[mobglob-discuss] Re: Watson's illegal activities (sit down and get a coffee, it's long!)
Macdonald Stainsby
mstainsby at tao.ca
Mon Dec 9 15:59:27 PST 2002
Details of Gordon Watson's activities? Here you go (Forwarded message):
As far as getting out the archives, if you want to ask Topham to forward his
messages, they are available on the archive if he refuses. I've not the time to
bring each and every message here.
I hope you aren't suggesting that 1.5 million died in the Holocaust and that
others are Jewish sympatisers is something that can be made "relative".
Macdonald
---
Since his first known contact with the pro-choice movement in April, 1990,
Gordon Stephen Watson has been engaged in a continuing guerrilla war
against Everywoman's Health Centre, the British Columbia Coalition for
Abortion Clinics, and abortion providers in B.C. During these four years
he has launched [or threatened] over a dozen legal actions, all of which
have been unsuccessful. He has disrupted meetings and rallies of the
pro-choice movement. He has repeatedly picketed physicians' offices and
homes. He has been arrested and convicted of contempt of court for
harassing clients at Everywoman's Health Centre. He has attended
pro-choice rallies in order to attempt to provoke violence, and on two
occasions he has physically assaulted participants at these rallies. We
think that his record shows clearly that he will stop at nothing, including
violence, to accomplish his ends. And we think the record will show as
well that he is not an individual crank on an individual crusade, but is
working closely with other anti-abortion groups, and that his activities
are part of an overall division of labour.
MR. WATSON'S AGENDA
Gordon Watson is, above all, focused on the goal of prohibiting abortion by
any means at his disposal. However, his personal agenda extends far beyond
the single issue of abortion.
**in the 1980's he was involved in a fundamentalist crusade on
Vancouver Island to convert native youth from the long-established Salish
custom of spirit dancing. "Watson's crusade began about four years ago
after the Vancouver Island town of Duncan, which proudly bills itself as
the "City of Totem Poles" and enjoys a close relationship with the
neighbouring Cowichan Indian reserve, voted to end the tradition of
reciting Christian prayers before council meetings. "They stopped praying
to Jesus Christ, then they turned around and spent $150,000 a year on
religious shrines (totem poles)," Watson said.... "Those totem poles? I
hate them with a passion. It's sorcery, it's witchcraft, it's
evil." (Vancouver Sun, April 6, 1990)
**Watson attended several NDP campaign rallies during the 1991
provincial election campaign: "...he gained attention in September at an
NDP candidates' meeting in Victoria. While heckling a speaker, he was
thrown to the ground by a delegate and has since launched a small claims
court suit against the delegate and the NDP for interfering with his civil
rights." (B.C. Report, September 7, 1992) In addition, he attended one
of Elizabeth Cull's election rallies and disrupted it as well. (Vancouver
Sun, October 26, 1992)
**On May 24, 1992, Watson was arrested by Burnaby RCMP for
disrupting an interfaith religious ceremony in Swangard Stadium which was
part of Burnaby's Centennial celebrations. "Watson, who was against the
event from the start, admits he yelled "liar" and "you're a wolf in sheep's
clothing" at event organizer Rev. George Stegan." (Burnaby News, June 7,
1992)
**In August, 1992 Watson was arrested for disrupting a Burnaby
city council reception for representatives from Kushiro, Burnaby's sister
city in Japan. "The incident occurred before any of the 114 Japanese
visitors arrived for dinner near the Playground of the Gods totems on
Burnaby Mountain." A local newspaper revealed that Watson admitted he was
carrying a sign which read "God Damned totem poles -- spiritual
pornography" when he was arrested. "That park is a Shinto shrine," Watson
said Monday morning. "Two years ago when they dedicated it, Burnaby flew
in some Shinto priests to dedicate it. Here we are in Canada and we have
public territory dedicated to a heathen religion," he said. "And the
drumming is a ritual...they drum up demons, that's what it is." (Burnaby
Now, August 26, 1992)
**In November, 1992, Watson attempted to lay criminal charges in
connection with the Sue Rodriguez case. An article in B.C. Report states
"Sidney resident Gordon Watson has sworn charges against Mr. [John] Hofsess
[executive director of the Right to Die Society], under Section 241, before
a Victoria justice of the peace, who is now deciding whether to proceed
with the case. Part of Mr. Watson's evidence is the October-November issue
of Last Rights, the Right to Die newsletter, in which Mr. Hofsess states he
has signed a contract with Mrs. Rodriguez, pledging to help her to end her
life, whether it is legal or not. "You're not supposed to break the law to
change the law," Mr. Watson says. "If the Attorney-General won't uphold
the law of the land, I will." (B.C. Report, December 7, 1992)
These facts help to give a better idea of Mr. Watson's overall
activities and goals. He has a broad right-wing fundamentalist agenda
clearly evident in his activities over the last number of year. And if we
look at his associations, the broad sweep of that agenda becomes even more
evident.
MR. WATSON'S ASSOCIATES
From at least 1988 on Watson was involved in organizing against
Salish spirit dancing on the Cowichan reserve near Duncan. He was doing
this as part of an organized campaign being carried out by an evangelical
fundamentalist group called Youth With a Mission. In 1990, the Vancouver
Sun reported that "the latest skirmishing between evangelical Christians
and the longhouse traditionalists began when a U.S. based "born-again"
group known as Youth With A Mission [YWAM] began a campaign to convert
members of various South Island tribes two years ago," with YWAM's B.C.
director denouncing the native tradition as "the antithesis of
Christianity." (Vancouver Sun, April 6, 1990)
Youth With A Mission was founded in 1960. Since then it has grown
into a large multinational organization. Its international headquarters in
Hawaii supervises the work of over 1,700 evangelical missionaries and 100
training centres in approximately 50 countries. (Covert Action Information
Bulletin, Number 27, Spring, 1987; Sara Diamond, "Spiritual Warfare--The
Politics of the Christian Right", Black Rose Books, Montreal, 1990,
p.206) Its influence as a key group in the Christian right can be seen
from its role in providing political and material support to both the
Nicaraguan contras and the right-wing military dictator of Guatemala in the
early 1980's, General Efrain Rios Montt. According to U.S. writer Sara
Diamond, "YWAM sees its role as an on-the-ground combat force against
liberation theology". ("Spiritual Warfare", pp. 165, 175, 206)
Gordon Watson's first known clash with the Vancouver pro-choice
movement came on April 7, 1990, when he attempted to disrupt a B.C.
Coalition for Abortion Clinics-sponsored speech by Dr. Henry Morgentaler
held at John Oliver Secondary School. The speech was picketed by around
100 members of Campaign Life Coalition and, as the Vancouver Sun reported:
"Morgentaler's address was delayed when American anti-abortionist Joe
Scheidler was refused entry and stood in the doorway, blocking others from
going in. Scheidler said he just wanted to hear Morgentaler and said "I
promise to be good" if admitted. Still, he was kept outside and another
abortion protester who was already in the school was escorted out after he
reached over to Scheidler and tried to help him enter. Burnaby printer
Gordon Watson, who described himself as "a friend of Joe Scheidler," said
he was upset at being thrown out of the meeting. "I'm interested in civil
rights. I didn't come here to cause trouble," he said. Scheidler said
Watson was not his friend, and that he'd never seen him
before." (Vancouver Sun, April 9, 1990)
This disruption was the very first contact between Gordon Watson
on one hand, and Everywoman's Health Centre and the BCCAC on the
other. For this reason it's important to point out that from the very
beginning Gordon Watson has visibly associated himself with Campaign Life
Coalition, which had organized both Scheidler's visit to B.C. and the
picket at Morgentaler's speech. It is an association that continues to
this very day. It is also worth noting that another anti-choice activist
was ejected from this meeting, who was also a member of Youth With A
Mission: Lane Walker. (B.C. Report, May 28, 1990)
On October 10, 1991, with no provocation whatsoever, Watson
physically attacked security volunteers while attempting to barge into a
provincial all-candidates' meeting organized by the B.C. Coalition for
Abortion Clinics. Watson arrived at Ukrainian Hall on East Pender Street
between 6:30 and 7:00 P.M., over half an hour before the meeting was slated
to start. The security volunteers immediately formed a line on the front
stairs of the hall, linking arms together to passively prevent him from
entering. At this point Watson became very agitated. He began bashing
into the line of volunteers with his body and hitting them with a large
picket sign made of 1/4" plastic; during this several of the volunteers
received bruises on the insides of their forearms and on their legs, and
Watson hit a 16-year-old female in the face. The police were immediately
called at this point, but did not arrive for nearly 45 minutes. (The
Ubyssey, October 16, 1991)
When he realized that he could not get access to the door, Watson
ran around the side of the building, jumped over the hedge and attempted to
get in through the side doors, which were open for ventilation. These
doors were immediately closed by the security volunteers there, so Watson
proceeded to run around the building smashing on all the doors including
the basement, where childcare was set up. This was naturally very
frightening to the children. After resisting an attempt by the caretaker
to evict him from the property, Watson came back around to the front
stairs. By this time he was completely out of control, and once again
began smashing at the security line, managing to break partway through the
line of marshals. At this point a police car arrived. When the police
announced their presence, Watson immediately calmed down and accompanied
then to their car. After taking complaints from three BCCAC members
regarding Watson's assaults, the police let him go without laying
charges. However, the police did remain in the vicinity of Ukrainian Hall
for the remainder of the meeting.
On February 1,1992, the B.C. Coalition for Abortion Clinics
organized a rally against the new draft abortion bill C-43 on the steps of
the Vancouver Art Gallery. Volunteers began to arrive at 11:00 to set up
the sound system and organize security, but by that time Watson had already
arrived. He approached one of the women who had been a marshal at the
Ukrainian Hall meeting four months previously and aggressively demanded she
give him her name. He then went to the top of the stairs and positioned
himself on the stairs above and behind the stage area. Watson again used
his sign to hit security volunteers who were attempting to prevent him from
approaching the microphones. Watson yelled comments throughout the
speeches; when one speaker referred to an incident in New York where an
anti-choicer had thrown acid in the face of a clinic worker, he yelled out
his approval. When he discovered he would not be able to get close to the
microphones, Watson went down into the crowd, where a number of
anti-choicers were present, including members of Campaign Life
Coalition. He took a megaphone from one of them and began using it as a
weapon. He was seen to hit a woman in the face with it [who was later
approached by organizers, but indicated that she did not want to press
charges]. He continued to use it on other people, as was clearly shown by
film footage taken by a UTV camera crew, as well as still photos taker by a
photographer for the West Ender. Art Gallery security became involved in
trying to restrain Watson and keep him away from the platform. This
unprovoked assault was explicitly endorsed by the president of Vancouver
Right to Life Betty Green, who told UTV's Jim Hart that "Watson is not a
member of her organization, but that she had no problems with his
tactics." (UTV evening news, February 1, 1992) Green achieved notoriety
a year later when she refused point-blank to condemn the murder of Doctor
David Gunn by an anti-choice fanatic in Pensacola, Florida. (Interviewed
on CBC Early Edition, March 11, 1993)
On the evening of March 8, 1992, Campaign Life Coalition staged a
picket of an International Woman's Day fundraising dance for the B.C.
Coalition for Abortion Clinics held at the Commodore Ballroom. The picket
included attempts at intimidation of people trying to enter the
Commodore. It also included a guerrilla theatre and mock trial of
abortion; one of the participants was Gordon Watson, dressed up in black
robes and greasepaint. He was seen shortly after the picket disbanded,
sitting in the Granville Street McDonald's, having a private conversation
with the President of Campaign Life Coalition B.C., John Hof.
GORDON WATSON, CAMPAIGN LIFE, AND DIVISION OF LABOUR
On May 20, 1992, one hour before the scheduled start of a rally
called by the B.C. Coalition of Abortion Clinics to protest the bombing of
the Morgentaler clinic in Toronto, Gordon Watson arrived at the Vancouver
Art Gallery rally site carrying a sign which read "BOOM! SO LONG AND GOOD
BYE, MORGUE & DOLLAR". He positioned himself at the top of the stairs on
the south side of the Art Gallery, above and behind the spot where speakers
would be standing and addressing the rally.
Watson's conduct on this occasion was less aggressive than on
previous occasions where he had carried out repeated physical assaults on
BCCAC marshals. However, his presence, the provocative content of his
sign, and his intermittent yelling of "BOOM!" throughout the speeches make
it appear he was attempting to provoke physical retaliation from rally
participants in such a way as to appear an innocent victim. He came to
this rally as an anti-choicer with a recent and repeated history of
physical violence well known to many of those attending the rally. He also
came knowing that the bombing, and its endorsement by some prominent
anti-choicers such as Ken Campbell, had contributed to deep feelings of
anger among the pro-choice movement. The inescapable conclusion to us is
that he came to the rally deliberately intending to provoke an incident.
Watson was not there alone. He was accompanied at the top of the
stairs by two unidentified individuals who stayed close to him throughout
the rally, and who might have been functioning as bodyguards. These two
individuals were clearly aligned with Watson, and not with the rally.
In addition, and more significantly, Watson was also accompanied
by two other individuals well known as prominent opponents of choice on
abortion: Barry Norman and Berendt Van Eldik. Norman is known to be a
member, and Van Eldik is presumed to be a member, of Campaign Life
Coalition. (Vancouver Sun, May 12, 1989) Throughout the rally Norman stood
unobtrusively in the mass of participants, occasionally talking into a
cellular phone. Van Eldik stood on the far side of Robson Street, filming
the event with a video camera. After the rally was over, Norman climbed
the Art Gallery stairs and stood for five or ten minutes talking with
Watson and the two individuals who were accompanying him.
The inescapable conclusion drawn by anybody who was present at the
rally and who knows the history of these individuals is that this was a
team effort. Watson was there to create an incident. Norman and Van Eldik
were there to record it. It shows Gordon Watson to be acting in
coordination with prominent members of Campaign Life Coalition. Watson
cannot be regarded as a lone crank, but must be seen as part of a concerted
effort to attack, disrupt and discredit the pro-choice movement. It is
quite likely that he is a member of Campaign Life Coalition; certainly he
works very closely with it, as the incidents above illustrate. It is no
small coincidence that Watson attended and participated in the 1993 Annual
General Meeting of Campaign Life Coalition B.C.
On April 21, 1993, three members of Vancouver Vineyard
Church (B.C. Catholic, May 9, 1993) blockaded Everywoman's Health Centre;
one of them was Watson's colleague from Youth With A Mission, Lane
Walker. Youth With A Mission shares two offices in Vancouver with
Vancouver Vineyard Church and the March for Jesus (763 East Broadway and
1163 Commercial Drive, #1); Campaign Life B.C. president John Hof is a
leader in organizing the March for Jesus (Christian Info News, April 1992)
; the head of March for Jesus, Joe Kelder, was invited to address the
Campaign Life Annual General Meeting (Campaign Life Coalition B.C.
Newsletter, April 1993, p.5) ; clearly there are close organizational
relations between all of these groups]. While the blockade was going on,
Watson took part in a picket outside Everywoman's Health Centre in support
of the blockade, as did a number of other anti-choice activists including
Christine Hendrix, Barrie Norman, Karen Hanlon and James Hanlon. As
indicated above, Barry Norman is a member of Campaign Life
Coalition. Karen and James Hanlon both attended the May 29 Annual Meeting
of Campaign Life. Christine Hendrix is a member of the provincial
executive of Campaign Life Coalition. (Vitality, supplement to The Interim
(monthly tabloid of Campaign Life Coalition) July 1993, p.3)
On April 30, 1992, Gordon Watson, Christine Hendrix and Brian
Breton were arrested outside Everywoman's Health Centre for being in
contempt of the B.C. Supreme Court injunction. They were all subsequently
convicted, with the judge observing: "Watson stationed himself on the
sidewalk at one edge of the recessed entrance to the clinic. He propped
two signs against the clinic wall. He held one of the signs in his hand
from time to time. Each sign was in bold lettering clearly visible from a
distance. Both are in evidence. One reads: END SUBSIDIES TO
ABORTUARIES. The other: BEWARE: ABORTIONIST SERIAL KILLER.... I find that
Mr. Watson's conduct of positioning himself at the entrance so that people
entering the clinic would have to pass very close to him, of displaying
signs with provoking and emotionally-disturbing messages on them and of
asking challenging questions to patients and their partners as they turned
into the clinic (including use of the loaded verb form "murdering") would
have the effect of intimidating those people. His signs and his oral
comments were provoking and upsetting, far beyond attendance merely for the
purpose of communicating information. His conduct amounted to watching or
besetting in breach of the injunction." The judge went on to note that
"Mr. Breton and Mrs. Hendrix persistently importuned people who did not
want to deal with them. Their admitted purpose, from their point of view,
was to attempt to prevent loss of life. They crowded and pressed people
entering the clinic. I do not accept their evidence that they were calm,
soothing and helpful in their approach. Their conduct was clearly
upsetting to their targets. Its tenor was intimidating. They were not
there merely to communicate information. They violated the watching or
besetting term of the injunction." (Mr. Justice Low, Reasons For
Judgement, B.C. Supreme Court #C886265, December 13, 1993, pp.3-4, 12)
WHAT IS CAMPAIGN LIFE COALITION?
Campaign Life Coalition is the mainstream national anti-choice
organization. Campaign Life and its monthly newspaper The Interim have
stated since the 1980's that "a state of war" exists in Canada around
abortion --"we are in the midst of all-out ideological warfare. As you
know, it is not merely a question of abortion. The pro-abortion feminists
and champions of the permissive society demand "choice" on every
marital-sexual moral issue." (Jim Hughes, CLC president, CLC fundraising
letter, April 1986) During the 1991 Gulf War Campaign Life stated "in
truth, Canada is at war, not just in the Persian Gulf but right here at
home. And it is God against whom we have declared war.... Canada opposes
Saddam Hussein, and with justification. But that same Canada has
sanctioned the murder of one-and-a-half million babies in the womb and
thinks nothing of it." (Editorial, The Interim, February 1991) John Hof,
Campaign Life B.C. president, stated publicly during the 1991 B.C.
provincial election that if a Harcourt government were to fund
free-standing abortion clinics, "there's going to be such chaos. There's
going to be blood in the streets." (Vancouver Sun, October 7,
1991) Editorials in The Interim routinely attack the pro-choice movement
in the most violent possible terms -- "pro-abortion jackals" being one of
the milder epithets. (Editorial, The Interim, January 1993) Campaign Life
is also a hardened right-wing group with an agenda that, like Watson's,
extends far beyond the single issue of abortion.
**Campaign Life funded Jean-Guy Tremblay's legal fight to prevent
Chantal Daigle from having an abortion; (MacLean's, August 7, 1989, p.16)
**Campaign Life opposes the "killer drug", the "human pesticide"
RU-486, and has organized a boycott of Hoechst to further this
campaign; (The Interim, July 1993, p.1)
**Campaign Life opposes funding for Planned Parenthood; (The
Interim, October 1990, p.11)
**Campaign Life opposes condom machines being placed in
schools; (Editorial, The Interim, April 1991)
**Campaign Life opposes any form of contraception; ((Insight,
supplement to The Interim, April 1991, p.3)
**Campaign Life opposes abortion under all circumstances:
"Abortion is wrong. It is wrong all the time, not some of the time. And
there are no exceptions: not rape, not incest, not physical handicaps, not
even the life of the mother." (Editorial, The Interim, May 1992)
**Campaign Life opposes daycare; (The Interim, December 1991)
**Campaign Life opposes Sunday shopping; (Editorial, The Interim,
May 1992)
**Campaign Life opposes government spending for public health
nurses; (Ibid)
**Campaign Life's position on gay and lesbian rights is that "to
have become a homosexual is to have acquired a moral disorder. To indulge
in homosexual activity is to pervert human sexuality. So-called sexual
orientation should not be placed in the Canada Human Rights Act;
homosexuals should be permitted neither in the army nor in the clergy;
homosexual "unions" must not be recognized as "marriages"." (Ibid)
**Campaign Life opposes euthanasia under all circumstances; (The
Interim, January 1991, p.1)
**Campaign Life opposes sexual abuse prevention programmes in the
schools; (The Interim, April 1991, pp.12-13)
**Campaign Life supports censorship; (The Interim, November 1990,
p.12)
**Campaign Life blames violence against women on the feminist
movement: "The real cause of the current state of violence is the
destruction of the Christian family ethic over the last 30 years. For this
the feminists themselves are more to blame than anyone else.... As
promoters of the "right to choose" ideology, feminists have contributed
greatly to the current moral cesspool of easily available pornography, easy
divorce, common-law marriages and the sterilizing, contracepting,
childlessness-by-choice mentality which mocks womanhood. The whole is
crowned by the claimed "right" to abort pre-born babies, a claim which
threatens the dignity of all human life." (Editorial, The Interim,
September 1991)
**Campaign Life publicly proclaims that "we CAN and should impose
our views in a pluralistic society." (The Interim, December 1992, p.5)
**To reach this goal, Campaign Life calls for confrontation: "let
us confront the abortionists everywhere; let us have more militancy, not
less; let us rid the country of that complacent self-righteousness which
keeps the abortionists busy, content, admired and wealthy." (Editorial, The
Interim, November 1991, p.4)
Campaign Life's hard line right-wing politics are backed up by
hard-line aggressive tactics. Campaign Life Coalition was the main
organizational framework for Operation Rescue's wave of clinic blockades
across Canada in 1988 and 1989. Operation Rescue was organized out of
Campaign Life Coalition's national headquarters at 53 Dundas Street East in
Toronto. Campaign Life leaders figured prominently in the leadership of
Operation Rescue and as participants in the blockades. Campaign Life
publicly solicited funds on behalf of Operation Rescue. It has repeatedly
issued public statements of support for Operation Rescue and, even further,
has issued direct calls to action in the name of Operation Rescue. In
Vancouver, Campaign Life has organized demonstrations, rallies and pickets
at both the Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic and Everywoman's Health Centre,
starting with the very first day that Everywoman's Health Centre opened in
1988.
In the early 1980's Campaign Life Coalition sent out a
confidential circular to its members giving instructions on how to steal
lists of operating room slates from hospitals to prove they were doing
abortions. (Anne Collins, "The Big Evasion--Abortion, The Issue That Won't
Go Away", Toronto, 1985, p.62)
Campaign Life Coalition not only infiltrates pro-choice groups,
but boasts about it. Publicly. In writing. A column in The Interim
written by Michael Otis states that "Dick Cotton, a director of Campaign
Life Coalition B.C. attended a spring meeting of the B.C. Coalition for
Abortion Clinics where he heard Vancouver's Everywoman's Health "Clinic"
[sic] director [sic] Joy Thompson say that pro-abortionists must do
everything they can to deny the humanity of the unborn child...."
[sic] (The Interim, June 1989, p.18)
HOME PICKETING
In March, 1992, The Interim published a lengthy article outlining
the Campaign Life Coalition's strategy at pressuring physicians to stop
performing abortions by picketing their offices and homes. (The Interim,
March 1992, p.11) These guidelines were adopted by the CLC two months
earlier. Since then doctors have been picketed in Toronto, Cambridge,
Peterborough, Windsor, London, Niagara Falls, Winnipeg, Halifax, Vernon and
Vancouver. One doctor, Fraser Fellows, was picketed at his home by
Campaign Life members every day for over a year. (Canadian Medical
Association Journal, November 15, 1992, pp.1,526-1,528)
In Vancouver numerous physicians have been picketed at their
offices and homes by Campaign Life members. Dr. Blake Wright and Dr.
Mary-Alice Sutter were repeatedly picketed by a regular group of
protestors, prominently including Gordon Watson and Christine
Hendrix. Their offices were picketed nearly a dozen times in 1992, mostly
by the same people; their home was picketed four times. Following an
incident involving the two doctors' 14-year-old son, Gordon Watson brought
criminal assault charges against Dr. Wright. Following a long trial, Dr.
Wright was acquitted of the charge; the presiding judge observed that the
picketing carried out by Watson, Hendrix and others was "probably illegal
and certainly outrageous." (B.C. Report, November 23, 1992, p.43)
ABUSE OF THE COURTS
Since 1990 Gordon Watson has initiated, or threatened to initiate
at least one new lawsuit every four months. He brought a suit against the
B.C. Coalition for Abortion Clinics in Small Claims Court, and lost. He
then appealed, and lost. He then attempted to bring a complaint against the
judge who had heard his case in Small Claims Court. The complaint was
dismissed. He then attempted to appeal this dismissal, unsuccessfully. He
then attempted to lay charges with the Law Society against BCCAC lawyer Don
Crane claiming that he had committed perjury; the Law Society turned Watson
down. He then attempted to sue the Law Society, unsuccessfully. He
brought criminal charges against Dr. Blake Wright, unsuccessfully. He
attempted without success to have criminal charges laid against John
Hofsess of the Right to Die Society. He sued Health Minister Elizabeth
Cull for breach of trust, and lost. He launched a suit under the Trades
Practices Act against the Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic and Everywoman's Health
Centre, and lost. After disrupting two NDP campaign rallies he sued both
the NDP as a party, and one of its members who objected to his
disruption. When he was directed to pay $350 in legal costs to the NDP, he
attempted to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, unsuccessfully. He
threatened to bring two suits against Burnaby City Council. He threatened
to bring two false arrest suits against the Burnaby RCMP. More recently he
attempted to press criminal charges of perjury and obstruction of justice
against British Columbia Attorney General Colin Gabelmann. Once again his
case was thrown out, this time following a two-week investigation by a
special prosecutor appointed to investigate the charges. Following this he
attempted to launch a civil action against the Attorney General, but this
too was turned down. In less than four years he has initiated [or
threatened to initiate] at least eighteen separate legal actions, not one
of which has been successful, at the same time as claiming to be indigent
and incapable of paying for costs awarded against him on some of the
occasions when he has once again lost.
One can judge both the legal seriousness of these suits and the
intensity of Watson's obsessions by reading his own words contained in the
multitude of documents he has filed, some of which are appended to this
report. He refers continually to the "abortuaries" , "abortion mills" ,
and "child extermination businesses" which are "carving up children" ,
and "engaged in the business of exterminating preborn children." He
accuses the provincial government's funding of clinics as "a contrivance to
kick back public money to political friends" and "a fraud" , and states
that some of this money "will be used to hire thugs, lawyers, et cetera to
vex, interfere with and effect impediments to the lawful activity of
citizens who express opinions on abortion...." He states that
Everywoman's Health Centre and the Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic "are engaged in
systematic executions of unborn children which they justify by a rascist
[sic] argument; i.e. that "the foeti are biologically different and
therefore not of the human race", which argument is categorically illegal
as hate propaganda...." He states that he "has good reason to believe that
the defendant abortuaries intend to harvest some human tissue, human
metabolic products and/or the by-products of abortion for sale." Watson
stated during his contempt of court trial that the original Supreme Court
injunction prohibiting blockades of Everywoman's Health Centre and
intimidation of its clients constituted "prior restraint upon the
defendant's religious practice, which is Christianity. The Defendant has a
personal religious duty to preach and to practice the dictates of the Word
of God as revealed to the British people in the Bible. This duty includes
extolling the righteousness of the God of Israel and also condemning
unrighteousness, which he was doing when arrested.... Since "Jesus Christ
is the same today and forever", He is the same One with Whom we have to do
today. It is an arguable point that the preamble [of the Charter of Rights
and Freedoms] admits the will of God supreme over the law of man. In which
case no mortal Judge may constrain the Defendant's Christian conduct."
(Notice of Constitutional Question, B.C. Supreme Court, #C886265, August
13, 1993, p.3)
This man is a genuine danger to abortion providers. He has
repeatedly used violence in the past, and even served time for it. In 1988
Watson was working as the manager of a rooming house in Duncan located at
5839 Banks Road. Unconfirmed reports indicate that this rooming house was
linked to the YWAM campaign against spirit dancing on the Cowichan reserve
that was taking place at the same time. On February 17, 1988, Watson was
involved in an incident where he was attempting to evict a resident for
intoxication, under the authority of the Residential Tenancies Act. The
resident's rent was fully paid up. The court testimony shows that Watson
called the Duncan RCMP, and two constables showed up. One of them,
Constable Plimmer, was standing at the top of a flight of stairs with
Watson and the resident, 22-year old Bruce Gustav Strome. Strome was
standing 4 to 5 feet away from the stairwell, with his back to the stairs
and facing Watson. Constable Plimmer testified that all of a sudden, with
no provocation and no warning, Watson rushed forward and pushed Strome down
the stairs backwards. Strome fell all the way down the stairs and struck
his head forcefully against the cement floor at the bottom, sustaining an
injury above and in front of his left ear. Strome subsequently underwent
brain surgery two days later, and had a second operation on June 29,
1988. Victoria General Hospital neurosurgeon Dr. Bennett testified at
Watson's trial that without this surgery Strome would certainly have died.
Watson was immediately arrested and read his rights. Following a
three-day trial in Nanaimo, Watson was convicted of aggravated assault in
May, 1989. Watson conducted his own defence, including a vicious
cross-examination of Mr. Strome. Watson even attempted to have the jury
panel screened to exclude aliens. He was sentenced by Judge K.C. Murphy to
one day in jail, a $1,000 fine, and a five year prohibition against
possessing any firearms, ammunition or explosives. This prohibition
expired on June 16, 1994. There was no probation order, no requirement to
report to a probation officer, and no requirement to keep the
peace. Watson has subsequently acquired numerous convictions, including
incidents outside of Everywoman's Health Centre involving civil contempt of
court and criminal contempt of court as well as an assault conviction for
striking a clinic staff member.
For years he has consistently called for death to abortion providers
and expressing his support for Paul Hill, on death row in Florida for
murdering a doctor and clinic volunteer. It is necessary to take this
verbiage seriously. He has engaged in assaultive behaviour repeatedly in
the past, and there is no reason to think he will not be capable of even
more violent behaviour in the future. Anything he and his associates can
use to destroy women's rights to choose they will use as a weapon.
Will Offley
Winter 1993-1994
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Shaw" <csshawlab at hotmail.com>
To: <mobglob-discuss at lists.resist.ca>
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 2:57 PM
Subject: Re: [mobglob-discuss] Question for Rick McCallion
> Could you please provide the following:
> 1. For those of us outside the loop, details of Gordon Watson's
> illegal/other actions (please cite media or police reports if available).
> 2. The letter cited in the Radical forum appears to be about another court
> case that involves Topham and does not deal with the Holocaust; or is the
> issue that Topham continues to provide Watson with a forum in general?
> 3. I couldn't log onto the anarchist site since I am not a member. Please
> send a plaintext version of Topham's/Watson's comments if available so that
> all can examine.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> Christopher A. Shaw, Ph.D
> Associate Professor
> Research Pavilion
> 828 W. 10th Ave.
> Vancouver, British Columbia
> Canada, V5Z 1L8
> tel: 604-875-4111 (ext. 68375)
> Fax: 604-875-4376
> e-mail: csshawlab at hotmail.com
>
>
>
>
>
> >From: Macdonald Stainsby <mstainsby at tao.ca>
> >Reply-To: mobglob-discuss at lists.resist.ca
> >To: mobglob-discuss at lists.resist.ca, project-x at lists.resist.ca
> >Subject: [mobglob-discuss] Question for Rick McCallion
> >Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 13:42:54 -0800
> >
> >Hi Rick.
> >
> >I thought this might deserve to be left quietly. But now this is appearing,
> >posted in the last couple of days. Arthur Topham, former publisher of the
> >Radical, is now promoting Gordon Watson directly, Watson being a well known
> >anti-woman terrorist. This same man spent time in the last few days on a
> >Vancouver Anarchist discussion list promoting "revision" of the Nazi
> >Holocaust
> >(calling people jewish Holocaust groupies) In his campaigns, he has started
> >quoting you again.
> >
> >I have a question for Rick McCallion: Arthur, formerly I thought he was a
> >dupe.
> >But the neo Nazi has been quoting you on a local listserve in Vancouver,
> >all
> >after telling people that the Nazi Holocaust killed "only 1.5 million" and
> >then
> >proceeded to ask a local anarchist if she was a "jewish? orhtodox? zionist?
> >sympathiser?" after she objected to his bizarre re-writes of history.
> >
> >He, of course, went on an attack spree against me and also Will Offley,
> >apparently it was either me or Will anytime that someone calls him on his
> >anti
> >semitism. When all of this was happening, none of the people on the list
> >serve
> >knew anything about me or Will Offley. I found out after it was brought to
> >my
> >attention that he was talking about me. He then quoted something you said
> >on
> >Mobglob. You said you had never seen anything racist in the radical, and if
> >you
> >did you would reconsider your support for the paper. Fair enough. Here,
> >this
> >isn't racist below, but Arthur is now publishing Gordon Watson (Watson did
> >not
> >post the article, Arthur did so for him), a known terrorist against the
> >abortion
> >providers in this city. It is a form of hate, and Watson is known as a
> >promoter
> >of violence against women. Do you still give Arthur Topham permission to
> >use you
> >as a cover for his own work? Will you distribute this in the future?
> >
> >Here's a link (where Watson calls himself a "reader of the Radical" at the
> >outset) to this article.
> >
> >If anyone wants, they can see the archives of the discussion where Topham
> >the
> >"anarchist" newspaper editor makes his bizarre statements about the
> >Holocaust
> >(et al). Considering you have actively helped organise with Arthur, it is
> >fair
> >to ask you publically let us know where you stand on this issue...
> >
> >as you yourself stated you would.
> >I know you are busy, so let me thank you ahead of time for taking out the
> >time
> >from your busy schedule. It's just that these kinds of questions really do
> >deserve attention, as I'm sure you'll agree.
> >
> >article by Watson published by Arthur Topham:
> >http://www.radicalpress.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=453
> >
> >bizarre anti-semitic rants by Arthur at this (Anarchist based)Vancouver
> >email
> >list:
> >http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vanarchy/
> >
> >Macdonald
> >
> >
> >-------------------------------------------
> >Macdonald Stainsby
> >http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
> >http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
> >--
> >In the contradiction lies the hope.
> > --Bertholt Brecht
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >mobglob-discuss mailing list
> >mobglob-discuss at lists.resist.ca
> >http://lists.resist.ca/mailman/listinfo/mobglob-discuss
>
>
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