Canadian Supreme Court upholds BC's abortion clinic "bubble zone" law

[JBoy]

"Patients and staff who enter abortion clinics in B.C. will still be able do so without direct harassment, now that the Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed a challenge to a provincial anti-protest law.

The decision by the country's top court opens the door for other provinces to adopt their own legislation offering "bubble zone" protection, said a lawyer representing one of the interveners in the case.

The decision Thursday confirms a unanimous ruling by the B.C. Appeal Court which upheld the province's so-called "bubble zone" law prohibiting demonstrators from protesting, or attempting to influence, anyone within 50 metres of abortion clinics.

..........

Donald Spratt was arrested outside a clinic in east Vancouver in 1998 with a large wooden cross and a sign that said, "You shall not murder." He was convicted under the B.C. legislation and has been fighting the "bubble zone" legislation in the courts ever since. He believes the latest court ruling has turned anti-abortion activists into "second-class citizens under Canada's two-tiered legal system," and he's urging politicians to intervene."

more - http://www.vancouversun.com/news/challenge+clinic+bubble+zone/1715687/story.html

[Kerrytravelers]

1. Are the Canadian forced-birth crowd as dangerous at their American counterparts?

[JBoy]

2. Generally no. Active anti-abortion protesters are considered fringe nutjobs now.

There were three shootings of doctors providing abortion services in the mid to late 90s - all shot in their homes, none fatal. Since then the violence has pretty much disappeared, and the protests are dropping off.

[Posteritatis]

6. The extreme up here's generally less extreme

The right's been trying to play catchup, but it's only working so "well" so far.

[Sal Minella]

3. Just had a strange thought.

Republicans in the U.S. say they don't want "some bureaucrat coming between" the patient and her doctor.

But if the bureaucrat decides to lunge at the patient, while waving a crucifix and screaming anti-choice slogans at her, then it's okay.

We do live in a marvelous country, I must say.

[Vidar]

4. Even under Harper, Canada puts the US to shame.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Before we get all happy about this...consider if it was something the liberals wanted to protest and

it had similar protections. Substitute X for abortion...that kind of thing. Civil liberties in Canada are much more controlled by the gov in Canada. That is not always a good thing. Consider the hate speech cases that have been used to control what is said against the horrors of islam.