Clinic 554 Supporters Condemn Police Action During Vigil

Supporters of Clinic 554 in Fredericton are condemning the actions of police and security officials during a peaceful protest at the legislature on Friday evening.

About three dozen people gathered on the grounds of the legislature to mark the impending closure of the clinic, which provides LGBT health care and out-of-hospital abortion services.

The clinic announced last year that it would be closing due to a lack of funding from the province for specialized services like abortions. It is set to close its doors for good on Sept. 30.

Dr. Kerri Froc, a member of Reproductive Justice New Brunswick, said they organized a candlelight vigil to “celebrate the life of reproductive rights in the province and mourn what we’re about to lose” with the closure of the clinic.

“Right in the middle of our peaceful vigil, we had people sitting around in a circle with candles, my husband alerted me to the fact that the sergeant-at-arms, accompanied by two or three police officers, were tearing down our tents with various protest posters on them,” said Froc.

Earlier in the day, Froc said they were presented with a notice from the sergeant-at-arms, dated for Friday, which said in part that no one can “erect, construct, attach or post, in or on the grounds, any thing, structure, material or object, including but not limited to tents or other temporary or permanent shelters.”

Froc said she repeatedly asked what legal basis the sergeant-at-arms had to make this order, but no one was able to give her an answer.

“After that, we decided that if he couldn’t point to any legal authority for making the notice that we would just proceed because the tents were part of our protest,” she said.

Froc, who is an associate law professor at the University of New Brunswick, believes the seizure was illegal and violated their Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protest.

The tents had already been up for around three hours before being removed and were not impacting the legislative grounds, she said.

“I don’t want to stretch the metaphor too far but they’re treating our private property as if it’s no big deal to seize it. With women’s reproductive rights, the Higgs government is treating like it’s no big deal to run roughshod over them as well,” said Froc.

Supporters held another protest at the legislature Saturday as they continue to press the Higgs government to fund out-of-hospital abortion services, such as those which were performed at Clinic 554.

Froc said they plan to discuss potential litigation for Charter damages for violating their rights, in addition to a potential Charter challenge for Regulation 84-20. That is the provincial legislation which prevents Medicare from covering abortion procedures performed outside of hospitals.

“The federal government has already clawed back a portion of the health transfer payments because the government is clearly in violation of the Canada Health Act. There’s Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence showing that they’re clearly violating women’s Charter rights,” said Froc of the province’s refusal to fund out-of-hospital abortion services.

During the election campaign, Premier Blaine Higgs told our newsroom that if anyone feels the province is not following the Canada Health Act, they have every right to pursue legal action.

“It doesn’t seem like that’s a government that is acting for the good of the people to try to push us to litigate a clearly unconstitutional law and an illegal law,” said Froc.