He was sentenced to one day in jail and paid a $2,500 fine, but in 1997 the National Parole Board of Canada pardoned him and erased the charges against him, Canwest said.
Larré has also come under fire in British Columbia, where he had been practising psychology since 1998. His registration as a member of the College of Psychologists of British Columbia was suspended in 2006 following an investigation into complaints about his compentence.
Morgentaler fought to legalize abortion
Morgentaler's award has sparked controversy in Canada, with anti-abortionists condemning his appointment.
But some Order of Canada recipients say they feel no reason to protest Morgentaler's appointment. Former Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen, who was made a member on the same day as Morgentaler, said he respects the Supreme Court of Canada's decision to legalize abortion, and would not consider rejecting his award.
"It's a great privilege, I'm deeply honoured, and I think the tradition works beautifully and it should be carried on," he said. "We should move on from Dr. Morgentaler. We're just making a huge deal out of this."
Morgentaler, a Polish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Montreal after the war, struggled for decades to have abortion legalized in Canada.
He opened his first illegal abortion clinic in Montreal in 1969 and performed thousands of procedures. A trained family physician, Morgentaler argued that access to abortion was a basic human right and women should not have to risk death at the hands of an untrained professional in order to end their pregnancies.
His abortion clinics were constantly raided, and one in Toronto was firebombed.
Morgentaler was arrested several times and spent months in jail as he fought his case at all court levels in Canada.
His victory came on Jan. 28, 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s abortion law. That law, which required a woman who wanted an abortion to appeal to a three-doctor hospital abortion committee, was declared unconstitutional.
Canada now has no federal laws governing abortion, and leaves regulation of the procedure up to individual provinces.