JMJ
Aug.21,2019
Hat
Some years ago John and I made an effort to go to the Sask Pro- life Assoc. Rally in Regina although it is about 900 kilometers one way. I had something that we especially needed to be said. Some people said “ don’t you think the Caswells should be allowed to speak? The then president said no because I had been charged with breaking and entering. My alleged B& E was when my husband climbed up the patio broke the window , climbed in and unlocked the door when La Ronge Housing had changed the locks. It was April 23, a three day snow storm was at it’s full height . Note: John, not I climbed into our house. Gay, not John was charged with a B& E. That however is not what we wanted to say: This is it.
A mother, Mrs. Linda Cook with fourteen children was forced to go to Saskatoon City Hospital , was scheduled for an abortion. She ran away from the hospital, She was forced to go back. This was repeated three times. Mrs. Linda Cook had never been in Saskatoon before, knew no one, knew no individual or group that would help, yet she was willing to face city traffic, unknown public buildings, closed private homes, to escape killing her child. She was dragged back. By what authority? By whom? This was repeated three times. Why did no one intervene? How could she have given any consent verbally or in writing? In addition they forcibly sterilised her.
We had heard something of this from Linda’s mother - in- law. As her life long tradition Linda told her priest, Fr. LeMay who had been their community priest for seventeen years. He now was our priest . Fr. LeMay was in many ways more isolated from the south than we now are. But he knew that we would make known this atrocity. That is why we bothered to go to the Pro- Life Annual Meeting. I could tell a little of the story and expected time to tell more.
The President of Sask.Pro- Life said “ No one wants to hear about this anymore. SHE HAD HER FOUURTEEN !!”
Saskatchewan is full of large families. Lutherans, Catholics, United, et c had them and fortunately are still having them. Why this contempt for native families ? The thought of their breeding is so horrible that coercion, violence, capture and locked doors in a public hospital in the middle of Saskatoon justifies this? What Linda went through sounds like something worse than a posse complete with guns and hounds for an escaped slave in UNCLE TOM’S CABIN.
Linda grieved everyday. The Southend Clinic gave her medicine. The doctor or doctors knew that we knew her story. The medicine ate holes in her stomach. She died quickly and painfully. We could not go to the funeral of our friend and of a martyr who braved everything rather than kill her child.. I could not trust myself to contain my anger appropriate for a funeral.
There was talk of suing the... Clinic? Indian Affairs? The Government of Saskatchewan?. How do you sue anyone under socialised medicine ? Who will take the case ? And who will pay for it? Government owned Legal Aid? The only court Linda, her family and we will get is the Court of Public Opinion and Sask. Pro-Life won’t get us there.
Gay
