There were many instances of anti-abortion violence against Morgentaler, his staff, his patients, and his colleagues. Anti-abortion violence is described by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as single-issue terrorism. Death threats against Morgentaler were frequent. In the 1980s, a reporter said that the stack of death threats for a single month was six inches thick. In 1983 a man attacked him with garden shears outside of his Toronto abortion clinic. Judy Rebick blocked the attack and Morgentaler remained unharmed. Augusto Dantas was charged with assault and with possession of a weapon dangerous to the public good. On July 29, 1983, protesters attempted to firebomb his clinic; the clinic suffered only minor damage, but the neighbouring Toronto Women's Bookstore was nearly destroyed.