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Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Is pro-life activist Bill Whatcott the victim of malicious prosecution?
The Court of Queen’s Bench of Saskatchewan found against Bill Whatcott today in his legal action for malicious prosecution against several Prince Albert police officers.
Whatcott has been repeatedly arrested and jailed in Prince Albert for protesting abortion using some rather objectionable visual aids to make his case for what he considers to be a murderous practice. The charges, however, are always dropped or Whatcott is acquitted. The police are arresting Whatcott and the courts are setting him free, creating a pattern that looks suspiciously like malicious prosecution.
The charges by Prince Albert police were first laid against Whatcott for showing pictures of aborted fetuses on busy street corners in Prince Albert.
The following is a summary of the charges against Whatcott provided by his pro bono laywer Tom Schuck:
a) 2002 - Charged with Obscenity for showing pictures of aborted fetuses and jailed.
Charges dropped after a not guilty plea was entered.
b) 2003 - Charged with stunting and resisting arrest and jailed for picketing.
Convicted.
Reversed on Appeal to the Court of Queen’s Bench (lawyers in Prince Albert argued this appeal, Philip Fourier and Dan Heffernan).
c) 2003 - Charged with mischief for leafleting homes and jailed.
Charges dropped after plea entered.
d) 2003 - Arrested and jailed (ostensibly for unpaid Regina parking ticket) while picketing.
Whatcott expressed his dissatisfaction with the result of today's court decision, as the decision, in his view, failed to provide any balance between freedom of speech regarding controversial topics and the power of arrest of police officers. “It seems like the police in Prince Albert freely use the power to arrest people who disseminate information that they disagree with, and use their power to silence others, and especially so for poor people who usually do not have the resources to challenge the police”, Whatcott said. “I was just lucky to find lawyers who took my cases pro bono.”
In addition to the Prince Albert arrests, Whatcott has had several other legal difficulties as a result of his protests on issues. The following are a list of the cases won or pending by Whatcott in addition to the Prince Albert cases referred to above:
1. Charged with littering for leafleting University of Regina
Convicted on trial.
Reversed on Appeal to Queen’s Bench (QB).2. Charged in Moose Jaw with creating a disturbance and resisting arrest while picketing. (As with all his picketing, he showed pictures of aborted fetuses)
Convicted.
Reversed on Appeal to QB.3. Sued by Planned Parenthood for picketing and for an injunction.
QB refused to stop all picketing by Whatcott.
Case not proceeding.4. Charged by Regina City Police with stunting. Charges ultimately dropped.
5. Successfully sued and settled legal action against University of Regina for libeling Whatcott on their web page.
6. Saskatchewan Licensed Practical Nurses Assoc. disciplined Whatcott for picketing Planned Parenthood (PP).
Suspension upheld by QB.
2008 Reversed by Court of Appeal.
Leave to appeal to Supreme Court of Canada was denied.7. Charged by Human Rights Commission for spreading hate.
Convicted and fined $17,500.
Conviction upheld on appeal to QB.
2008 Appealed to Court of Appeal, decision pending.8. A successful Intervention and appeal was also made to the Court of Appeal on the Hugh Owens case by lawyer Tom Schuck for the Christian Alliance that assisted Whatcott as it dealt with a Human Rights Tribunal fine on the same issue.
It is believed that it is unprecedented for one person to face so many charges and to win them all.
No decision has been made, as of yet, as to whether to launch an appeal.
Whatcott’s lawyer, Tom Schuck of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, has been acting pro bono for Whatcott on all the above cases, except for one appeal in Prince Albert that was handled by Prince Albert lawyers, Philip Fourier and Dan Heffernan, who argued the appeal on the stunting charge.
Read more Western Standard abortion related stories here.
[Picture: Upon hearing that abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler was to recieve the Order of Canada, Whatcott responded viscerally:
“I got an image of the Order of Canada, crapped on it, wrapped it up and mailed it to the Governor General to communicate my utter contempt of her office, her arrogance, her anti-Christian, anti-life bigotry and the now corrupted and irrelevant Order of Canada in general.”]
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by Western Standard on February 4, 2009 in Freedom of expression | Permalink
Comments
"Charged with spreading hate by the" Stalinist tribunal (oh, I mean the HRC) pretty well says it all. If all the little fascist want-to-be tyrants had their way, they would be imprisoning him as an enemy of the state.
This is what we have been reduced to.
Posted by: Alain | 2009-02-04 7:17:51 PM
Did they ever charge him with sending poop to the GG?
Posted by: bigcitylib | 2009-02-05 5:18:45 AM
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