On September 30, 2018, Marie-Claire Bissonnette took part in Canada’s Pro-Life event called Life Chain. The day involves thousands of Pro-Life advocates—women, men, and children—standing on sidewalks across Canada displaying signs with Pro-Life messages. Despite the protest being entirely peaceful, the day erupted in violence when a pro-abortion man round-house kicked Bissonnette for her Pro-Life views. The shocking moment was captured on Bissonnette’s phone, and the video has been viewed online more than a million times.
Bissonnette wrote a personal account of the assault for the Canadian website LifeSite News. In the article, Bissonnette explains that she was responsible for organizing a group of Life Chain participants on one street corner in Toronto. She kept a headcount and handed out signs with messages such as, “Abortion Hurts Women,” “Abortion Kills Children,” “Adoption, the Loving Option,” and “Pregnant and need help?” with contact information for local pregnancy resource centers. The location had seventy-six Pro-Life advocates holding signs between two and three on Sunday afternoon.
Bissonnette writes that there was one pro-abortion counter-protester present, who can be seen in the video. This woman peacefully holding a sign was not confrontational, aggressive, or violent. However, at 2:30, a pro-abortion man came to the corner and began vandalizing signs of Pro-Lifers. When Bissonnette told Pro-Life participants to protect their signs from vandalism, Bissonnette writes, “he then proceeded to run up behind five of the participants (including a ten-year-old girl) and scribble with his markers on their backs, ruining their clothing.”
At this point, Bissonnette began recording the on-going incident with her cell phone, informing the man that he had destroyed private property and broken the law. After a brief exchange, which you can see in the video, the man abruptly kicks Bissonnette, which sent her phone flying, and Bissonnette can be heard on the recording telling bystanders to call the police. The man fled the scene before police arrived.
The man was later identified as Jordan Hunt, a hairdresser, formerly employed by Nobles Studio 101. To their credit, Hunt’s former employers condemned his actions. The salon posted on Instagram, “it has been brought to our attention that Jordan Hunt has been caught on camera assaulting an innocent bystander at a pro-life rally. We don’t condone his actions and he has been let go.”
LifeSite News reports that Bissonnette filed a report with the police and plans to press charges. Alarmingly, Pro-Lifers have video showing that this is not the first time Hunt has violently assaulted a Pro-Life woman. Over the summer, Hunt attacked another Pro-Life demonstration in Toronto, assaulting a young female intern expressing her Pro-Life views publicly.
The most recent video capturing Hunt’s round-house kick is so shocking that the story was picked up by mainstream media. Many have pointed to the irony of a male, pro-abortion activist assaulting a woman. Abortion activists use rhetoric of being “pro-choice” and “pro-woman,” yet one of their own violently attacked a peaceful, Pro-Life woman simply for expressing her beliefs.
Bissonnette says this is not the first time she has experienced threats and violence from pro-abortion people. And she is not alone. Writing for Live Action News, Cassy Fiano-Chesser notes:
Other pro-life women have likewise been victims of pro-abortion violence. Another Canadian pro-life woman was threatened with rape and assaulted on her college campus. Other pro-abortion extremists have used cars as weapons, trying to run over pro-lifers — a scary tactic that has become disturbingly common. Others have been attacked for trying to counsel others or for protesting abortion.
Incidents like these reveal that pro-abortion activists are not interested in a woman’s “right to choose” but are interested only in defending the killing of the preborn at any cost.