It was announced today that Dr. Henry Morgenthaler will
receive the Order of Canada.
When I hear the term "jury nullification", I immediately
think of the numerous times that juries in Quebec and
Ontario refused to convict him of performing illegal
abortions. He is a highly competent doctor who set up an
abortion clinic in Montreal when abortions were otherwise
unobtainable in that Province. In 1973 he made his activity
public and was arrested and charged with the crime of
performing an abortion other than at an authorized hospital
(there were none in Quebec). He was acquitted and the crown
appealed. Meanwhile, twice more they prosecuted him and
twice more Quebec juries refused to convict. The Quebec
Court of Appeals overturned the acquittals and sent him to
prison. (All this happened while I was in law school at the
University of Toronto.) The prosecutions only stopped when
the Liberal government of Premier Bourassa was defeated by
the Parti Quebecois and Rene Levesque became Premier.
Later, these prosecutions were repeated in Ontario.
Eventually, in 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the
case, and overturned the law making abortion a crime, as a
violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
For 15 years the people of Canada, acting as juries, stood
against their government in declaring that no crime was
committed. And at each trial, Dr. Morgenthaler took the
stand and admitted the act. He suffered much to give women
the right to a safe abortion.
The announcement of the award comes just about 20 years
after the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Francis A. Miniter
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