Linda Gibbons’ lawyer featured speaker at rights’ league meeting

TORONTO - Lawyer Daniel Santoro will give a preview of jailed pro-life activist Linda Gibbons’ upcoming Supreme Court hearing at the 26th annual meeting of the Catholic Civil Rights League.

Santoro is the featured speaker at the CCRL’s Oct. 13 meeting that begins with a 5:30 p.m. Mass at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Cathedral, followed by the meeting at St. Michael’s Choir School.

Santoro said he would present an overall summary of Gibbons’ case before the Supreme Court on Dec. 14 which will challenge a 1994 temporary Ontario court injunction protecting several downtown Toronto abortion clinics. The issue is “whether the Criminal Code can be used to enforce civil injunctions,” he said.

“The legal significance of (the case) is what the appropriate form of proceeding for enforcing injunctions is,” Santoro explained.

Gibbons has been arrested numerous times and spent about nine of the past 17 years in jail for violating the temporary injunction that was issued by a civil court.

She is currently back in an Ontario jail after ignoring the injunction and protesting at a downtown abortion clinic in early August. She will be back in Ontario criminal court on Nov. 4.

At the Supreme Court, Santoro plans to challenge Gibbons’ convictions in a criminal court for violating a civil court injunction.

“Linda has never had (legal) representation for at least over a decade. I don’t know if she’s ever had representation at her criminal trials. She keeps getting convicted over and over again,” he said.

“I thought she should have someone make the arguments for her.”