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The first Ottawa man charged on Wednesday with violating Ontario’s new bubble-zone law around abortion clinics was hit with three more tickets on Friday.

Cyril Winter, 70, a frequent protester outside The Morgentaler Clinic on Bank Street, said Ottawa police issued him with three notices of violation after he showed up on the sidewalk with a new sign over the noon-hour.

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He called the message on his new sign — God Save Canada’s Charter Rights — “a prayer.”

Winter said his struggle, for the moment, is no longer about abortion, which he opposes, but about the right to freedom of expression and to practise his religion, both guaranteed in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“This is bigger than little old Cy Winter farting around on Bank Street.”

He was to meet with a lawyer on Saturday to discuss his defence. He’s to appear in provincial offences court on March 16 and March 23. The Safe Access to Abortion Services Act, which went into effect on Feb. 1, carries fines as high as $5,000 and jail terms as long as six months.

It provides a so-called bubble zone of 50 metres around Ontario’s eight clinics in which protesters cannot direct anti-abortion messages verbally or via signage and cannot record or even unduly stare at clients in ways that could be menacing.

Winter, who was charged with five offences on Wednesday, says he’s not sure if he’ll be back protesting or in what form. He showed up Thursday without a sign and was spoken to by police but not ticketed.