CLC Blog

Pro-life heroine Linda Gibbons has penned a powerful letter from jail to life-affirming Canadians, encouraging them to “persist and carry on” in their defence of preborn babies targeted for abortion. Read the full letter here.  

The 76-year-old Canadian Christian grandmother was arrested and charged in June for her peaceful presence outside the Toronto Abortion Clinic, which formerly operated as The Morgentaler Clinic. Linda was hauled off to jail for “mischief” charges. Her action of slowly walking up and down the sidewalk while holding a sign with the words “Why Mom, when I have so much love to give” was interpreted as “interfering” with the running of a business that kills preborn children.

Linda is not there to judge or condemn the women going into the abortion mill. She has nothing but love and compassion for them and their preborn children. She knows what they are going through since she was once there herself. It was in 1970 that Linda became pregnant while in college. She convinced a doctor that she needed an abortion, which took place at a hospital. Her baby was 13 weeks along.

The abortion filled Linda with what she described in her diary as “emotional and psychological pain” that would “not go away.” It was not until Linda “met Christ,” as she puts it in her diary, and “came to know his loving kindness” that she was able to find healing and forgiveness. Linda’s quiet pro-life witness has saved well over 100 lives. 

In her Oct. 1 letter mailed to Campaign Life Coalition and addressed to “Campaign Life friends,” Linda reflected on the “evil” state of the legal system, what she called a “justice-free zone” which is “sanitized of any recognition of rights for unborn humanity,” adding that the “court’s disdain for life is palpable.”  

A portion of the first page of Linda's Oct. 1, 2024, letter from jail. 

She took issue with the police who testified against her at the trial for her “crime” of getting “too close” to the abortion mill, what she referred to as a “midway [house] of horrors.” “The testimony by the police at trial is bereft of any mention of small prisoners dragged to their execution for the crime of living. The police abandon those they refuse to protect – the notion of humanity [is] lost of them,” she wrote.   

Reflecting on where Canada stands at this point in time in relation to the horrific crimes being committed against the preborn, Linda writes that the country is “hemorrhaging.” “In the midst of Canada’s contemporary amnesia, our recent history informs us what delayed action accomplishes. Canada is hemorrhaging from a self-inflicted wound and is awash in the blood of millions.” 

Commenting on why she stands in front of the abortion mill, knowing that she will be arrested, she writes that this is one way to bring the cry of aborted children into the court. Linda, in her total silence in the courtroom, represents the preborn who have no voice. “We bring their plaintive cry front and center to the court,” she wrote.  

Responding to those who might criticize Linda for refusing bail conditions, which results in her being kept in jail, she makes it clear that she will not comply with any “tyranny against tiny humans.” “We refuse to be shackled to the Government’s death creep policies or be made accomplices to tyranny against tiny humans. We reject this intrusion of law thrust upon us,” she wrote.  

She makes it clear that she will not comply with unjust judgements or laws that, she says, are “evil” because they “forget” the preborn. 

Linda being arrested in Toronto in 2018 for her pro-life witness. 

“They say, ‘cease and desist.’ We say, persist and carry on! A world where evil is not challenged is moribund. Open defiance is better than moronic compliance where our country is turned into a crucible of death. Our fight is with those who choose to forget – it brooks no neutrality.”  

Near the end of her letter, Linda encouraged pro-life advocates to fight for a “better day” in Canada, quoting a less-well-known fourth verse of the country’s national anthem. 

“Canada’s anthem holds the words ‘as waiting for the better day.’ We each have a crucial role in that better day. It is for us to stand up and fight injustice against life – injustice done on our watch.” 

The loving God who helped Linda find healing, forgiveness, and strength after the abortion of her child also helps and sustains her today. 

“The love of Christ constrains us; [it’s] His love that’s abused in the destruction of the unborn’s body. The Holy Spirit mobilizes us to defend our shared humanity with our unborn friends.” 

She concludes her letter with a message that every pro-life advocate in the trenches today needs to hear: “Keep carrying on!”  

Linda's signature and concluding lines from her Oct. 1, 2024, letter from jail.

Linda was back in the Ontario Court of Justice on Nov. 6 for the conclusion of her criminal trial. In solidarity with the preborn who have no legal advocate in court and no voice with which to defend themselves, Linda has no hired legal representative, and she refuses to speak in court. She has been offered bail on the condition that she promise to stay away from the abortion mill. But Linda will not acknowledge the offer, and she certainly would not accept the terms, which, in her mind, would make her complicit in abortion. 

After the conclusion of the Nov. 6 trial, Linda put her hand to her heart and smiled as she acknowledged the handful of supporters in the room. She was then handcuffed and returned to prison at the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ontario. Judge Maria Speyer will offer her judgment on the case on Dec. 5. Linda also faces a separate upcoming provincial trial for breaking Ontario’s “bubble zone” law. Her next scheduled appearance to face these charges is Feb. 25 in C-Court at Toronto’s Old City Hall. 

It’s heroic actions like Linda’s that will one day lead to a Canada where abortion is unthinkable. Please keep this brave woman in your prayers. 

*******

Vanier Centre for Women, Milton, Ontario 

Received Oct. 7, 2024  

Note from Linda accompanying letter: “I’m enclosing a letter to the office…it’s two pages of court reflections.”  Spelling errors have been corrected at Linda's request. 

 

Oct. 1, 2024

Dear Campaign Life friends,

Thank you for your indefatigable and invigorating presence in court. Impressive! I grow stronger by your gladsome presence in the benches. You, as guardians of life, bring to court a sense of respect for life.

The court is in session and the evil triumvirate regime rules. Kathleen Wynne's contrived provincial law, the Crown’s self-declared authority – “this beast has one head” and that serpent head bows its head to the death mill on Hillsdale Ave making it a justice-free zone, sanitized of any recognition of rights for unborn humanity.

The court’s disdain for life is palpable. The Crown’s flagrant and pitiless tone spoke to any that would articulate otherwise – dissent verboten!

The charge [is] Interfering with the enjoyment of property. I’ve got too close to their midway [house] of horrors. The death mill suborns the police whose code of practice is appeasement to the province’s legal craft playbook.

The testimony by the police at trial is bereft of any mention of small prisoners dragged to their execution for the crime of living. The police abandon those they refuse to protect – the notion of humanity [is] lost of them.

At the prison, I’d refused to receive the invidious police disclosures from the official messenger saying, “I don’t read fiction.” I later added that enough baby blood was shed while the police were there “serving and protecting” the clandestine killing shop that they could have written their reports in blood.

As Elie Wiesel spoke of the findings at the Nuremberg trials, “There were those that did their crimes and those who did nothing.”

In the midst of Canada’s contemporary amnesia, our recent history informs us what delayed action accomplishes. Canada is hemorrhaging from a self-inflicted wound and is awash in the blood of millions. The echo continues on in the indictment of these millions “written in my blood.”

We bring their plaintive cry front and center to the court.

We refuse to be shackled to the Government’s death creep policies or be made accomplices to tyranny against tiny humans. We reject this intrusion of law thrust upon us.

They say, “cease and desist.”

We say persist and carry on!

A world where evil is not challenged is moribund.

Open defiance is better than moronic compliance where our country is turned into a crucible of death.

Our fight is with those who choose to forget – it brooks no neutrality.

Canada’s anthem holds the words “as waiting for the better day.” We each have a crucial role in that better day. It is for us to stand up and fight injustice against life – injustice done on our watch.

The love of Christ constrains us; [it’s] His love that’s abused in the destruction of the unborn’s body.

The Holy Spirit mobilizes us to defend our shared humanity with our unborn friends.

Keep carrying on!

Peace of Christ

Linda