Family Research Council Evaluation of Frank Wagner Is Frank Wagner Pro Life

Peradventure you accept been to court before. I have not. In near seven years of Catholic journalism, I've spent fourth dimension at printing conferences outside of courtrooms, simply not in them.

The grim-looking cement cake that is the Provincial Court of B.C. is not one I accept spent any time in – until a few days ago, when I was assigned to comprehend the sentencing hearing for pro-lifer and serial offender Mary Wagner.

Wagner is a woman I have written much well-nigh, but met in person only once before her sentencing Sept 11. She sat on a chair: silent, notwithstanding, hair pulled back in a low ponytail, expression calm.

Information technology was non Wagner's get-go time in courtroom, non by a long shot. She has spent the better role of the last decade behind bars, a hardened criminal sentenced many times in courts beyond the land.

Her criminal offence? Entering abortion clinics to paw out roses and inquire women what financial or other assist she could offer so they wouldn't go through with the process.

Wagner didn't shout slogans or moving ridge signs. She didn't touch anyone, block doors, necktie herself to anything, or make a scene – unless yous consider handing out free roses a public disturbance.

Yet, in Canada her deportment were enough to have her arrested by police, jailed, and forced to confront a guess. She did, after all, walk into a secure edifice without an appointment.

I may be a newbie in the court, only even as I fumbled with when to sit, stand up, or speak similar someone at Mass for the beginning fourth dimension, I recognized Wagner'south example is an boggling one. Judge Marking Jette said as much during the sentencing hearing Sept. 11.

The judge establish Wagner guilty of mischief and trespassing at Everywoman'southward Health Centre in Vancouver April 17. (The arresting police officeholder had been unfamiliar with B.C.'s "bubble zone" law and so she was charged with different offences than she typically is.)

She'd been locked up since that mean solar day, and so, having spent more time backside confined than the maximum sentence for her crime, was fix costless the same twenty-four hour period she was sentenced.

"You are not the sort of person we usually bargain with in the courts," Jette said during the proceedings.

Wagner isn't mired in fraud or drug trafficking or other crimes many accused people who enter the provincial court are mixed up in. She is a pro-life woman with convictions that run then deep she enters abortion clinics with the urgency of someone who has learned a human being life is in danger and dashes in to see if she can save information technology.

Though the judge found her guilty under Canadian police, he recognized Wagner'south actions come from her heart. When the Crown attorney asked for 30 hours of community service and a iii-year probation, the judge gave her two years of probation and said he saw no reason for her to practice community service.

"I'chiliad satisfied that you lot are somebody who gives back to the community on a daily basis," he told Wagner. "It'south in your Dna."

That was an extraordinary statement indeed, her lawyer Peter Boushy told me afterward. "You rarely hear a judge compliment an accused person."

During the hearing, Boushy told the judge that Wagner has a loving family to lean on after her release. Her parents, Frank and Jane Wagner, live on Vancouver Island and have raised seven biological children, five adopted children, and four foster children.

Frank and Jane took turns witnessing Wagner's appearances in the court, along with virtually a dozen supporters, for iii days.

Frank said he had hoped the guess would find her innocent.

Mary tries to "protect the babies from imminent death," he told me. "Information technology'southward similar accompanying Jesus to his crucifixion. She wants to exist at that place with them until the fourth dimension they are being killed."

When Wagner had a gamble to share endmost remarks, she said something I'one thousand sure few accused say. She was glad she was establish guilty.

"This conviction is cipher I am aback of. On the contrary, I am pleased that the courtroom has found there is enough evidence to conclude that I interfered with the business organisation of destroying helpless unborn children, who remain unprotected and abandoned by the courtroom."

Civil disobedience, Canada'south abortion "chimera zone" laws, and the effectiveness of Wagner'south in-and-out-of-prison house strategy tin be debated for a long time.

But what was not up for fence in that courtroom was Wagner's heartfelt convictions, her deep belief in the humanity of the unborn, and her intendance for the vulnerable. The judge himself insisted at that place was no demand to give her customs service and acknowledged she came from a good family unit.

Wagner supporter Carl Wolkenstein said it is true that community service is in Wagner's Dna, as the judge said. "That's the same Deoxyribonucleic acid that she's had since she was in her female parent'south womb," though it seems Canadian law has nonetheless to recognize that.

-Agnieszka Ruck is the banana editor of B.C. Catholic, which originally published this opinion piece.

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Source: https://grandinmedia.ca/mary-wagner-an-extraordinary-defendant-in-an-extraordinary-court-case/