Newsreport on Heroine Linda Gibbons

Cabbagetown abortion protester acquitted of obstructing police officer
Posted: September 30, 2008, 6:20 PM by Rob Roberts By Melissa Leong, National Post

A 60-year-old Toronto grandmother who has been arrested more than a dozen times for silently protesting in front of a Cabbagetown abortion clinic was acquitted today of her latest charges. Over the last 14 years, Linda Gibbons estimates she has spent a total of about 75 months in jail. It’s because she continues to violate a 1994 court order that prohibits counseling and pro-life outreach within 60 feet of The Scott Clinic on Gerrard Street. She was charged with obstructing a police officer after she was arrested on July 31. This afternoon, Justice S. Ford Clements said simply disobeying a court order does not constitute obstructing justice.“The defendant was peaceful and silent,” the judge said, though she stepped away when the officer took her elbow to persuade her to move beyond 60 feet of the clinic. Ms. Gibbons left the prisoner’s box and walked out of the courtroom wearing her prison-issued forest green sweat shirt and pants. Several of her supporters, many pro-life advocates, hugged her outside. One man put money in her hand to help with her cause. Someone offered to drive her back to the Toronto West Detention Centre to pick up her clothing and hundreds of letters from sympathizers. She has only been acquitted twice. But that matters little to her. “Picketing on a sidewalk is a constitutional right,” she said today. She uses the same sign each time she protests, a placard with a photo of a crying baby which reads, “Why mom, when I have so much love to give?” She says she just stands mute on the sidewalk holding pamphlets and a model of a “baby fetus” that fits in her palm. “No one has a Charter right to interfere in another person’s medical care,” said Maria Corsillo, manager of The Scott Clinic, which opened in 1986. “The question every patient asks is, ‘Why is she allowed to do that?’” People are entitled to their beliefs but they should not impose them on others, she said. She used the example of people opposing blood transfusions for religious reasons. “Do you see those people standing and obstructing entrances to blood donor clinics?” Ms. Gibbons, a Whitehorse native, had an abortion at the age of 22 and later became a counselor for women. Between 2001 and 2007, she stayed out of prison because she was caring for her elderly parents in Alberta. But this spring, she returned to what she said God has called her to do. On May 15, she was arrested. She was released on July 28 and re-arrested on July 31. She is now staying with a former employer because she does not think she will be on the outside for long. In prison, Ms. Gibbons leads Bible studies and provides pro-life literature. She calls her fellow inmates “her girls.” She celebrated her 50th birthday in prison, as well as her 60th “and maybe, I’ll be in jail for my 70th,” she says, with a chuckle.“If I had to spend a lifetime in jail to save one baby, it would be worth it.”

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