Anti-abortion activists challenge Quebec law forcing demonstrators to keep distance

MONTREAL — A Superior Court judge heard final arguments Thursday in a constitutional challenge of a Quebec law that requires protesters to stay 50 metres away from abortion clinics.

The Quebec Life Coalition and other anti-abortion activists took the province to court over the law, which they say violates their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

On the other side of the courtroom, lawyers representing the Quebec attorney general and three facilities providing abortions argued the law must stand to protect the rights of women seeking those services.

Introduced in 2016, Section 16 of the Act Respecting Health Services and Social Services states that no person is permitted to demonstrate within 50 metres of a facility providing abortion service in any way that attempts to “dissuade a woman from obtaining such a service or contest or condemn her choice of obtaining or having obtained the service.”

The law also specifies that no demonstrator may “attempt to dissuade a person from providing, or from participating in the provision of, such a service.”

Robert E. Reynolds, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said the law has prevented demonstrators from engaging in what they call “sidewalk counselling.” Georges Buscemi, president of the coalition, said in an interview that “sidewalk counselling” is a peaceful way to propose alternatives to terminating pregnancy and does not block access to the facilities.

Reynolds argued that the law effectively banishes demonstrators from expressing their views in a public space, undermining democratic debate. Therefore, he added, the law should be struck down as “inoperable and unconstitutional.”

“The plaintiffs have without a doubt the right to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression … and more specifically on sidewalks in front of buildings where abortions are provided,” he said.

However, provincial government lawyers argued the provision in the law was enacted to protect vulnerable women from harassment and intimidation. Before it was introduced, two of the three clinics fighting the challenge — Fémina Medical Clinic and Morgentaler Clinic — had to obtain injunctions against protesters, they noted.

Lawyer Éric Cantin said the limit on protesters’ Charter rights is justified and reasonable when balanced against the right of women and staff to enter the facilities without being targeted by protesters attempting to dissuade them from accessing abortion services.

“We’re not forbidding all protests. We’re not forbidding the spreading of a message,” Cantin said, explaining that the demonstrators are free to express their views outside of the buffer zones.

Joséane Chrétien, one of the lawyers representing the three clinics providing abortion services, said that protesters have subjected women and staff to aggressive and violent behaviour.

Chrétien said that at least one of those people has been “attacked,” and she alleged that Brian Jenkins, one of the plaintiffs, has followed people and published information about them online.

“He has imposed himself on patients and the people who accompany them. He follows their movements. He puts them in a repertoire and catalogues them. He puts them on his blog,” she told the court. “These are not peaceful actions.”

Quebec Superior Court Justice Lysane Cree has reserved her decision.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2024.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press