Gibbons has been arrested multiple times for violating a temporary injunction issued in 1994 that prevents her from protesting within 150 metres of Toronto abortion clinics. Each time she has been jailed judges have refused to grant her bail unless she promises not to continue her protests. She refuses to abide by these conditions.

Before her latest arrest, Gibbons had been speaking to women who entered the clinic and passersby. She stood holding a sign that read: “Why mom? When I have so much love to give.”

Gibbons was in court Dec. 19 and her next court date will be on Jan. 3 at the College Park Courthouse, Gibbons’ lawyer Daniel Santoro told The Catholic Register. Until that time, Gibbons will remain in prison.

In her appearance before the Supreme Court Dec. 14, her lawyers had argued that violations of civil injunctions or orders made by family courts or human rights tribunals should go back to the civil courts for enforcement, where there are a wider variety of remedies, including the lifting of the injunction.

But a lawyer representing Ontario’s Attorney General countered that enforcement of the 17-year-old injunction was necessary to ensure respect for the rule of law.

The Supreme Court has reserved judgment and no timeline for a decision was given.

Gibbons, a 63-year-old grandmother, told reporters outside the court she does not believe the Crown has “an absolute right to throw an injunction” against groups it disagrees with. She said the Crown is overreaching and doing “violence in a democracy where people have differing views.”

“A country that does not protect its unborn is no longer a civilized or a free country,” she told CCN outside the court. This injunction, she said, “is being used as a political instrument to silence us.”

Gibbons’ lawyers said in an interview the abortion issue was only a backdrop to the case which focused on highly technical arguments about whether the violation of this injunction should have gone to a criminal court. They are arguing to have her conviction quashed but if Gibbons wins, the injunction, which was part of a civil lawsuit launched by Bob Rae’s NDP government, will still stand unless the original defendants seek to have it quashed themselves.