On March 15, 2016, I served an Application Record on the Minister of Health and Wellness of the PEI government and filed a copy of that Record with the PEI Supreme Court in support of an Application seeking a Judicial Review of PEI’s Abortion Policy and Laws.

The Application Record contains the Notification of Application filed on February 16 ; a sworn Affidavit spelling out the facts of the case; and a Factum outlining the arguments and authorities upon which this legal action is based. Both the Affidavit and Factum refer to numerous tabbed documents contained as exhibits in the Record.

“THE FACTUM IS THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENT TO READ”

Regardless of what happens next, this case offers important information explaining how the PEI government is currently breaking the law by paying for therapeutic abortion-on-demand under the Provincial Health Plan. It also explains why the government should not change PEI’s official abortion policy and laws in a move to legalize payment of abortion.

The evidence shows that: (a) abortions are not medically required, (b) there is no constitutional “right” to abortion in Canada, and (c) there is no federal abortion law obliging the PEI government to provide abortion services or pay for those services. I believe the evidence also makes it clear that Premier Wade MacLaughlin and the Minister of Health and Wellness, Hon. Robert Henderson, have misled Islanders by saying the Charter of Rights and Freedoms obliges the province to offer and pay for abortions.  This is simply not true.

After reading the Affidavit and Factum in this case, I am sure you will see how our Liberal government’s move to implement abortion-on-demand is based solely on ideology….not on the constitution, not on the Canada Health Act nor any other federal law; and most certainly not on medical science. Despite the barrage of misinformation and intimidation from those pushing for abortion-on-demand, we must continue to fight for the right of every unborn child to continue to live and not have their lives ended by abortion.

I am offering links to three key PDF documents which are contained in my Application Record: the Table of Contents, an Affidavit and a Factum. The Table of Contents contains a list of all the documents in the Application Record. Each document is presented under the Table of Contents tab at the top of this homepage as a hyperlink which can be opened in a separate window.

The Affidavit is relatively short (6 pages) and offers a listing of the key facts regarding the currently operating abortion policies and laws in Prince Edward Island.  Where specific sections or subsections of PEI’s health laws are cited, they will have a corresponding reference in the form of a  “tab number” and a “page number”. To access the cited reference in the exhibit, go to the Table of Contents tab at the top of this home page and click on the link for that particular tab number and it will either open a pdf version of the document or a website page where the document can be found.

The Factum is a slightly longer document with the following sections: (a) Identification of Parties; (b) Summary of Relevant Facts; (c) Key Issues, Arguments & Authorities; (d) a Statement of what the Applicant is seeking from the Court; (d) a list of Authorities relied upon; and (e) the text of the Authorities relied upon.

The key issues dealt with in the Key Issues, Arguments and Authorities section are as follows (1) The legal status of abortion in Canada; (2) Provincial jurisdiction for the regulation of abortion; (3) PEI’s official abortion policy and abortion law; and (4) Statutory interpretation of the phrase “medically required.”  Again, wherever documents are cited, corresponding tab and page numbers are provided and those documents can be opened in separate windows from the Table of Contents tab. Please note that page numbers in the references are determined by where particular documents appear in the Application Record (not the original page #’s in the documents) so you may have to do some hunting to find the exact page reference or quotation.