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NEWS RELEASE |
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| March 10, 2008 | For
Immediate Release |
BREITKREUZ
SUPPORTS UNBORN VICTIMS BILL
Expectant
mothers supported by a majority of M.P.s
Ottawa – Last week, Saskatchewan M.P. Garry Breitkreuz voted with 147 other Members of Parliament for the Unborn Victims Bill C-484.
Here is the statement he gave in the House of Commons on March 6, 2008:
Mr. Speaker, Canada is known as a country in which we have laws that protect all equally and where citizens are compassionate and caring. However, one important change is needed to preserve that reputation. Canadians are surprised to know that in Canada a woman who has chosen to have a child gets no help from the law in protecting her unborn child. The Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Sherwood Park has introduced Bill C-484 to address this gap in the law. His unborn victims of crime act recognizes that a woman who has chosen to have her child and to give it birth has a right to protection for her child as well as for herself. Seventy-two per cent of Canadians support this legislation. I hope MPs here continue to support it as it works its way through committee and on to third reading. Let us support the choice of the woman and the child she has chosen to keep. |
“Many Canadians are shocked to learn that when an attacker kills a pregnant woman’s unborn child, no charge can be laid in that child’s death, even when the attacker purposely intended to kill the child,” explains Breitkreuz. “This is because our criminal law does not recognize children as victims of crime until they are born alive. In the past, I have tried to correct this injustice by amending the Criminal Code to redefine the definition of a human being. My pleas to Parliament went unheeded and below are some of the results.”
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In November 2005, Olivia Talbot of Edmonton, who was 27 weeks pregnant with her son, Lane Jr., was shot three times in the abdomen and twice in the head by a long-time friend. No charge could be laid in the death of Baby Lane.
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Another pregnant Edmonton woman, Liana White, was slain by her husband in the summer of 2005—again no charges could be laid in her baby’s death.
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In March 2007, Mukhtiar Panghali of Surrey, B.C. was charged only with second-degree murder in the death of his wife Manjit Panghali who was four months pregnant at the time.
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Roxanne Fernando of Winnipeg was beaten to death in February 2007 by a youth for refusing to have an abortion.
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Last year, Aysun Sesen from Toronto was seven months pregnant when she was repeatedly stabbed in the abdomen. Her husband has been charged with murder in her death.
In each of these cases, there has been no recognition of a crime against these women’s unborn children.
“Clearly there are two victims in these types of crimes, and the public clearly recognizes this,” says Breitkreuz. “I will continue to help my colleague, Ken Epp, M.P., convince all M.P.s to enact Bill C-484 to recognize unborn children as separate crime victims when they are harmed or killed during criminal attacks against their mothers.”
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Environics poll commissioned by LifeCanada, October 2007 www.lifecanada.org/html/resources/polling/2007PollReport.pdf