(Ottawa) In this week when the anti-abortion movement is gathering on Parliament Hill, the Trudeau government is enjoying a Conservative bill on this issue. Debated for the first time on Tuesday, two days before the “March for Life”, it aims to reopen the debate on abortion in the country, denounce the Liberals and all the other parties in the Commons.
Liberals, Bloc and New Democrats had fired red balls on the legislative measure C-311 put forward by Cathay Wagantall, during the debates in the House on Tuesday. In the Liberal benches, we returned to the charge on Wednesday during question period, seeing it as the usual vein.
MP Lisa Hepfner used a “planted” question – an exercise in which an elected official from the governing party questions his own party – to allow Justin Trudeau to hit that nail again during question period in Room, Wednesday.
“Have you read the bill? Read the bill! “, have interrupted the elected representatives of the opposition.
The legislation was debated for the first time this week when the anti-abortion movement holds its annual high mass on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The rally will be held Thursday on the lawn in front of Center Block.
Among them will be representatives of the group We need a law (We Need a Law).
“Canada is the only democratic country in the world without an abortion law. Abortion ends more lives each year in Canada than all other causes of death combined. It’s not something we can ignore,” Anna Nienhuis, spokesperson for the organization, said on Wednesday.
Bill C-311 seeks to amend the Criminal Code to include that “knowingly assaulting a pregnant woman” or “causing her bodily or moral harm” become “aggravating circumstances for the purposes of determining the penalty”.
In the morning, several Conservative MPs sided with his proposal.
“It is a well-established fact that pregnant women are more at risk of experiencing violence, and that they are more vulnerable to it. This bill is designed to prevent gender-based violence that targets women. It’s nothing more than that, ”complained Michelle Rempel Garner in particular.
His colleague Michelle Ferreri agreed, seeing it as “public safety” measures.
Prime Minister Trudeau did not hesitate to criticize her.
Without waiting to be launched on the subject, when he arrived in parliament for his weekly caucus meeting, he went on the attack.
“I want to emphasize how disappointed I am to see that the Conservative Party, supported by Pierre Poilievre, has chosen to reopen the debate on abortion and attack the free choice of women […] As a government, we will always remain fiercely pro-choice,” he said.
What are the risks for the right to abortion?
The Saskatchewan elected official is not at the first attempt to relaunch the debate. In 2021, his bill on sex-selective abortions was defeated at second reading, by 248 votes to 82. The Conservatives overwhelmingly supported it, but all the elected members of the Quebec caucus opposed it.
It must be said that the chances of passage of C-311 are quite slim, as is the case for the vast majority of private members’ bills.
And the Conservative Party vigorously denies that the bill aims to reopen the debate.
Member of the Canada Research Chair in the Sociology of Social Conflicts, Véronique Pronovost notes that “there is extensive case law in Canada that protects the right to abortion against the adoption of federal laws restricting access or invalidating the right and that “eventual federal legislation would no doubt be blocked by Canadian courts”.
On the other hand, even if the deputy Wagantall did not have this intention, the anti-abortion movement could seize it, indicates the doctoral student in the Department of sociology of UQAM.
“What worries is the politicization and judicialization of the issue: the creation of a window of opportunity favoring the mobilization of forces against abortion and the reopening of the debate in society – when we know that we do not debate on equal terms (misinformation, demagogy)”, she illustrates.