PETITION TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS OF CANADA, draw the attention of the House to the following:
THAT in current federal criminal law, an unborn child is not recognized as a victim with respect to violent crimes.
THAT when Olivia Talbot of Edmonton was shot and killed in November 2005, her 27 week old unborn son, Lane Jr., also died, but because we offer no legal protection for unborn children today, no charge could be laid in the death of Baby Lane.
THAT the vast majority of the public supports laws that protect unborn children from acts of violence against their mothers that also injure or kill the child in her womb.
THAT forcing upon a pregnant woman the death/injury of her unborn child is a violation of a woman%u2019s right to give life to her child / protect her child.
THAT studies show violence against women often begins or escalates during pregnancy.
THEREFORE your petitioners call upon Parliament to enact legislation which would recognize unborn children as separate victims when they are injured or killed during the commission of an offence against their mothers, allowing two charges to be laid against the offender instead of just one.
"We the undersigned." Understand that a woman has the right to chose whether or not to keep and birth and unborn baby. This petition is about woman that are harmed during the commition of an offence, in which and unborn child is harmed or killed that the offender should be charged with hurting that child. In Canada a fetus is not a life untill it has taken one breath of air on it's own. So if you are nine months pregnant and walking down the street and someone stabs you in the stomach killing your unborn child they are not charged with murder they are charged with assault. You may live, you may die, you are protected but your baby is not. I did not know this untill it had personally affected my family. Olivia's child was twenty seven weeks old when she was murdered, a viable fetus and yet her killler was only charged and convicted mind you of her killing. Something is wrong with this picture Olivia had chosen to have her baby. This law has been put into effect in many states and not so in Canada. You may remember the Lacy Peterson case in California where her husband killed her and her unborn child. That case changed the laws there and we need to change it here. So if you believe in freedom of choice, free will and life I urge you to sign this petition.
