CLC Blog

Manitoba, the “glorious and free” province, home of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, has followed the lead of B.C., Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and Nova Scotia by introducing speech-suppressing, rights-denying “bubble zone” legislation (Bill 8).

Above: Manitoba, home of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, will impose bubble zones.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced this totalitarian NDP proposal on March 7. They explained: “The safe access to abortion services act would prohibit protests, demonstrations or picketing within buffer zones…”

However, the prohibited “protests” includes ALL pro-life speech, counsel, advice, or communication.

Under this bill, the NDP government will establish 50 to 150 metre zones on the public streets, sidewalks, and lands around abortuaries and in the neighbourhoods where abortionists live. In these censorship zones, a type of martial law will be imposed where your freedom to speak and assemble is non-existent – where pro-life Manitobans are not welcome.

In addition, these bubble zones may be expanded to encompass hospitals, pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and other healthcare facilities upon request. This leaves us to wonder where pro-life Manitobans will be able to go to receive health care if they want to express themselves freely to their doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. I guess they will just have to watch what they say!

In reality, these so-called “safe buffer zones” are nothing less than KILL ZONES.

Why do I say that? First, because the NDP government wants to metaphorically “kill” your freedom to speak and assemble in these zones. Second, and more tragically, they want the abortionists to literally kill more preborn babies – not even allowing women to be offered the opportunity to hear any life-affirming options or alternatives!

In fact, this bill is utterly patronizing to women. It assumes no pregnant woman is capable of making up her own mind on the issue of abortion. She apparently needs the government to guide her path right into the abortion-butcher’s lair.

Above: NDP Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara

As part of their announcement on March 7, Minister Fontaine and Minister Asagwara also stated: “Abortion is health care. Manitobans have the right to safe and accessible health care… Whether you’re accessing reproductive care, recovering from a procedure or providing critical health care to Manitobans, this new legislation would make sure your safety and privacy is protected.”

We agree that Manitobans have every right to “safe and accessible healthcare”, however, we emphatically reject the lie that “abortion is healthcare.” Pregnancy is NOT a disease, it is a gift from God! And peaceful pro-life protests, or kind words offered from a pro-life perspective, do nothing to curtail or remove anyone’s rights!

Our CLC Education and Advocacy Director, Josie Luetke, recently had the opportunity to personally confront Minister Fontaine about her bubble zone bill. Josie made it clear that “killing innocent human beings isn’t health care.” But Ms. Fontaine denied that unborn children are human! You can read that exchange here.

The real, ideological purpose of this bill is to prohibit pro-life words from being uttered in the places where they might have their most powerful impact and life-saving influence – around the abortuaries of Manitoba. If this proposal passes, merely “attempting to influence or inform” a woman to choose life for her baby or “other acts of disapproval” of abortion will be banned. Those who are caught will face up to six months in prison or a $5,000 fine.

Even a casual conversation between friends about pregnancy and childbirth may face the wrath of Minister Fontaine and Minister Asagwara if that conversation takes place in a bubble zone. The iron fist of the Manitoba NDP will come crushing down on their God-given right to speak their minds if they should happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time!

Maria Slykerman, president of CLC Manitoba had this to say about the NDP bubble zone bill: “It makes an enemy of every Manitoban who values the freedoms that make Canada such a great place to live – including the freedom to gather and speak in the public square, no matter who you are or what your views are. In the end, bubble zone censorship laws are contrary to our Charter Right to freedom of expression and to gather. They have been entirely unwelcomed in every province in which they have been introduced. Passing such a law in Manitoba will only make this province a more repressive and dangerous place to live.”

This censorship bill is the stuff of dystopian science fiction and totalitarian regimes. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Nobel prize-winning author, experienced 11 years in prison and national exile from Russia for simply speaking out against the deadly abuses of the communist government there. When he criticized government ideology he was punished. As he looked back and reflected on how his country had devolved into such a state of tyranny, he lamented, “We didn’t love freedom enough.”

How much do you love freedom? Do you love it enough to speak out? Do you truly believe in the motto of this province -- Gloriosus et Liber, which translates as “Glorious and Free”? If so, take a moment to email, phone, or write your MLA today. You can use our Action Alert Tool to get in touch right now.

For the sake of our freedoms, and, more importantly, for the sake of the unborn lives that will be lost because of this bill, please urge your MLA to vote NO.

Contact your Manitoba MLA here: https://www.votervoice.net/CALIFE/Campaigns/113317/Respond