It is good to see judges taking an interest in theology. It’s a pity that this particular specimen seems to think that God is Canadian and is bound by Canadian law – or lack of it, really, since there is no Canadian law that limits abortion.
From here:
TORONTO, Ontario, March 22, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Ontario Court of Justice judge erupted in a lengthy, angry tirade against pro-life activist Mary Wagner – and ejected a spectator from the public gallery – in a downtown Toronto courtroom Wednesday. The judge then sent Wagner to jail for an additional 92 days, added to 88 days already served prior to trial, after finding her guilty of mischief and two counts of failing to comply with probation orders.
The charges related to Wagner’s November 8 arrest at the site of the Bloor West Village “Women’s Clinic.” Wagner has been arrested on several occasions for peacefully entering abortion facilities in Toronto, where she presents women in the waiting room with a rose and offers them pro-life counseling.
The remarkable scene played itself out after Crown attorney Derek Ishak and defense counsel Russell Browne made a joint submission to Mr. Justice S. Ford Clements for time served plus a three-year probationary term. But Clements emphatically rejected the submission.
“She can sit in jail, if that’s the only way to protect people,” he fulminated, calling Wagner “cowardly” for “abusing other human beings” and not having the courage to make her views known through other channels. “This is an extraordinary waste of resources. Get a grip!”
“You don’t get it, do you? What’s the rule of law? You’re required to abide by it … You’ve lost the right as a citizen to be anywhere near an abortion clinic or to speak to an employee,” he said.
“You’re wrong and your God’s wrong,” he continued. “You have complete contempt … There is a right to (abortion) in this country … You don’t have a right to cause (abortion-seeking women) extra pain and grief the way you do.”
“[Abortion] is legal,” he continued, “that’s all you have to understand … You start causing people emotional pain and harm, you think that’s okay?”
He then asked Wagner whether she would stay away from abortion sites for three years as required by the proposed terms of probation.
“I will not,” Wagner replied firmly.
“Then you’re going to jail,” said Clements.
[…]
Clements was unmoved. “You have, in some measure, displayed utter contempt for the courts and the rights of others,” he said. “You appear to be governed by a higher moral order than the laws of our country.”
“Your determination to break the law is a potential threat to the well-being of society and plants the seeds of lawlessness, perhaps even anarchy … You are unable to accord some civility and respect to others. Your view in law is wrong.”
Judge Clements was correct on two points: Mary Wagner is “governed by a higher moral order than the laws of our country” – admittedly, not an overly high hurdle; and Wagner has shown the courts the respect they deserve: “utter contempt”.
Other than that, the views and behaviour of the judge appear to be those of a demented imbecile.
The judge seems to have forgotten that murderers (opps. “pro-choicers”) knowingly and deliberately broke the law for years as a means of protest and to get those laws changed. That seems to have been ok. After all, it was only innocent babies that were being murdered by their mothers.
But supposedly “causing people emotional pain and harm” is an even greater offence!
I am sure that Mary Wagner will be received into heavan with jubilation and celebration. Judge Clements, I have my doubts. He might be ending up in that other place. But perhaps he will proclaim “your God’s wrong” again. Not that it will do him any good.
What is a tradegy is that countless more babies will continue to be murdered.