VANCOUVER (CCN) — A Vancouver pro-life activist has been charged with mischief after being arrested during a four-hour protest outside the city’s Every Woman’s Health Centre.
Lane Walker, 62, who lives in the Downtown Eastside in an intentional interdenominational Christian community, said he was initially charged with violating B.C.’s Access to Abortion Services Act.
Walker, 62, has a history of protesting human rights violations and abortion that goes back to the 1980s.
Every Woman’s Health Centre is one of several abortion facilities in Metro Vancouver and has previously been the site of protests and counter-protests.
Walker, who although not Catholic attends Mass at St. Paul’s Church near Oppenheimer Park, said he was taken into custody while protesting outside the clinic. Walker said he had been outside the clinic engaging in conversations with members of the public and police officers. He said he told police he intended to openly defy the Access to Abortion Services Act, the provincial legislation that restricts certain forms of expression within designated access zones around abortion clinics.
Walker said officers approached him and told him to leave the 50-metre access zone around the clinic. After making it clear he intended to stay in protest, he was arrested and read his rights, he said.
He told The B.C. Catholic the police were “exemplar civil servants” who have “a truly difficult job because high-conflict situations can be very stressful.”
Police told him handcuffs would not be used because his demeanour “did not warrant more forceful measures,” he said.
Police were hesitant to arrest him, he said, describing the process as unusual.
“I’ve never been served, read my rights and given my court date all at the same time,” he said.
He said he was initially charged with violation of the Access to Abortion Services Act, but the charge was later reduced to mischief, a decision he believes was made to avoid engaging with the substance of the protest.
Under the Criminal Code, mischief is conduct that intentionally interferes with the lawful use of property.
Walker is scheduled to appear in court on March 18.
