Much Delayed, Well-deserved

Today, while National Moving Day was in full swing in Québec (I haven't actually participated in 13 years), other parts of the country were celebrating Canada Day. And Rideau Hall, the residence of the Representative of the Vestige of Feudalism in Canada (a.k.a. the Governor General) announced this years list of people honoured by being named to the Order of Canada.

One of these people was singled out for attention, some of it critical, having devoted much of his adult life to the fight for women's right to choose to have an abortion if they so desire.

Henry Morgentaler has endured a lot over the years. Multiple criminal charges that ultimately ended in the striking down of the criminal prohibition / limit-setting on abortion and that established a legal principle that an appellate court cannot substitute a verdict of guilt for an acquittal delivered by a jury. Heinous and insensitive comparisons to Nazis delivered by radical anti-choice activists to a man who is himself a survivor of Auschwitz. He has steadfastly continued this fight, even today working toward opening two private abortion clinics in the Canadian north, so that women who live there will not have to travel great distances to exercise their health rights.

I recall that a friend of mine once saw Dr. Morgentaler sitting on a park bench somewhere in Montréal. She approached him, apologized for disturbing him, and thanked him for all that he has done. The reproductive choice of millions of Canadian women has been guaranteed by the work of this man and his many allies across the country. It's about time the country thanked him in such a public way.