OTTAWA — After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision Friday — the ruling that had, for decades, guaranteed a woman’s right to get an abortion across the United States — Liberal politicians north of the border were were quick to suggest that Canadians shouldn’t take their freedoms for granted.
“No country in the world, including Canada, is immune to what’s going on in the United States,” said Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, as other ministers and MPs chimed in with similar warnings.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeated time and again that every woman has the right to an abortion in Canada, promising Friday to defend those rights.
But in a country that has no legal framework governing abortion, what does that actually mean — and why are abortion-rights advocates urging Trudeau to avoid enshrining that right into law, once and for all?
Here’s what you need to know.
What is the legal status of abortion in Canada?
Abortion has been legal in Canada since 1988, when the Supreme Court decided in R. v. Morgentaler that a law that criminalized abortion was unconstitutional.
Since a 1969 reform under Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government, Section 251 of the Criminal Code had narrowly allowed for abortions in cases where a committee decided a woman’s health or life was in danger, but it still penalized health service providers and women themselves for participating in other abortions.
In a 5-2 decision, the court upheld an acquittal of abortion advocate Henry Morgentaler and struck down the existing law.
“Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to carry a fetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus a violation of security of the person,” read the majority opinion by chief justice Brian Dickson.
Today, abortion falls under provincial health-care systems as a medical procedure, meaning that access to the procedure varies considerably from place to place.
Why didn’t Parliament pass legislation?
The Supreme Court’s decision left a legal vacuum, so it threw the ball back in Parliament’s court to figure out whether any “reasonable limits” should be applied.
Under the majority Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, the House of Commons passed a law in 1990 that would have made it a criminal offence to induce an abortion unless a physician deemed that the woman’s life or health was likely to be threatened otherwise.
But the bill died in the Senate, where the vote came to a rare tie.
No government has since attempted to legislate on the issue.
Is anybody talking about introducing an abortion bill today?
In the Morgentaler decision, the Supreme Court did not explicitly state that access to abortion is a fundamental right — and no other Canadian court has said so since.
When a leaked copy of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade was released in May, reporters asked Trudeau whether he would consider putting legislation on the table to enshrine such a right.
He left open the possibility, but said his government wants to prevent a situation where rights are rolled back by future governments or court decisions.
“Maybe it’s legislation, maybe it’s not legislation, maybe it’s leaving it in the hands of the Canadian Medical Association that has ensured governance over these procedures for a long time,” Trudeau said at the time.
The only federal abortion-related legislation introduced in recent years have been private member’s bills by Conservatives that would outlaw certain types of abortions or criminalize the killing of a fetus during an attack on a pregnant woman.
Such bills have not passed.
What’s the case against formally enshrining a right to abortion?
Experts and advocacy groups have roundly criticized the idea of creating any sort of stand-alone law on abortion, saying that this could lead to a plethora of unintended consequences.
“We have no specific legislation for a hip replacement or other medical procedures, so why would we need one for abortion?” said Julia Tétrault-Provencher, chair of the national steering committee of the reproductive rights working group of the National Association of Women and the Law.
Even if the law simply enshrined abortion as a right, putting it on the books could open the door to subsequent governments’ more-restrictive amendments, advocates fear.
“We’ve seen that the power of very small but vocal anti-choice and conservative groups can make a huge impact, and we just don’t know what the country’s going to look like in the future,” said Jill Doctoroff, executive director of National Abortion Federation Canada.
As soon as a new law passed, court cases would be brought to test its constitutionality, said University of Ottawa law professor Daphne Gilbert — creating “legitimacy and a platform” for anti-abortion activists to bring their cases to the courtroom.
Federal legislation could also raise a division of powers debate and give provinces the bandwidth to talk about regulating or restricting abortion in a bigger way, Gilbert said, which could jeopardize advocates’ hard-fought gains.
“There’s absolutely no upside and a whole bunch of downside.”
Are there alternatives to legislation?
While advocates are pleading for Trudeau to keep his powder dry on the legislative front, they still want his government to be active in improving access to abortion in Canada.
In 2021, the Liberals promised $45 million over three years to improve sexual and reproductive health support, information and services, which Tétrault-Provencher said should be made a permanent fund.
Under the Canada Health Act, Ottawa has the authority to claw back provincial health transfers when provinces provide inadequate access to services.
Trudeau’s government has already done that on a minor scale, withholding $140,000 from New Brunswick for failing to provide funding for abortions at a Fredericton clinic — but Gilbert said that’s not enough.
“That’s peanuts in an overall health budget. I think they could strengthen the carrot and stick of the regulatory power.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2022.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
