Joe Borowski (politician)

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Joseph Paul Borowski (December 12, 1932 – September 23, 1996) was a Canadian politician and activist.^[1] From 1969 to 1971, he was a cabinet minister in Manitoba Premier Edward Schreyer's New Democratic Party (NDP) government. Subsequently, he gained national fame for his opposition to abortion.

Early life

Borowski was born in

Political career

Borowski became a public figure in Manitoba during the late 1960s, when he camped outside the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in extremely cold weather on two separate occasions. His first such action, in 1965, was intended as a protest against the lack of free municipal elections in Thompson. The following year, he stayed outside the legislature for sixty-five days to protest the pay increases awarded to Premier Roblin and his cabinet.^[2] His presence was a nuisance to many in government, and cabinet minister Stewart McLean eventually had him ejected from the legislative grounds. He was later arrested on three separate occasions for refusing to collect the provincial sales tax in his store.^[3]

Borowski had not been directly involved in politics prior to this experience. He had supported

He was easily re-elected in the province's general election of 1969 (held in June), defeating Progressive Conservative Thomas Farrell by almost a thousand votes in Thompson.

When the NDP formed a

There are conflicting views as to Borowski's performance in cabinet. Some claim that he was a committed Public Works Minister, who often conducted personal inspections of road renewal projects and demanded efficient results. Others allege that he treated provincial bureaucrats with contempt, and ran his ministries in a highly centralized manner. Assessments of his job performance, however, were soon overshadowed by controversies unrelated to his ministerial duties.

On February 17, 1971, Borowski made derogatory comments about

Borowski was known for his social conservatism on subjects such as pornography and abortion, and frequently expressed his views on these subjects in public debate. He was dropped from cabinet on September 8, 1971, after making several intemperate remarks on the subject of abortion, which included mocking a group of protesters who had arrived on the legislative grounds to support abortion services. As a backbencher, he tried to prevent public funds from being spent on hospitals which provided out-of-province abortion referrals.

Borowski finally left the NDP caucus on June 25, 1972, arguing that the Schreyer government's new film censorship board would not adequately prevent pornographic movies from entering the province. He initially sat as an "independent New Democrat", and later left the NDP entirely.

In the

Three years earlier, his lawyers had put forward a case arguing that abortion was illegal under Canada's 1960 Bill of Rights, in that it robbed fetuses of their right to life. The case was not brought to trial until 1983, and was not completed for several years after that. The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear Borowski's case in 1989, on the grounds that it had become irrelevant when Canada's abortion laws were struck down in 1988.

Borowski also published a series of works in the late 1980s that were criticized as