Canada’s Largest Anti-Abortion Organization Facing Allegations of “Toxic” Workplace Culture

LifeSiteNews, Canada most influential anti-abortion and anti-2SLGBTQ+ organization, has reinstated its CEO amid accusations of discriminating on the basis of gender and religion and financial wrongdoing.

Posted on August 13, 2025
Canadian Anti-Hate Network

There is a schism within LifeSiteNews (LSN), one of Canada’s largest far-right media outlets. On July 2, several board members of LifeSiteNews heard evidence alleging that CEO John-Henry Westen contributed to a “toxic” work environment, discriminated as an employer on the grounds of gender and religion, and engaged in financial wrongdoing. The meeting ended with a slim majority of the board voting to remove Westen as CEO.

Westen characterized the allegations against him, which have not been tested in court, as false, misleading, and based on distorted statistics in a statement published on July 29, 2025.

Continued: https://www.antihate.ca/canada_largest_anti_abortion_allegations_of_toxic_workplace_culture


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/


Canada – Exactly where do the Conservatives stand on abortion?

April 10, 2025
By Althia Raj, National Columnist

Half way through this federal election campaign and one word has yet to be uttered: abortion.

Maybe it’s because U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten our economy. Maybe it’s because Liberal Leader Mark Carney appears to be heading toward a win. Maybe it’s because Pierre Poilievre declared himself to be pro-choice. But so far the Conservative leader has escaped the pesky question his predecessors grappled with: how would he safeguard a women’s right to choose?

Continued: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/exactly-where-do-the-conservatives-stand-on-abortion/article_be69d467-d037-4954-a9ac-69ea637da028.html


A tale of two conferences: women against women as ‘poison of patriarchy’ returns and abortion fight intensifies

Last week, anti-choice campaigners emboldened by current US politics met in New York at the same time as UN delegates gathered to address the widespread inequalities women face. The battle to protect rights has never felt more urgent

Isabel Choat in New York, The Guardian
Sat 22 Mar 2025

In a meeting room on the 27th floor of a swish Manhattan hotel, Denise Mountenay is telling the audience that the right to abortion is “Nazi thinking.” Mountenay regrets her own abortions, and says she has been called by God to spread the word that she and other women “were lied to, deceived, pressured into making the most horrible choice: to choose death instead of life”.

She goes on to list reasons why abortion is “not a safe procedure. [That’s what] they want woman to think – that is a lie.” Many of her claims, including that abortion leads to breast cancer, have been thoroughly disproved by scientific studies.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/22/women-rights-un-anti-abortion-choice-poison-of-patriarchy-returns


Abortion Rights Issue Surfaces in Canada Before U.S. Election

The Canadian government proposed legislation this week to crack down on anti-abortion organizations that provide “dishonest counseling” to pregnant women.

By Vjosa Isai
Nov. 2, 2024

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the House of Commons this week regarding abortion rights, he also had a message for his daughter, who was seated in the gallery.

“I want her to hear me as long as everyone else does,” Mr. Trudeau said. “This government is unequivocally pro-choice. We will always defend a woman’s right to choose.”

Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party on Tuesday revisited a 2021 campaign promise to penalize anti-abortion organizations that it said provided “dishonest counseling” to pregnant women.

Unlocked: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/02/world/canada/abortion-rights-canada-election.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE4.jBsD.xtVibwEEkzuf&smid=url-share


BC,Canada – Are Reproductive Rights on the Ballot This Election?

What the BC NDP and BC Conservatives are promising on abortion, free contraception and cervical cancer screening and treatment.

Michelle Gamage, The Tyee
Sep 26, 2024

Premier David Eby says women’s reproductive rights are on the ballot this election because he claims the Conservatives would cut $4.1 billion from the health-care budget, and that could impact free birth control, home cervical cancer screening tests and expanded gynecological cancer treatment and surgery.

Eby made the comment at a Vancouver campaign event on Sept. 12 where he announced hormone replacement therapy would be made free for people going through menopause.

Continued: https://thetyee.ca/News/2024/09/26/Are-Reproductive-Rights-Ballot-Election/


Dr. Nikki Colodny’s journey from psychotherapy to civil disobedience

Dr. Nikki Colodny took part in the fight to ensure access to safe abortions in Canada in the 1980s. This is the story of how she became involved with the movement and eventually decided to violate Canada’s abortion law.

by Meghan Tibbits-Lamirande
May 7, 2024

At 8:45 a.m. on September 24, 1986, Toronto police knocked on the window of Dr. Nikki Colodny’s vehicle and placed her under arrest. Taking just a moment to pack her knitting and her Holly Near cassette tape, Dr. Colodny went quietly to the courthouse where she was charged, alongside her colleagues Dr. Henry Morgentaler and Dr. Robert Scott, for conspiracy to commit a miscarriage.

Originally trained as a psychotherapist and family physician, Colodny joined the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics (OCAC) as an “envelope licker” in the early 1980s, and eventually trained as an abortion provider at Henry Morgentaler’s clinic in Montreal. From 1986 until the landmark Supreme Court decision R v Morgentaler in January 1988, Colodny provided abortions in contravention of Canadian law.

Continued: https://rabble.ca/feminism/dr-nikki-colodnys-journey-from-psychotherapy-to-civil-disobedience/


Manitoba introduces law to create protest-free zones near abortion clinics

People seeking abortion services deserve privacy and safety, families minister says

The Canadian Press
Mar 07, 2024

The Manitoba government plans to restrict protests near clinics and hospitals where abortions are performed, as well as at the homes of abortion providers.

The NDP government introduced a bill Thursday that, if passed, would create "buffer zones" of 50 metres to 150 metres around related health facilities and staff homes. Several provinces, including Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec, already have similar laws in place.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/abortion-protest-restrictions-manitoba-legislation-1.7137091


Canada – Conservative bill defeated amid concerns it would promote fetal rights

By Staff  The Canadian Press
Posted June 14, 2023

A controversial Conservative private member’s bill intended to make violence against pregnant women an aggravating factor during court sentencing was roundly defeated in the House of Commons, as other parties said they feared it would reopen the debate on abortion.

The bill was supported by nearly all members of the Conservative party, including Leader Pierre Poilievre who declared himself to be “pro-choice” during his leadership campaign.

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada had urged MPs to vote against the bill on the grounds that it promotes fetal rights, even though there is no mention of fetal rights in the text of the bill itself.

Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/9769739/conservatives-violence-against-pregnant-women-fetal-rights/


Canada – Conservative MP’s bill on violence against pregnant women revives abortion debate

Activist groups believe bill could lend itself to a legal argument for fetal rights

Laura Osman · The Canadian Press
Posted: May 09, 2023

A private member's bill from a Conservative backbench MP is stirring up debate over abortion in Canada, even though the proposed legislation does not mention it once.

Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall's bill would encourage judges to consider physical or emotional harm to a pregnant victim as an aggravating factor during sentencing.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/private-members-bill-violence-against-women-abortion-rights-1.6837875