Open Letter Demanding that Mayor of Kelowna Rescind Anti-abortion Proclamation
- Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada / Coalition pour le droit à l’avortement au Canada
- Closed on
- Target:
- Mayor Walter Gray, City of Kelowna
- Region:
- Canada
Thank you everyone! Your support and comments are greatly appreciated, and the petition has proven to be an important tool for us in this fight. We collected 631 signatures. A hardcopy of the entire petition, complete with all your comments, is being couriered today to the Mayor of Kelowna!
Although the mayor is still refusing to rescind the proclamation, and the "Protect Human Life Week" begins next week, the battle is far from over! During the week of Sep 24-28, we will be protesting daily outside City Hall from noon to 1pm, and noon to 5pm on Wed Sep 26. If you are in the Kelowna area, please drop by! More details are here in our press release: http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/press/ARCC-CDAC-release-sep20-12-english.pdf
Our continuing goal will be to ensure that this anti-choice Proclamation will never come back to Kelowna in the future. Thank you for being a thorn in the side to the mayor! :-)
Joyce Arthur
Executive Director
Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada
www.arcc-cdac.ca
Vous veuillez lire ici la lettre ouverte au maire de Kelowna: http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/fr/press/ARCC-CDAC-release-sep4-12-francais.pdf.
English text follows.
An Open Letter to Mayor of Kelowna in Opposition to “Protect Human Life Week”
Dear Mayor Walter Gray,
The signatories to this letter object to the proclamation you issued on July 3 declaring September 23-30, 2012 as “Protect Human Life Week.” This proclamation, issued at the request of the Kelowna Right to Life Society, is highly inappropriate and should be rescinded immediately.
When the city states: “It is the intention of this proclamation to promote respect and protection to all human life, especially the infirm, the aged, the handicapped, and the unborn,” it is an implicit endorsement of the Kelowna Right to Life Society’s opposition to safe and legal abortion for women. A quick perusal of the Society’s website makes clear that it is a radical political and religious group primarily concerned with opposing and re-criminalizing abortion, not with protecting the infirm, aged, handicapped, or even babies. A majority of Canadians support legal abortion, and our Supreme Court has struck down the previous abortion law as contravening women’s constitutional rights. Therefore, no municipality should make a public statement supporting an organization that is intent on reversing women’s guaranteed rights to “life, liberty, and security of person” under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Since the City of Kelowna has no legal jurisdiction to change federal or provincial laws on abortion (or anything else), it has no valid reason to issue the proclamation.
“Protect Human Life Week” is deeply offensive and upsetting to many people in Kelowna and across Canada, particularly women who have had or who are considering an abortion. It is wrong for the city to make proclamations that disregard women’s rights and make women feel disrespected and intimidated.
Although the city has issued this same proclamation in years past, it was never appropriate to do so because of its disregard for and opposition to established human rights under the law, and because it leads the city to improperly intrude into matters of federal or provincial law. Just as the “PRO-LIFE” flag will not be flown, all public support for “Protect Human Life Week” must now be withdrawn. We call upon you to rescind immediately the proclamation of “Protect Human Life Week” and to refrain from issuing it in future years.
Sincerely,
Joyce Arthur, Executive Director, Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada
Board of Directors, Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada
Dianne Varga, writer and activist, Kelowna
Kristin Staley, Summerland
Anne-Marie Brun, Kelowna
Jennifer Pickering, Kelowna
Susan Davenport, Kelowna
Kelly Megyesi, Vernon
Dr. Jennifer Gustar, Associate Professor, UBC, Okanagan Campus, Kelowna
Susan E. Morrison, Kelowna and District Pro-choice Action Society, Kelowna
Loren Price, Centre for Inquiry, Okanagan
Zena Ryder, Centre for Inquiry, Okanagan
Penney Kome, author, award-winning journalist, and Editor of StraightGoods.com
Dr. Ellen Wiebe, Clinical Professor, Reproductive Health, UBC; Medical Director at Willow Women’s Clinic, Vancouver
Jane Cawthorne, author, playwright, blogger, Calgary
Dr. Colleen MacQuarrie, Associate Professor, Graduate Faculty, Psychology Department, University of Prince Edward Island
Dr. M.K. Bryson, Director, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ); Professor, Department of Language and Literacy Education (LLED), UBC
Michael Payton, National Director, Centre for Inquiry Canada
Marilyn Roycroft, Acting Executive Director, Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), Toronto
Laura Track, Legal Director, West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), Vancouver
Dr. A. Brenda Anderson, Assistant Professor, Women's and Gender Studies, Religious Studies, Luther College, University of Regina
Dr. Darlene Juschka, Coordinator and Associate Professor, Women's and Gender Studies, Religious Studies, University of Regina
Jennifer J. Breakspear, Executive Director, Options for Sexual Health, Vancouver
Anne Rochon Ford, Executive Director, Canadian Women's Health Network
Ian Bushfield, Executive Director, BC Humanist Association
Board of Directors, BC Humanist Association
Vancouver Women’s Health Collective, Vancouver
Radical Handmaids, Ottawa
The Open Letter Demanding that Mayor of Kelowna Rescind Anti-abortion Proclamation petition to Mayor Walter Gray, City of Kelowna was written by Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada / Coalition pour le droit à l’avortement au Canada and is in the category Civil Rights at GoPetition.