#sam oosterhoff

Several of Doug Ford’s top ministers and MPPs have received ringing endorsements from Canada’s biggest anti-abortion group.

Campaign Life Coalition, an extreme social conservative advocacy group that aims to criminalize abortion and devotes itself to opposing what it describes as Canada’s “culture of death,” has released its latest “voters’ guide” for Ontario’s 2022 provincial election — and the list includes some high-profile names.

In fact, three Ontario PC candidates are listed as indicating there are no circumstances in which they believe women in Ontario should have access to abortion services, other than a life-or-death medical intervention.

Niagara West candidate Sam Oosterhoff, Markham-Unionville candidate Billy Pang and Durham candidate Todd McCarthy all answered “no” to a question in a survey circulated by Campaign Life which asked: “Are there any circumstances under which you believe a woman should have access to abortion?”

Continue Reading.

Unlike in the U.S., the immediate goal for opponents of abortion in Canada probably isn’t to change the laws, says Jessica Shaw, a University of Calgary Social Work professor who serves on the board of directors for Women Help Women. What anti-abortion activists in Canada want to do is to change the culture.

“There has been a shift in activism where anti-abortion activists are no longer trying to make abortion illegal, they’re trying to make abortion unthinkable,” she told HuffPost Canada. “That’s actually an important distinction, because when something is unthinkable, anyone who’s looking for an abortion or providing an abortion becomes a social deviant.”

Shaw’s major concern, she said, “is not so much about legal changes, but about the culture shift.”

“Unthinkable” was the word used by Ontario MPP Sam Oosterhoff in May, when he attended an anti-abortion protest in Toronto, the city’s first-ever March for Life.

Niagara West, ON – 20 year old MPP Sam Oosterhoff announced today that one reason he was so delighted to see the Sex-Ed curriculum repealed was that he was sick of all these ‘cocky’ pre-teens knowing so much more than him about how babies are made.

“I’m just sick of it,” said the home-schooled social conservative. “These ‘elite’ kids running around, thinking they are better than me just because they know the proper term for their wee-wees and hoohas.”

Premier Doug Ford says he told Sam Oosterhoff to be “very mindful of the groups he’s talking to” before the MPP headlined an event organized by a group that compares abortion to the Holocaust.

Despite the warning from the premier, Oosterhoff spoke to students virtually Wednesday night at an event by student anti-abortion groups, including the National Campus Life Network.

“I said to all my MPPs — I never want to dictate what their beliefs are, they are all independent thinkers ... (but) what I did tell (Oosterhoff), I was adamant about it ... you can’t compare anything to the Holocaust,” Ford said Thursday when asked about the controversy.

“It’s disgusting actually that anyone would compare to that.”

Ford said he told the Niagara West MPP “to be very mindful of the groups that he’s talking to, speaking to.”

However, he added, “with all my MPPs, I can’t follow their schedules, I can’t dictate their private time what they are doing, what they aren’t doing. So I had a very good conversation with Sam.”

Continue Reading.

The union that represents over 155,000 public service employees across Ontario is demanding Premier Doug Ford kick Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff out of PC caucus after remarks he made in regards to abortion.

In a release issued Tuesday morning,  OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas said: “If there was ever an argument to have a mechanism to recall politicians in Ontario, Oosterhoff is a perfect example.”

On May 9, Oosterhoff appeared on stage at an anti-abortion protest at Queen’s Park pledging to demonstrators “to fight to make abortion unthinkable in our lifetime.”

PC MPP’s Christina Mitas and Will Bouma were also in attendance. Oosterhoff’s comments immediately drew harsh criticism from the opposition and ignited a social media firestorm.

On Saturday, protesters dressed in red cloaks resembling costumes from the television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale confronted Oosterhoff at an event at the Grimsby branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.

Thomas said Oosterhoff’s views on women’s rights are unacceptable and a “chilling threat to the right of women to control their own bodies.”

The OPSEU president said in Tuesday’s release “at the very least the Premier should send a signal to women by booting him out of his caucus.”

Continue Reading.

Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff pledged at an anti-abortion rally in Toronto Thursday to make abortion "unthinkable."

"I'm pro-life. I believe children should be allowed to live, no matter how small they are," said Oosterhoff.

"We have survived 50 years of abortion in Canada and we pledge to fight to make abortion unthinkable in our lifetime."

He made the comments at an anti-abortion rally in front of Queen's Park Thursday. Toronto's event comes alongside a similar rally Thursday at Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

Oosterhoff told CBC News that he doesn't have a problem raising these issues at the provincial legislature, or anywhere else.

Continue Reading.

Police were called to MPP Sam Oosterhoff's riding office Tuesday after a group of older adults clutching books showed up to stage a "read in" over provincial library cuts.

The group of about 15 retirees and seniors, some of whom are members of a classic book club in Wainfleet, had planned to read their books in the Niagara West Tory MPP's Beamsville office in silent protest.

"I don't think we looked threatening," said Janet Hodgkins, a book club member and a retired librarian who worked at Welland Public Library for 28 years.

Each member of the group carried a book, some with homemade brown paper covers displaying quotes about the importance of libraries. They walked into Oosterhoff's King Street office in a plaza just after 2 p.m. and were told by a staff member that they couldn't hold a sit-in because the building is owned by someone else.

Continue Reading.

A group of older adults kicked out of PC MPP Sam Oosterhoff's office for trying to stage a "read in" over library cuts have been invited to hold their protest at a local NDP office — police free.

The group of library card-carrying seniors and retirees were told to leave Oosterhoff's Niagara West constituency office in Beamsville when they showed up Tuesday afternoon to read their books in the lobby. An office staff member called police when the group of about 15 didn't exit immediately.

Three Niagara Regional Police officers arrived after the group left the office, which is on the second floor of a strip mall on King Street. They had been inside for about eight minutes and left letters for Oosterhoff with their concerns after they were told they couldn't stay and read.

"We just felt bad for them when they went to give their opinion and the police were called, which is an extreme," said Jeff Burch, NDP MPP for Niagara Centre, who worked at St. Catharines Public Library for eight years and has invited the group to come to his office to meet without a police presence.

"We just want to make sure that their voices are heard, that's the main thing."

Continue Reading.