OTTAWA — Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott, who gave Diamond Jubilee medals to two anti-abortion activists who have been jailed repeatedly, calls them “heroines of humanity.”
Vellacott gave one of his 30 allotted medals to Mary Wagner, whose aggressive actions “counselling” women in abortion clinics have repeatedly landed her behind bars.
The Saskatchewan MP also gave one to Linda Gibbons, another longtime pro-life advocate and frequent convict on mischief charges.
Wagner, 38, is currently in jail in Toronto awaiting trial after entering a clinic in August — this following a conviction earlier in the summer for a similar offence last November when she attempted to force her way into a Toronto clinic’s private treatment area.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson was not bothered by the awards, saying it is up to Vellacott to address the matter. Nicholson said that he personally is very happy to have awarded Diamond Jubilee medals to victims of crime.
A news release from Vellacott’s office said the MP couldn’t award medals “to the victims of crime, because these baby victims are dead.”
Instead, the release said, he chose Wagner and Gibbons.
“It’s a pretty upside down world when we honour abortionists like Henry Morgentaler for killing over 5,000 babies and imprison precious women, like Mary Wagner and Linda Gibbons, who try to save babies from such savagery,” the news release said.
Vellacott likened Wagner to Martin Luther King Jr.
“Like Martin Luther King and other human rights reformers, Mary is using civil disobedience to further a just cause,” he said.
“Peaceful civil disobedience is an appropriate method when trying to protect defenceless, voiceless human beings in the womb from butchery and death.”