Media Releases

R v Morgentaler: Reflections After 25 Years

January 28, 2013

TORONTO, ON — Media are invit­ed to a pan­el dis­cus­sion Jan­u­ary 29, 2013, 5:30 – 7:30 pm on one of Canada’s most momen­tous deci­sions in Cana­di­an law: R v Mor­gen­taler.

It was 25 years ago, on Jan­u­ary 28, 1988, that the Supreme Court of Cana­da struck down Canada’s abor­tion law using the still new Cana­di­an Char­ter of Rights and Free­doms. The legal bat­tle was long, dra­mat­ic and ground­break­ing – includ­ing a police raid on a clin­ic, nov­el con­sti­tu­tion­al evi­dence and argu­ments, an extra­or­di­nary crim­i­nal jury tri­al, an acquit­tal over­turned by the Court of Appeal, fol­lowed by a week-long hear­ing and divid­ed deci­sion at the Supreme Court.

Hear from par­tic­i­pants in the case, such as Dr. Robert Scott (appel­lant and co-accused), Mor­ris Man­ning, QC (coun­sel for Hen­ry Mor­gen­taler and his co-accused), Globe and Mail jus­tice reporter Kirk Makin, Fac­ul­ty of Law con­sti­tu­tion­al schol­ar Prof. Lor­raine Wein­rib, and Car­olyn Egan (expert wit­ness at the tri­al), as they reflect on the his­toric events and the con­tin­ued sig­nif­i­cance of the case today.

The pan­el will be mod­er­at­ed by Paul Sch­abas (co-coun­sel for the appel­lant), of Blake, Cas­sels & Gray­don LLP and Cheryl Milne, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the David Asper Cen­tre for Con­sti­tu­tion­al Rights at the Fac­ul­ty of Law.

What:  R v Mor­gen­taler:  Reflec­tions After 25 Years

When:  Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 29, 2013  / 5:30–7:30 p.m. (Recep­tion to fol­low)

Where:  Ben­nett Lec­ture Hall, Flavelle House, Fac­ul­ty of Law, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to (near Muse­um Sub­way stop)

Reg­is­tra­tion: http://www.aspercentre.ca/events/calendar/Morgentaler.htm (Seat­ing is lim­it­ed)

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For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Lucian­na Cic­co­ciop­po
Direc­tor, Exter­nal Rela­tions
Fac­ul­ty of Law
Tel: 416–946-0334
lucianna.ciccocioppo@utoronto.ca