Edmonton to consider mandating envelopes, warnings for graphic flyers

Anti-abortion groups say they have the right to freedom of expression

Madeleine Cummings · CBC News
Jul 04, 2025

Edmonton's city council will consider adding restrictions aimed at preventing people from unwittingly seeing flyers with graphic imagery.

Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette introduced a motion during Wednesday's city council meeting that administration prepare changes to the community standards bylaw to require all unsolicited print material containing graphic images to be contained in a sealed opaque envelope with a content warning and senders' names and addresses.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-city-council-graphic-flyers-bylaw-1.7576851

How Canadian women fought for the right to choose

In 1970, a movement of women led what became known as the Abortion Caravan in an effort to secure a woman’s right to choose in Canada.

June 28, 2025
Carol Off

One early April morning in 1970, a group of women gathered on the courthouse steps of Vancouver, believing they would soon make history. Their plan was to drive more than 4,000 kilometres to Ottawa where they would confront the federal government and demand that abortion become a legal right in Canada.

If you were on the Transcanada that week, it would be hard to miss what came to be called the Abortion Caravan. Seventeen women had piled into several vehicles; one car had a sign on the hood declaring “On to Ottawa!”

If this is behind a paywall for you, PressReader has the full article.
Continued: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/carol-off-how-canadian-women-fought-for-the-right-to-choose/article_5b525068-f05f-4290-9587-f96ac5898e10.html

28.06.2025

Canada – Kelowna Companies Won’t Run Pro-Choice Billboards

The crowdfunded campaign aims to counter anti-abortion billboards in the region.

Michelle Gamage, The Tyee
June 6, 2025

A University of British Columbia Okanagan campus student who raised more than $3,000 for a pro-choice billboard is stumped on where to post her message.

Sophie Harms says she wants to create a billboard that says “Abortion is safe, normal and common” to counter the anti-abortion billboard messaging that peppers the Okanagan region.

Recent billboards in the region have shown a pregnant belly next to a person holding a baby, with the text “Our right to life does not depend on our location.” Another sign said, “Abortion is not ‘healthcare.’ Pregnancy is not a disease.”

Continued: https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/06/06/Kelowna-Companies-Pro-Choice-Billboards/

Canada – She Wanted to End Her Pregnancy. Her Abusive Partner Took Her to Court

The legal case that won Canadian women the right to abortion

by Karin Wells
Jun. 4, 2025

They met at a RadioShack in Montreal in November 1988. She was barely twenty, a waitress new to the city. He was five years older, a big man, six foot three, with a moustache. He seemed nice enough.

Chantale Daigle might have been a young, small-town girl—she was from Chibougamau, eight hours north of Montreal—but she knew her own mind. She lived with Jean-Guy Tremblay for five months, and it turned out he was not so nice. She got pregnant. One night, he knocked her to the ground and said that he would “bring her into line once and for all.”

Continued: https://thewalrus.ca/she-wanted-to-end-her-pregnancy-her-abusive-partner-took-her-to-court/

American doctors look to relocate to Canada to avoid the Trump administration

May 29, 2025

By Brett Kelman

Earlier this year, as President Donald Trump was beginning to reshape the American government, Michael, an emergency room doctor who was born, raised, and trained in the United States, packed up his family and left the country.

Michael now works in a small-town hospital in Canada. KFF Health News and NPR granted him anonymity because of fears he might face reprisal from the Trump administration if he returns to the U.S. He said he feels some guilt that he did not stay to resist the Trump agenda but is assured in his decision to leave. Too much of America has simply grown too comfortable with violence and cruelty, he said.

"Part of being a physician is being kind to people who are in their weakest place," Michael said. "And I feel like our country is devolving to really step on people who are weak and vulnerable."

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/05/29/nx-s1-5414345/american-doctors-look-to-relocate-to-canada-to-avoid-the-trump-administration

Dear Canada, Pierre Poilievre is Coming for Your Reproductive Rights

A letter to my fellow Canadians

Dr. Jen Gunter, The Vajenda
Apr 25, 2025

Dear Fellow Canadians,

On Monday, you will be heading to the ballot box (many of you have already voted, which is terrific). There are many issues at stake, but I want to talk about the one issue that rules them all: abortion.

Why does abortion rule them all? It is the canary in the coal mine. When a government thinks it can criminalize abortion, it’s a way to “other” half the population, and othering is an important part of fascism. Once one human right can be taken away, others quickly follow. Abortion is often the easiest entry point, because it comes with the misogynistic implication that women who want an abortion are lazy or thoughtless or “loose” or had “it” coming (“it’ can be so many awful things here; if you are a woman you know).

Continued: https://vajenda.substack.com/p/dear-canada-pierre-poilievre-is-coming

Canada – Where do Canada federal election candidates stand on abortion?

What Prime Minister Carney, Pierre Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh have said about a woman's right to choose

Elizabeth Di Filippo
Thu, April 24, 2025

The Canadian federal election is just a few days away. While some voters have cast their ballots early, many are waiting for Monday, April 28 to hit the polls. Although political tensions between Canada and the U.S. and the ongoing trade war have been major talking points, human rights and access to health care also remain a top-of-mind concern for vulnerable Canadians, particularly women and members of the LGBTQ community.

In 2022, many Canadians have watched as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, reversing the constitutional right to a safe and legal abortion. The repealing of abortion laws caused many to wonder whether the same could happen in Canada, and highlighted areas of access to abortion that need improvement.

Continued: https://ca.style.yahoo.com/where-do-canada-federal-election-candidates-stand-on-abortion-what-prime-minister-carney-pierre-poilievre-and-jagmeet-singh-have-said-about-a-womans-right-to-choose-194324676.html

24.04.2025

Why abortion rates are rising abroad—but not in Canada

Dr. Laura Schummers' latest research shows Canada's abortion rate remaining relatively stable, in contrast to other countries where it has risen dramatically.

Erik Rolfsen
Apr 14, 2025

As a U.S. president tries to blur the border between Canada and the U.S., the distinction between the two countries could not be more stark when it comes to reproductive health and rights.

Abortion access in Canada has expanded dramatically in recent years. A new UBC study finds huge gains in availability of abortion services in Ontario, where 91 per cent of residents now live near abortion services, since mifepristone—the abortion medication—became available in 2017.

Continued: https://news.ubc.ca/2025/04/abortion-rates-canada-vs-global-trends/

14.04.2025

abortion access in Canada

Canada – Poilievre vows not to pass abortion restrictions if elected prime minister

By Craig Lord The Canadian Press
April 11, 2025

A Conservative government would not pass any laws to restrict access to abortion, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Friday during a campaign stop in southern Ontario.

“There will be no laws or other restrictions imposed on a woman’s right to decide to do with her body as she wishes,” he said. “And that is something that I am guaranteeing to you and to all Canadians.”

Poilievre said it has been the Conservative party’s policy for 21 years that there will be no restrictions introduced on a woman’s right to choose.

Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/11127562/canada-election-poilievre-abortion/

11.04.2025

When it comes to women’s reproductive health, Canada is not the 51st state

April 11, 2025
By Laura Schummers and Wendy V. Norman

Voters who care about reproductive rights should be demanding clear positions from their candidates on protecting Canada’s legacy in reproductive health policy and access. As erosion of reproductive rights and freedoms unfolds rapidly across the U.S., this is not the time for complacency in Canada.

We shouldn’t assume that Canada will continue as a global leader in upholding reproductive rights and access.

Most Canadians have lived with evidence-based reproductive health policy for so long that they take it to be the global norm, but it is not. Since 1988, abortion has been legally recognized as a standard medical procedure in Canada, free from criminal laws that either protect or restrict it.

Continued: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/when-it-comes-to-womens-reproductive-health-canada-is-not-the-51st-state/article_fc30cbbf-ec69-4d6d-9641-748c206bd942.html

11.04.2025