CANADA

A dialogue for peace taking place in
Toronto from November 23 to 25 offers
a unique opportunity and insight for
Canadians, says one of its organizers.
With an international array of par-
ticipants, many of them widely-known
dignitaries, and some of whom will tour
Canada, the dialogue is welcoming and
in fact urging participation by a wide
range of Canadian organizations con-
cerned about world peace and
disarmament. .

Gordon Flowers, executive director
of the Canadian Peace Congress which,
in conjunction with the World Peace
Council, is sponsoring the event, said in
an interview with the Tribune that its
purpose is to seek ‘common objectives

sure world peace.

‘*There are five main themes, which I
think cover the major questions the
peace movement has to look at at this
stage,’ Flowers said. ‘‘One is the need
for unity and common goals and com-
mon actions. To some degree that is
why the peace movement was success-
ful around the war in Vietnam. . . It was
a united movement around that ques-
tion with common objectives and
common goals.”

He pointed to the need to bring to-
gether the struggles for women’s equal-
ity, the question of non-intervention
~ and independence, the need for con-
version from war production to produc-
tion for people’s needs, as well as the
struggle for jobs.

Another aspect of the dialogue, (its
full names is: World Dialogue on the
Prevention of Nuclear War, for Dis-
armament and Peace), is the United
Nations world disarmament campaign.

and common goals”’ in an effort to en-.

world dignitaries
for peace exchange

‘*And next year, of course, is going to
be the 40th anniversary of the founding
of the United Nations, as well as the
40th anniversary of the defeat of fas-
cism, and the 40th anniversary of the
U.S. atom bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki,” Flowers pointed out.

He noted in addition that 1986 will be
the International Year of Peace.

“TI think that the vast majority of
countries in the United Nations support
the demands of the peace movement
around the question of a nuclear freeze,
no first strike, increasing the areas of
nuclear weapons-free zones, and so
forth,’’ Flowers said. ‘‘The vast major-
ity of countries in the UN are on record
in support of these demands and in fact
in support of the objectives of the peace
movement.

“In organizing the dialogue we are
stressing the importance of getting
people from all over the world to come
together to discuss these issues. It is
crucial to do this at this stage, particu-
larly with the re-election of Ronald
Reagan. And it’s a great opportunity for
Canadians in particular, because it’s
being held in Canada, to meet each
other and to get insight from experts
from around the world,”’ said Flowers.

He mentioned that there will be of-
ficials on hand from the United Nations
agencies on disarmament, and that **.. .
we've invited Doug Roche (Canada’s
ambassador on disarmament) to at-
tend.’’ External Affairs Minister Joe
Clark has been invited, ‘‘and if he can-
not make it we’re hoping that someone
from External Affairs will be able to
come and participate because we feel
that is very important. It’s not a ques-
tion of people agreeing with us, but of

Romesh Chandra
President
World Peace Council

getting a dialogue going, getting a lot of
people together to discuss and, it’s to be

hoped, to come to some common objec- °

tives and goals.”

He said that efforts were being made
to have representation from Generals
for Peace and Disarmament, headed by
Major-General Leonard Johnston,
former commandant of the defence col-
lege in Kingston, Ontario, and from
other veterans’ organizations.

Asked what sort of relationship he
saw between this international dialogue
and the work of his and other peace
organizations in Canada, Flowers said
he expected the dialogue to ‘contribute
to the process of unity and cooperation
among Canadian peace organizations.

‘‘We are looking at the possibility of
having a national conference in the
spring, here in Toronto,”’ he said. “*And
certainly this will contribute to getting
clarity about what it is we should unite
around, what type of campaigns and
policies are needed. Some of these
campaigns will be similar on a world

Gordon Flowers
2 Executive Director
Canadian Peace Congress

scale, and some will be specifica
Canadian, suchas opposing Cruise té
ing on our territory, and working

- make Canada a nuclear weapons-fi

zone.”

But the World Dialogue is clearly!
‘‘peace priority’’ of the day. ““We
looking at getting as broad a partici
tion as possible, and I’m repeating
because it’s essential to making t
dialogue a step forward for all of
peace forces... The women’s mo
ment, the trade union moveme
young people, students, elected
ficials, as well as representation fr
the main peace organizations are
being urged to take part, he explain

The World Dialogue takes place
the Skyline Toronto Hotel, 655 Dix
Road, but information about it may
obtained from the Canadian — Pe
Congress, 671 Danforth Ave., Toro!
(416-469-3422). The first dialogue |
gins at 2 p.m., Friday, Nov. 23%
overall registration fee is $25.

ae

By KERRY McCUAIG

Murmurs of protest swept through the packed court-
room as Supreme Court of Ontario Judge William Parker
summed up the three-week trial of Dr. Henry Morgen-
taler, Nov. 5, with implied instructions to the jury to
_convict. :

Defence lawyer Morris Manning had argued for the
acquittal of the Quebec doctor and his two associates,
Ontario physicians Leslie Smoling and Robert Scott say-
ing they acted out of necessity in setting up clinic in
Toronto last year to protect the health and lives of
women facing long delays in obtaining abortions.
Given the letter of the law, the doctors are guilty.
Under the Canadian Criminal Code, abortion can only be
performed in hospitals with an accredited review com-
mittee which decides if a woman’s health would be en-
dangered by the continuation of the pregnancy. Charged
with conspiracy to commit abortion, the three men face a
possible life sentence. :
Throughout the trial, Manning exposed just how in-
human that law is. Probably the most revealing was
testimony given by Diane Sacks, a doctor at the Hospital
for Sick Children. She told of the desperation of young
girls — some as young as 14 — who come to her seeking
an abortion. ‘‘I’m on the phone every day with some
hysterical young person and some hysterical parent,”’
she told the court. She spoke of ‘‘bookfuls of kids’” who
have called her and she had nowhere to send them. *‘I’m
ashamed as a physician, that we’re not doing better.”

A delay in receiving an abortion is not academic. After
the first seven weeks, each passing week increases the
risk of major complication by 20 per cent, the risk of
death by 30 per cent. If performed before the 12th week,
abortion is a simple D & C procedure. After that the
woman must wait for the 16th week when a painful saline
crag is necessary, producing a long and traumatic

bor.

Sacks told of one teenager who was literally taken off
the operating table when medical personnel found she
had passed the 20th week of her pregnancy. Toronto
hospitals rarely do abortions after 20 weeks. “‘She came

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 14, 1984

Court shows anti-woman bias in abortion trial

over to us swearing she was going to kill herself,’’ related
Sacks.

But jt is not only young girls who suffer. Janis Tripp, a
social worker, told of a Toronto woman who worked
shifts. Hospital abortion quotas were always filled up by
the time her calls got through. In desperation she decided
to pay for a doctor’s referral, the doctor refused to act
until she had the full amount in cash.

Manning spoke of the ‘“‘great Ontario telephone lot-
tery’. Hospitals have very strict quotas which can
change overnight. Toronto General gets 75 calls a day
from women requiring abortions. It performs only six.

“You keep dialling and dialling and dialling. There is
no other way. You can’t stop and have coffee and dial
again. And by the time you get through, all the appoint-
ments are taken.”’ But the stakes are high, *‘so you start
again the next day,”’ Tripp said.

Besides the delays, the abortion laws present other
roadblocks. Gynecologists who remain within the sys-
tem have found it a lucrative business. Most require
payment just for referring patients to a doctor who will
do an abortion. At the agency where Tripp works, only
36 doctors will take patients.

“ve heard of a few family physicians asking for $100
just to give the name of a gynecologist to a patient.”
Then Tripp added: ‘‘I had to refer a rape victim to one of
these gynecologists, no less, begging him to reduce his
fee. He would not.”

Other witnesses painted a no-less grueling picture. A
U.S. doctor spoke of the rising number of Canadian
women travelling to her clinic to receive abortions. A
Quebec doctor said it took a nun becoming pregnant for
him to realize that his job was not to judge or moralize
but to help.

In his four-hour charge to the six men and six women
of the jury. Justice Parker did his fair share of moralizing.
In systematically tearing apart the defence of the ac-
cused, he also appeared to piously disregard the pain,
anguish and human suffering of thousands of Canadian
women. — :

Lawyer Manning, in his 120-point objection to the

summation, given while the jury waited in an adjoin
room, pointed out how Justice Parker had consistel
used Crown evidence to refute defence arguments W
virtually never conceeding a point.

The defence of necessity is only applicable, Pat!
said, when a person breaks the law in a situation
urgent peril. He conceeded that delays in abortion wi
‘‘undesirable’’ but the risk of death or complication ¥
‘‘so minimal” it didn’t constitute a life threatening si!
tion. After all he concluded ‘‘no one has died in
years.”

The jury was told that other legal options were opel
the defendants, they could, like other health pr
sionals, refer women requiring abortions out of provin
The jurors were also told the abortion laws weren't!
harmful” since ‘‘everyone ends up getting one”’ ev
tually.

He then went on to castigate Lawyer Manning.
suggesting the jury disregard the law as unjust an®
structed them to ignore Mogentaler’s three aquittal:
Quebec.

Short shrift was also made of defence arguments t
the laws discriminate against the poor with: “Life 1
that in many ways’’. Then in an indirect swipe at M
ning and crediting Crown charges that Morgen
actions were based on financial gain, he said the poor
example had to rely on young, inexperienced lawY'

Justice Parker revised his charge slightly the follow
day but the die was cast. The Crown’s job was made &
by the judge re-inforcing the old adage ‘the law #6
law’’ and damned the consequences. His side co
that the jury was free to disregard his words oes
explain away his apparent contempt for the accus®”
for women. ;

As sure as a blackened eye or a broken arm, No!
will go down as the day women took a beatin8 3
Canadian court room. ¥

ee

As the Tribune went to press, Nov. 8, the jury acqul
ted Dr. Morgentaler and his associates. i