OTTAWA The federal Liberal government has handed over thousands of pages of documents related to the WE controversy to a House of Commons committee, which lawyers are now vetting for personal information and cabinet secrets.

OTTAWA The federal Liberal government has handed over thousands of pages of documents related to the WE controversy to a House of Commons committee, which lawyers are now vetting for personal information and cabinet secrets.

The finance committee demanded the documents last month as it probes whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's relationship with WE Charity influenced the government's ill-fated decision to have the organization run a federal student-volunteer program.

Committee members are hoping the documents will shed light on the discussions that led to the decision to have WE run the Canada Student Services Grant, before the deal was cancelled amid controversy in early July.

"People are asking a lot of questions," NDP finance critic Peter Julian said in an interview. "There's been a lot of contradictions in testimony. So the documents should be revealing a lot more of what the real answers are."

Yet while the Liberals turned more than 5,000 pages over to the committee ahead of Saturday's deadline, it wasn't clear when they would be released to members as committee lawyers go through them to prevent the release ofprotected information.

"We don't know," Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said during a news conference on Sunday when asked when committee members would get the documents."We have asked. They have not given us the timeline."

Committee chairman Wayne Easter, a Liberal MP,predicted the documents would be released in the coming days to members as additional lawyers from the public service have been brought in to help review them for cabinet secrets and other information.

Even after the documents are released, however, there will could be disagreements about why certain information was withheld.

While Poilievre and Julian suggested they were keeping the door open to challenging any redactions, Easter said the vetting was being conducted by the professional public service and noted the tradition of Parliament respecting cabinet confidence.

Usually prepared for ministers to aid government deliberations and decision-making, documents marked as cabinet confidences hold closely guarded political secrets and are legally protected from unauthorized release.

Trudeau has previously faced pressure to waive cabinet confidence when it came to allegations he tried to pressure then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould on a deferred prosecution agreement with Quebec engineering firm SNC-Lavalin.

"We respect the integrity of the public service," Easter said when asked about the lawyers redacting cabinet confidences in the WE documents. "That's why there is no political involvement in the redacting of these documents. That's why the law clerk is involved."

The Liberals have been embroiled in controversy since it was revealed on June 25 that WE had been selected to run the Canada Student Services Grant, which promised up to $5,000 toward the education costs of students who volunteered during COVID-19.

The sole-sourced agreement with WE was to pay one of its foundations up to $43.5 million to administer a grant program designed to encourage students to sign up for volunteer work related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have since apologized for not recusing themselves from cabinet's discussions about the agreement before it was awarded to WE given their respective families' ties to the Toronto-based charity.

Trudeau has spoken at six WE Day events since becoming prime minister, while his mother and brother have been paid almost $300,000 and reimbursed about $200,000 in expenses for appearing at WE events.Trudeau's wife has also had expenses covered.

Morneau, meanwhile,acknowledged last month that he repaid WE about $41,000 in sponsored travel for him and his family to view the charity's humanitarian projects in Ecuador and Kenya in 2017.

Yet the government has insisted that the decision was based on a recommendation from the non-partisan public service following its conclusion that WE was the only organization capable of running the grant program.

Opposition critics, meanwhile,are also training their sights on an agreementbetween a Crown corporation and a company employing the husband of Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford.

The agreement between the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and MCAP, where Telford's husband Rob Silver is an executive vice-president, involves the administering of a rent-assistance program for small businesses affected by COVID-19.

The Prime Minister's Office has said Telford established clear ethical walls between herself and MCAP in January, even before COVID-19 shook the country's economyand led to the creation of the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program.

But Poilievre questioned why the government didn't simply ask the Canada Revenue Agency to run the rent-assistance program given it is already managing the federal wage subsidy for businesses struggling during the pandemic.

"CMHC, which is strangely running this program, exists for the sole purpose of providing affordable housing. Not commercial real estate," Poilievre said.

"Now, of course, the easy way to deliver this program would have been through CRA. CRA already had a program stood up to deliver a wage subsidy."

Audrey-Anne Coulombe, a spokeswoman for CMHC, said in a statement Sunday thatthe federal housing agency had decided to go with an outside sub-administrator because it "does not have the internal capacity to stand up the program in short order."

Coulombe said CMHC sought bids from two financial institutions and chose MCAP because its proposal was stronger and cost less. She saidSilver was not involved in contract negotiations or thedelivery of services.

Easter expressed concern about the committee getting distracted by opposition "fishing" efforts and not focusing on its main task of preparing for next year's federal budget and overseeing COVID-19 spending.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2020.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

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Liberals turn over thousands of pages on WE decision, lawyers now vetting docs - moosejawtoday.com

There isnt much to be said for those who loot and riot in the name of racial equality. But what do we say about the far larger number of young middle-class Americans who genuinely believe that America is a fundamentally racist project?

You probably know one or more educated 20-somethings who regard cops as cogs in an oppressive machine and who consider nearly everything in American life irredeemably racistordinary words and phrases, great works of literature, the flag, the mascots of sports teams, the names of buildings and cities. Why do they believe this?

Educational indoctrination plays a role but doesnt explain it all. Todays youthful radicals appear to despise precisely the consensus liberalism their education system was designed to advance.

CABOT PHILLIPS: CANCEL CULTURE DISTORTS HISTORY TO PORTRAY US AS EVIL NATION THAT MUST BE TRANSFORMED

Liberals find this hard to grasp. When statues of men who achieved great victories for racial equality were torn down by radical agitatorsUlysses S. Grant in San Francisco, Frederick Douglass in Rochester, N.Y.media reports treated the incidents as unthinking excesses or maybe retaliation by White supremacists. But these werent mistakes.

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Nobody who has spent time among politically attuned high school or college students over the last decade or two will find it difficult to believe that, in the minds of some young radicals, Grant and Douglass are representatives of a racist and xenophobic regime now at last getting the disrespect it deserves.

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These young Jacobins are the product of an assortment of social and economic forcesparental coddling, lassitude born of affluence, the need for some kind of righteousness in the absence of religion. But they have a point, and its not the one their sympathetic liberal interpreters think.

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Barton Swaim: Young radicals are right that liberal orthodoxy on race has failed - Fox News

At least two Nova Scotia cabinet ministers and a member of Parliament say they're now considering what the future holds for them following Premier Stephen McNeil's announcement Thursday that he intends to resign.

Central Nova MP Sean Fraser, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of finance,said in a statement that he's giving "real consideration" to whether a provincial Liberal leadership run makes sense for him.

Nova Scotia Education Minister Zach Churchill and Business Minister Geoff MacLellan both said in interviews with CBC News that they hadn't given it much thought before but, with a leadership contest now looming, they aren't ruling out seeking their party's top job.

"Nothing is off the table," said MacLellan. "I don't want to be vague or clichd, but it's a lot to think about.

"Everyone dreams about being the premier and the prime minister and the centrefielder for the Yankees, but when it actually comes into a legitimate conversation, it's a much different story. What happened yesterday changes a lot for many people, including myself."

McNeil's decision could also change things for Churchill, who, like MacLellan, was first elected in a byelection in 2010. Both were named to cabinet in McNeil's first term as premier after forming government in 2013.

Like MacLellan, Churchill said he's mainly been focused on the premier's decision and the role McNeil has played in his life.

"I was surprised by that [announcement]," he said. "Part of me is sad that he's doing thatbecause he was a mentor and a friend."

Churchill said he now needs to reflect on what the future holds for the party, the caucus and himself.

Fraser's statement said he deeply values his current role as a member of Parliament and what he's been able to do for his riding through that work, but after receiving many calls from supporters he's now looking at whether the opportunity to serveas the premier of Nova Scotia "makes sense for me and for our province."

"These are big decisions that have an impact not only on those who seek public office, but also their loved ones. I will take the time necessary to make an informed choice about the next step in my career in politics here at home in Nova Scotia."

It's something other members of the party are likely also now weighing, although Fraser, Churchill and MacLellan were the only people out of about a dozen CBC contacted Friday who returned calls to say they're considering it. In a text message,Community Services Minister Kelly Regansaid she is interested in the continued growth of the partyand province, but hasn't yet given any real consideration to seeking the leadership.

A spokesperson for Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, long rumoured as being interested in the job, said he has no plans to seek the leadership. Savage is fully committed tohis bid for re-election in October's municipal election, according to Shaune MacKinlay.

Halifax MP Andy Fillmore said he isn't interested in the job, either.

"I'm entirely focused on the job I have right now," Fillmore said in an interview a day after announcing a long-time goal of his: regular visitor access to Georges Island.

"There's more work to be done for Halifax here in Halifax, and there's more work for me to do for Halifax in Ottawa."

Nova Scotia Liberal Party officials say they will meet soon to establish the parameters for a leadership race and just what form it will take in light of thecoronavirus pandemic.

McNeil has said he will continue to govern until the party selects a new leader.

Katherine Fierlbeck, a political scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said the race to replace McNeil seems wide open because there is no obvious successor. That can at least be partly attributed to no one anticipating McNeil's departure.

And while winning the leadership comes with the added bonus of becoming premier, whoever gets the job will be inheriting a government that's facing major financial challenges. COVID-19 has created an $853 million deficit in Nova Scotia.

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Nova Scotia politicians begin kicking the tires on Liberal leadership - CBC.ca

I see the same old liberal contributors saying the same old things over and over again. They claim to be experts, but we all know they are self-centered liberals who may claim to be Christians and who may claim to be just real good neighbors to us all.

However, its the same old liberal stuff about how bad our president is and how bad the Republicans are because they dont personally agree with their politics and tactics. Yes, we all have our preferences, but let me ask them about killing babies and selling baby parts for exploitation. How about asking them if they will admit some of the illegal immigrants in to their homes and give them part of their paycheck and part of their homes? How about asking them about Joe Biden, who cant remember where he was yesterday? How about asking them about how they would have handled the coronavirus for the entire country?

To me it is a good thing that we had a president who has done a great job despite the constant flak from the liberals that has been going on for over four years.

They claim to be experts. They have done so many things and held so many jobs.They claim that President Trump spreads hate, but look back at some of your contributions and check out the vicious things that you have said about many people.

I personally think that you all are hypocrites, and I think that the people deserve contributors who are actually out to help the people of West Virginia.

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Letter to the editor: Liberals have not contributed to society - Huntington Herald Dispatch

Andrew Furey poses for a picture with his family wife Alison, and children Rachel, Maggie and Mark after winning the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal leadership election. (Andrew Furey/Twitter)

Orthopedic surgeon Andrew Furey is premier-designate of Newfoundland and Labrador, after winning the provincial Liberal leadership race on Monday evening.

Furey was the frontrunner from the beginning, with the backing of outgoing Premier Dwight Ball's entire cabinet.

In voting results announced Monday evening in St. John's, Furey doubled the only other candidate, longtime civil servant John Abbott, with 26,443 points to 13,557 points.

In his victory speech, Furey promised to be "frank and transparent," and called on all MHAs to work together to address the dire problems staring down at the province.

"Together we can emerge from this crisis as a stronger, more caring, more passionate and more diverse Newfoundland and Labrador," he said.

Furey, who has never run in a political race before,said he hasn't given any thought to asking anyone to vacate their seat, but said he will run for the first seat that becomes available.

About 21,000 votes were cast in the leadership race, despite the fact that more than 34,000 people had registered. The final tally of votes cast is less than the 2013 Liberal leadership campaign, even though more people registered to vote in 2020.

Furey has never held office before, and doesn't have a seat in the provincial legislature.

Furey, though, is politically connected. He is the son of Senate Speaker George Furey, a longtime Liberal organizer, and the nephew of former provincial cabinet minister Chuck Furey.

As a doctor, Furey founded Team Broken Earth to respond to Haiti's devastating earthquake in 2010. The organization has grown to include other medical missions.

The leadership race started in February with Premier Dwight Ball dropping a bombshell announcement during the evening news of his intention to resign.

On Monday, Ball was emotional as he gave a farewell speech to a small audience in his home town of Deer Lake.

"I have missed a lot of moments, but I am ready for the next chapter, whatever that may be," Ball said, before turning his attention to the next leader.

"This job deserves your all. There will always be more work to do. You are never finished moving forward."

Ball's decision to resign cameamid growing scandals within his caucus such as former Municipal Affairs and Environment Minister Perry Trimper's inadvertent "very racist" voicemail to Innu Nation staffer Dominic Rich, the hiring of Carla Foote without competition to a top job at The Rooms and subsequent investigation into then-Tourism Minister Christopher Mitchelmore's involvement, the hiring of Gordon McIntosh to a $350,000 contract with Nalcor Energy also without competition and the saga of a harassment claim set forth by then cabinet minister Sherry Gambin-Walsh which saw the removal of then-Liberal MHA Eddie Joyce and cabinet minister Dale Kirby.

Ball became premier when he led the Liberals to government in the 2015 general election. In 2019, Ball won a second term, albeit with a reduced caucus.

Furey will also inherit other problems, such as the province's troubling financial situation, which has since worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing push to bring the overbudget Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project online.

Over the course of the race, Abbott remained on the attack, twice raising concerns about how Furey formed his contact list a list Abbottsaid was improperly obtained from Liberal party software before he was officially a candidate. Furey was cleared of those accusations.

The two men also went to battle over health care, with Furey accusing Abbott of not doing enough to fix the system while he held his senior position in government.

Before the final tally was announced, Abbott said he wanted an independent review of the voting process. He said many of the voters his team tried to contact had died before the leadership race began, or were wondering how they even ended up on the voting list at all.

Abbott said he isn't contesting the results, and doesn't think the problems he encountered would have changed the outcome.

Furey said there is still a place for Abbott in his government, and told reporters he reached out to Abbott earlier Monday to express his desire to work together in the coming months.

Abbott told reporters he intends to run for the Liberals in the next election, and said he is willing to meet with Furey about his future.

With the race now over, there will be a transition phase, during which Furey will be referred to as the premier-designate.

Once Furey is sworn in, Furey will become the 14th premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.

He said the first meeting he wants is with Department of Finance officialsto address the province's fiscal woes. He said he wants to get a better understanding of the province's $2.1 billion deficit the second worst in the province's history, only just behind the $2.2 billion deficit of 2015-16.

In his speech, Furey said it is time to overcome the "boom and bust" economic trends the province has been stuck in for decades. He said growing and diversifying the economy will be a top priority.

"We can do it. It just takes the political will," Furey said.

Calling on Ottawa will also be at the top of his list. Furey said he doesn't believe in the word "bailout," since Ottawa has a fiscal responsibility to Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Andrew Furey wins Liberal leadership race, will become 14th premier of N.L. - CBC.ca

Mulroney was supposed to appear alongside former ambassadors John McCallum and Robert Wright, but those two declined the invitation to appear. The committee voted to formally summon them to testify.

In June, a group of high-profile Canadians wrote a letter calling for a prisoner exchange with Meng to get Spavor and Kovrig back, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promptly rejected. Mulroney said that letter was concerning.

It worries me when I see people who are thought leaders seem to lack the sense of energy to defend our national interests, he said.

He said he believes prominent people, former politicians and government officials, doing businesses with China should have to be upfront about any business ties.

If you choose to go to work for China or another country, you can do that, but you have to be transparent.

Mulroney argued for Canada to stand with allies to pressure China together. He said China can punish one country economically, but cant do that to a coalition of countries standing together.

The reality is that Canada has what China needs, he said. China needs the products that Canada, Australia and the United States produce.

MPs also heard warnings about Chinas motives in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Hong Kong is becoming a second Tibet

The leader of Tibets unofficial government-in-exile warned Canadian MPs that China is attempting to subjugate Hong Kong and Taiwan just as it did to his country more than 70 years ago.

Lobsang Sangay, president of the Central Tibetan Administration, testified that Hong Kong is losing its freedoms just as his country once did.

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Time for Liberal government to give up 'fiction' that China is our friend, ex-diplomat warns MPs - National Post

Mr Andrews has fronted media briefings for weeks on end during the virus, which have become appointment viewing for some as other entertainments cease because of the lockdown.

Some have reacted with tribalism, showcased by the two questioners featured on the program. One accused parts of the media of an "attempted crucifixion" of Mr Andrews while another suggested "heads should and must roll" for the failures of the state's hotel quarantine program, which allowed the virus to spread.

Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching said Mr Andrews' decision to appear at so many press conferences day after day, which often ran for more than an hour, was all that could be asked of a leader.

"I think there is a high level of accountability," Senator Kitching said. "Daniel has said he will take full responsibility and I think he's been very up front."

She accused the Victorian Liberal opposition of "shooting from the hip" with partisan barbs.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O'Neil said it was in Australia's interests for the Andrews government to succeed so the rest of the country could learn the lessons.

Victoria recorded its highest number of deaths during the pandemic on Monday but the lowest number of new cases in 12 days, sparking hope the stage four lockdown was working to curb the transmission of the virus.

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Questions have been raised by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, along with other media outlets, about how Victoria's hotel quarantine scheme may have been mismanaged, which have fuelled discussion of the Andrews government's performance.

Mr Baird, who is now a healthcare executive, this week called for the public to rally behind Mr Andrews, who he said was "working his absolute guts out to save lives" amid criticism from state opposition MP Tim Smith and federal assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar.

Nick Bonyhady is industrial relations reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based between Sydney and Parliament House in Canberra.

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Federal Liberal MP swipes Andrews government over pandemic response - Sydney Morning Herald

Protesters shout slogans at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Ore., on July 26. (Associated Press)

To the editor: Nicholas Goldberg's column on the protests in Portland and the approving letter in response leave out a major aspect of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations: Black activists and their allies have been trying peaceful protests for decades now and have been largely ignored by the establishment, including and damningly by Democrats.

As a white ally of Black lives, I think it's insulting to the larger movement against police brutality (especially as it affects marginalized people) to insinuate that the righteous anger being expressed on the streets of Portland, Chicago, Seattle and elsewhere "play into Trump's hands" or "detracts from the larger movement."

If you didn't want violence in the streets, you should've listened to the alarm bells that have been ringing since 1776.

To claim to support Black Lives Matter but insult its methods is nothing short of white, liberal, privileged whining. If you don't want to see violence, put pressure on your representatives and government leaders to actually do something to support Black lives beyond writing op-ed articles and painting words on the street.

These don't feed Black families. These don't stop their killings.

Carolyn Knight-Serrano, Fullerton

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Letters to the Editor: Enough with the liberal whining over Black Lives Matter's methods - Yahoo News

Public departures have been one of the biggest media stories of the summer. The New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss walked off the job in July, claiming the newspaper was now being edited by woke Twitter users. Andrew Sullivan used his last New York column to assert that he was being let go because his coworkers didnt like him. (Sullivans departure occurred amid larger layoffs at Vox Media, which owns New York.) Earlier this week, MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary said goodbye to the liberal cable news network because its single-minded pursuit of ratings (and the advertising dollars that follow) stokes national division and blocks diversity of thought.

Pekary ended her post by writing, More than ever, Im craving a full and civil discourse. This was catnip for conservative media and other opponents of cancel culture, which turned a short blog post by a hitherto unknown journalist into a multi-day smorgasbord of content. Here was proof that what liberals have been saying about Fox News for years was also true about MSNBC. It was proof that the left is more concerned with coddling its own than pursuing the truth. As one senior producer quoted by Pekary said, Our viewers dont really consider us the news. They come to us for comfort.

Pekary posted a follow-up a day later underlining that she felt economic pressure, not ideological commitments, was ruining cable news. But at that point, it was too late: Her resignation had already become chum.

Whats striking about Pekarys letter, however, isnt what it says about the news media in 2020. It doesnt say anything about MSNBC or cable news that wasnt also true two decades ago. Its like a Jon Stewart bit without the humor: Cable news is simply not incentivized to be informative. In the social media era, when people can switch their attention at any point, this situation has gotten even worse, encouraging networks to turn their viewers into partisan junkies who dont change the channel because they need a fix that tells them theyre right about everything (and that the other side is wrong).

No one could deny MSNBCs turn toward the conspiratorial in the Trump era. During the Mueller investigation, Rachel Maddow at times went full Glenn Beck, to the point that you almost expected her to start scribbling on a blackboard. The networks overheated analysis of every turn in that investigation, big and small, led its captive audience to believe that the special prosecutor was about to uncover something huge. As Jacob Bacharach wrote in The New Republic last year, MSNBC has the strange simultaneity common to prestige TV: It is at once vast and circumscribed. A wider world intrudes, but the same central heroes and villains show up, week after week.

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The Problem With MSNBC Isn't That It's Too Liberal - The New Republic

Hundreds of President Trumps supporters marched through Hollywood, California, over the weekend in what was called the Rescue America rally.

About 400 people gathered for the demonstration on Saturday, which began in West Hollywood, and they marched toward Los Angeless Beverly Hills sign, according to local outlet Fox 11. Actors Lorenzo Lamas, Scott Baio, and singer Joy Villa were among those who spoke at the event.

"Were a movement of people who are walking away from the Democratic Party. Were walking away from the ideology of liberalism, the liberal media basically, we want to live in a country with peace and civility truthfulness, kindness, and again, were not getting that from the political left, so were walking away from the Democrats," said Brandon Starka, the founder of an organization called Walk Away.

"Were doing these rallies because we wanted to show the radical left whos been smashing windows, committing acts of violence, and committing acts of vandalism they do not own Americas streets. Were going to fight for the heart and soul of America, so this is our third one. Next week well be in Milwaukee, and well basically be doing Rescue America rallies around the country for now through the end of the year," he added.

The Walk Away organization said it planned the rally to speak out against the destruction of property and lives, the villainization of law enforcement and weaponization of tragedies.

Marchers, who were described as peaceful by law enforcement, carried Trump 2020 flags, American flags, and signs that read United We Stand.

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'Walking away from the ideology of liberalism': Hundreds march through Hollywood in support of Trump - Washington Examiner

The contours of gender-related reform campaigns also contributed to the lukewarm nature of anti-abortion efforts. From the early nineteenth century, a series of social movements about women emerged across colonial South Asia. One such movement was the campaign to permit and destigmatise the remarriage of Hindu widows. Traditionally, Hindu women in many upper-caste communities did not remarry after the death of their husbands. They lived under ritually and materially restricted conditions in the homes of their dead husbands families. The Hindu remarriage movement focused on the plight of young widows, including virgin widows whose husbands had died before adolescent cohabitation began. Unable to remarry, some widows of childbearing age had extramarital relationships and became pregnant. They turned to abortion to avoid social and economic ruin. Financial support from their dead husbands families was contingent upon the widows continuing celibacy, although occasionally the courts tried to soften this position.

As early as the 1830s, colonial administrators linked abortion to the prohibition on Hindu widow remarriage. Commenting on the draft text of IPC s. 312 (on abortion), one member of the Indian Law Commission expressed scepticism about trying to crack down on abortion while young widows were prohibited from remarrying: I much doubt the policy of providing heavy penalties for the repression of the offence of causing miscarriage by the woman herself whilst the barbarous institutions of the country create the offence.

The widow-remarriage movement portrayed widows as hapless victims of inhumane norms. One 1856 petition signed by 312 native subjects of India argued that the Shasters in fact did permit Hindu women to remarry in five situations: if their husbands died, were long absent, or became ascetic, impotent, or apostates. Because these texts had been ignored in favour of a blanket ban on widow remarriage, the petitioners argued that abortion had become a common practice among young Hindu widows.

The Hindu remarriage campaign culminated in the passage of the (Hindu) Widow Remarriage Act of 1856, which affirmed the validity of widows remarriage contracts under Indian law. A continuing campaign to change social attitudes followed, but the stigma remained. The Hindu widow remained the quintessential figure associated with criminal abortion from the1860ss until the end of British rule in 1947. An 1885 editorial in the Times of India insisted that infanticide and abortion were the inevitable result of a custom that condemns twenty-one million women to perpetual widowhood. According to one letter to the editor in the same year, widow remarriage was still deemed a more heinous crime worthy of exclusion from caste and society than abortion, child desertion, or a criminal conviction. Hehir and Gribble made the following observations in 1892:

In this country it is, no doubt, true that there are a very large number of criminal or violent abortions, and that an unfortunate widow who has yielded to temptation has every reason, through fear of exposure, loss of caste, etc., to resort to such means in order to save her reputation. At the same time, it must be remembered that everything and everybody are against her. There are probably suspicions of her immorality; and in a small village community, where nearly everything that goes on is known, people are on the look-out, and even if she should miscarry naturally, she is sure to be suspected of having used criminal means to produce abortion.

Three decades later, Waddell noted that the majority of known abortion cases in 1920s India still involved Hindu widows. As long as the taboo on remarriage continued, so would the association of widows and abortion.

Between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, coroners in Bombay Presidency carried out inquests on young Hindu widows who had died following attempted abortions. The coroner led the process whereby a coroners jury decided whether an unusual death was a suicide, homicide, or accident or had occurred suddenly by means unknown. He delegated the post-mortem examination to the coroners surgeon. If the coroners jury found that the death was a murder, a criminal trial would follow the inquest (provided there was a suspect). This trial would establish whether a particular person had committed the murder. If the coroners jurors found that the death was a suicide, accident, or the result of means unknown, the case ended there.

In some inquests, Hindu widows died by poisoning themselves after attempting to abort by mouth. One young widow in Ahmedabad died after taking drugs given to her by her paramour in 1849. More, though, involved later-term abortion attempts by local means. An 1872 inquest considered the death of Abbai, a 30-year-old widow who lived with her sister and stonemason brother-in-law. The coroners surgeon, Sidney Smith, concluded from the post-mortem that she had died of peritonitis followed perforation of the intestines during an abortion. Five years later, a 25-year-old widow named Heerabai was also found to have died of peritonitis following an abortion. She had been a widow since the age of 11.

Inquest cases were by definition fatal ones. For women who survived, the colonial state would only have added to these womens suffering by prosecuting them for abortion. Such action would also undermine the portrayal of Hindu widows as victims a characterisation essential for the remarriage movement. In other words, a light touch on abortion when the women were still alive was the compromise needed to prioritise another social-reform campaign.

Excerpted with permission from Abortion in South Asia, 1860-1947: A medico-legal history, Modern Asian Studies (2020) by Mitra Sharafi.

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How the taboo on Hindu widow remarriage led to liberal abortion norms in colonial India - Scroll.in