the anti-choice poster boy slips again

[iverglas]

Jean-Guy Tremblay was adopted by the anti-choice movement in Canada a few years ago to carry their standard, in his fight to stop his former fiancée, Chantal Daigle, from terminating her pregnancy. The case was heard urgently by the Supreme Court of Canada when the Quebec Court of Appeal granted him the injunction he was seeking. (The law involved is somewhat arcane to the anglo mind, involving Quebec civil law, but the Supreme Court rejected those arguments.) By then, Daigle had already had an abortion in the U.S., since the order made it risky for a doctor in Quebec to perform the operation.

Tremblay had physically abused Daigle. He went on to be convicted of assault against several other women. One prosecutor attempted to have him determined to be a dangerous offender, which allows for indefinite imprisonment, but the case was shaky for legal reasons. He was determined to be a long-term offender instead.

Unfortunately I can't find the longer article from today's paper on line.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/268722

Harassment conviction man's latest

Dangerous offender status to be sought

... Jean-Guy Tremblay, 43, kept visiting a small car dealership on Keele St. near St. Clair Ave. W. last February that Amanda Sciborski, 32, ran, refusing to take hints that he leave and eventually frightening her, Superior Court Justice Andromache Karakatsanis said yesterday.

Tremblay, who has multiple previous convictions against women, was living at a Keele St. halfway house at the time of his latest offence, having been named a long-term offender. The designation, created in 1997 and primarily targets sexual offenders, can result in a term of supervision after release of up to 10 years.

Yesterday, Karakatsanis convicted Tremblay of criminal harassment but acquitted him of breaching an order that he inform authorities of all his relationships with women.

-- presumably because he didn't have a relationship with her, he was stalking her. She reported that when she began to feel bullied by him, she looked him up on line. She said the hair on the back of her neck stood up when he told her about his background; I can imagine what it felt like to look at the google results list.

http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/1989/1989rcs2-530/1989rcs2-530.html

Tremblay v. Daigle, <1989> 2 S.C.R. 530

Chantal Daigle
Appellant

v.

Jean-Guy Tremblay
Respondent

and

The Attorney General of Canada,
the Attorney General of Quebec,
the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL),
the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF),
the Canadian Civil Liberties Association,
the Campaign Life Coalition,
the Canadian Physicians for Life,
the Association des médecins du Québec pour le respect de la vie,
and the REAL Women of Canada
Interveners <all granted standing by the Court to submit argument>

... Ms. Daigle alleges that Mr. Tremblay, during a quarrel, seized her by the throat, and that she found refuge with the landlord, who had to call the police. Ms. Daigle left Mr. Tremblay, and on July 4 she arranged to have an abortion in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Her reasons for seeking an abortion are set out in her affidavit:

<TRANSLATION>
31. My decision is freely taken, it was taken without duress, threats or promises from anyone whatsoever and after much reflexion;

32. I do not wish to have Jean‑Guy Tremblay's child;

33. I do not wish to have a child at the present time in light of my age, my social situation as a single person and my moral values as I want to provide for a child in a serene stable family environment in which there is no violence;

34. I do not want any contact whatsoever with Jean‑Guy Tremblay;

35. I believe that to carry this pregnancy to term would cause me irreparable psychological and moral harm in the future;
<"moral" is a bad translation; "emotional" is better>

36. In my view, Jean‑Guy Tremblay has no reason or interest in the present case except in order to maintain his hold on me.

...

Tremblay's abuse of Daigle, and obvious desire to control her as his sole motivation, was known to the anti-choice movement when they embraced him.

What's amazing is that Tremblay just doesn't seem to be able to / want to stop himself. Controlling women is apparently what he lives for. How surprising that he should end up in the arms of the anti-choice movement, eh?

[valerief]

1. There's not a single frontal cortex in the entire anti-choice movement. nt

[iverglas]

2. a little more info about Tremblay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremblay_v._Daigle

(I'm vague on the details of why he was not named a dangerous offender, but it may have been because some of the relevant convictions preceded the dangerous offender law.)

In 2000, Jean-Guy Tremblay was convicted of two counts of assault in the violent beating of his former girlfriend and her close friend which had taken place the year before in Calgary. He was sentenced to five years in prison plus a ten-year supervision order. Tremblay took his fight against the supervision order to the Supreme Court, but the Court decided against hearing his appeal in 2005. At the time it was revealed that he had been convicted of 14 attacks on women, most of whom were his former girlfriends. In 2004, the National Parole Board declined to name him a dangerous offender

He sure has kept the Supreme Court busy, though. I wonder who bankrolled this one:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/04/21/tremblay-offender-court-050421.html

Thursday, April 21, 2005

A man who made headlines in 1989 for trying to stop his girlfriend from having an abortion has failed in an attempt to overturn an order requiring him to tell his parole officer whenever he strikes up a relationship with a woman.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear Jean Guy Tremblay's appeal of a judge's order that was made in 2000.

Three justices of the court who had been considering his application dismissed it without awarding him legal costs.

Tremblay is scheduled to get out of the Bowden Institution in Alberta on July 2, when he will have finished serving a five-year sentence for the latest in a series of 14 attacks on women.

Most of them have been romantic partners whom he has threatened, stalked, unlawfully confined or brutally assaulted.

[WildClarySage]

3. Isn't it sad that Ms Daigle had to spell out her reasons for wanting

the termination in her affidavit?

This guy sounds like a real prize. No wonder the wingnuts love him.

[Katherine Brengle]

4. That pained me as well.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. No surprise at all

I'm glad his poor former fiancee was able to escape being forced to bear his child.

I've personally met more than a few hardcore anti-choice activists - the type who harass women at clinics and are willing to go to jail for their 'cause'. To a person (they are usually male), they are the creepiest, sex-obsessed control freaks you could ever imagine. And not one gave a shit about the life of the child after it is born.

[Nobody]

6. If they really gave a shit about an already born kid

They wouldn't push for keeping the minimum wage at a level where no one can afford to support themselves, much less a family. They wouldn't make it difficult to get off welfare and into a job that pays a living wage, they wouldn't veto acts that would ensure that every child has adequate health care coverage.

[iverglas]

7. yup

and see my latest in the series on anti-choice poster boys.