Police are investigating what they believe to be an incident of violence against demonstrators during a pro-life rally in Toronto. A group who caught the incident on video said it occurred on Oct. 1 by Ryerson University. If accurate, that would mean the attack took place just one day after a man violently kicked a pro-life woman in the shoulder following a heated debate about abortion.
In the Toronto incident, the offender can then be seen throwing a dolly and pushing Katie Somers, another pro-life advocate. The attackers then reach into Somers’ bag and grab other items, before throwing them to the ground.
“We didn’t see her coming,” Somers said, as reported by Global News. “She kicked our signs, shoved them down. They fell down my leg, injuring me … And then I tried to run away, while she picked up a metal dolly and threw it at me and then proceeded to shove me, wrestle me around by my backpack and try to get me to fight her.”
Somers noted that the group is intending on pressing charges and also plan to launch a civil case.
The group named the attacked as Gabriela Skwarko, an assistant at Ryerson’s Social Innovation Office and member of the Ryerson Reproductive Justice Collective, a pro-abortion group.
“We have no comment,” said Olson Crow, the group’s co-founder.
“They have assaulted us multiple times and giving into their viewpoint and the way they’ve swung this is problematic and bad.”
But Somers said the violence is almost always directed at the pro-life demonstrators.
“We believe that the escalation of violence against peaceful pro-life protesters is becoming a problem and would like it to stop,” she explained.
“We don’t want our society to turn into a place where people are afraid to share their opinion.”
The man who perpetrated the first attack, 26-year-old Jordan Hunt, handed himself into police and was released Saturday on $500 bail after being charged with eight counts of assault, according to Life Site News. His bail conditions forbit him to be within 500 meters of any “organized pro-life demonstration.”