Mary Wagner
Abortionist Ninia Lupovici tried to forcibly remove Mary Wagner from her abortion center but fell instead, a Toronto court heard March 10 on the first day of Wagner’s trial. Wagner, 42, is charged with two counts of breaching a probation order and one of causing mischief, following her December 12, 2015 arrest outside the Bloor West Village Women’s Clinic.
Owned and operated by Lupovici and her business partner Heather Culvert, the abortion facility is located on the fourth floor of an office complex at 2425 Bloor Street in an upscale west Toronto neighborhood.
The 56-year-old abortionist and licensed psychotherapist also testified that Wagner asked the women in the abortion center’s waiting room such questions as “are you sure you want to kill your baby?” “why would you choose to take the life of your unborn child?” and “do you realize you’re killing your baby?”
“It’s stressful, it’s upsetting. There’s nothing to say to Mary to make any difference, so basically we have to wait for the police to come. In the meantime the women are upset,” Lupovici told the court. “It’s not fair.”
Wagner is currently under two probation orders forbidding her to be within 100 meters of any abortion center in Ontario, and has been in jail since her December arrest because she refuses to agree to bail conditions requiring her to stay away from abortion facilities.
Her trial at Toronto’s Old City Hall Court, scheduled for a day-and-a-half, was unexpectedly delayed when Justice Katrina Mulligan of the Ontario Court of Justice ordered her to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Wagner, who is representing herself, declared in an opening statement that the “fundamental” issue before the court was that “unborn children are not being recognized in this country” and that “the best way that I can respond is to remain silent in solidarity with unborn children. I have no intention of speaking further.”
When the trial began and Crown counsel Tania Monteiro called the first of four witnesses, Mulligan became increasingly concerned because the accused did not respond to her questions as to whether she understood what was going on. “Am I correct that you understand?” Mulligan asked at one point. “When you look down is that the same as saying no? … Is there a question here of understanding?”
The justice stopped the trial and ordered Wagner be assessed. “I want to make sure that there’s not a mental health issue,” Mulligan stated. “It would be terribly unfair to continue this trial if you don’t understand.”
When the court reconvened about two hours later, two court mental health workers assured Mulligan that Wagner was indeed mentally fit to stand trial. “Great,” the justice said. “I just couldn’t get her to participate.”
Linda Gibbons, who also witnesses outside Toronto abortion facilities and has herself endured three court-ordered psychiatric evaluations, told LifeSiteNews, “when the trial officially started, she went to silent mode, which means no communication at all – not even nodding yes or no.”
After the trial reconvened, Crown lawyer Monteiro called Lupovici to the stand and introduced as evidence video surveillance from inside the abortion facility, which she asked Lupovici to explain. The silent images show Wagner entering the abortion center right behind a woman who had been “buzzed in” by the receptionist. The facility’s security system includes an exterior surveillance camera and an intercom to screen those seeking entrance.
The abortionist is seen speaking to Wagner, who “refused to leave.” The footage then shows her taking Wagner’s arm. “I was trying to pull her out … trying to push her out,” Lupovici said. But “she kind of turned her arm around and I kind of fell out my own door … I lost a grip on her arm.”
Lupovici said some of the people in the waiting were upset by what transpired.
The remaining women were shepherded into an inner room, including one who arrived while Lupovici appeared to be animatedly talking to Wagner. “Mary Wagner followed her, trying to speak to her as well,” then tried “to get through that door” into the inner room.
“So what did you have to do?” asked Crown counsel Monteiro. “Slam it,” replied Lupovici.
When the police arrived, they “pulled her up by her arms and took her out.”
Toronto Police Constable Jason Keegan then testified, stating that when he arrived at the abortion facility with Constable Emma Morley “shortly after 10,” he saw “rose petals on the floor,” and “Mary sitting in a chair.” He recognized Wagner because he had encountered her on a previous occasion “protesting silently in a women’s clinic in the neighbourhood.”
Keegan did not arrest Wagner then, but “escorted” her from the building, warning her that if she returned she would be arrested. “I felt she could be sent on her way with a caution.”
But after returning to his patrol car, he ran a few searches and discovered Wagner’s probation order, then received a dispatch call that she had gone back to the abortion center. He thereupon returned to 2425 Bloor Street and arrested Wagner “right in front of the elevator door on the fourth floor.”
A conviction of breaching a probation order carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail, and a maximum fine of $2,000.
Wagner, who hails from BC, has served upwards of four years in jail for her peaceful attempts to save women and their unborn children from the violence of abortion.
The trial continued on March 16 at Toronto’s Old City Hall Court.
A longer version of this article appeared March 11 at LifeSiteNews and is reprinted with permission.
