been a security problem at any abortion facility in the last 8 years I have been working for the
pro-life cause in NB.

Another unfounded allegation in the NAF press release is that pro-lifers have been illegally trespassing on the clinic’s
property. People like us have no trouble respecting private property. Let me tell you about the incident this press release
refers to, where police were called in. (THE HAT STORY)

Now this trivial incident is advanced as cause for a ban on civil liberties! The distortion of this incident shows a tendency
to play fast and loose with the truth.

The Gleaner news report refers to "Groups move to prevent protesters from blocking access to Morgentaler Clinic." This
allegation is totally misleading. The only access that is blocked is by the clinic’s workers who physically impede any peaceful
conversation between us and abortion-bound women by jumping between us and the woman, shouting down our voices,
and maligning us with comments like "Don’t listen to that old man, he’s crazy." There is aggression and bullying on the picket
line, but it’s not by us.

We are concerned about other unfounded accusations that the abortion advocates may be making to our government, and
are asking the Minister of Justice to advise us what the allegations are.

Pope John Paul II referred repeatedly to a global struggle between the culture of life and the culture of death. He said this
struggle is between the weak and the strong - the strong seeking to impose their will fatally upon the weak who have no voice,
who cannot resist, who are even denied the protection of the law. We here take our place on the side of the weak. We know
we are badly outmatched in professional and financial resources. We know we are the epitome of political incorrectness. Yet
like victims of yesteryear’s injustice we have the hope and courage to believe that with God’s help we shall overcome some day.

As Drs. Tom and Carolyn Barry recently pointed out in their published opinion (FOLDER), our province has a choice to make:
we either promote more childbirth to address our depopulation problem, or we facilitate more abortion. We must do one or the
 other, we cannot do both. We hope our province makes the right choice - for ourselves and future generations.