Positive messages, upbeat crowd, papal message, and more
More than 23,000 pro-lifers were on Parliament Hill to participate in the National March for Life on May 8 – a March that garnered widespread media attention and featured a notable first, a greeting from the Pope.
On May 7, Campaign Life Coalition held a press conference in the Parliamentary Press Gallery in which three of their representatives, Johanne Brownrigg, Alissa Golob, and Matthew Wojciechowski, commented on the dangers of RU-486 and reiterated the organization’s call for Health Canada to not lift the current ban on importation of the abortion drug. The theme of this year’s March, organized annually by CLC, was a riff on the abortion drug, RU4Life?
In the evening, about 500 people attended the candlelight vigil at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument to remember unborn babies destroyed by abortion. Auxiliary Bishop Christian Riesbeck of the Companions of the Cross became the first bishop to speak at the vigil, saying “it’s vital for us to remain connected to the God who made us and promises us that we will bear much fruit if we place our lives in his hands.”
Sheldon Harrison, a student from St. Marcellinus High School in Mississauga, told the crowd “the unborn child cannot defend itself, but we are there to defend the unborn child.”
Taylor Hyatt, a former Interim summer student, who has cerebral palsy and is studying linguistics at Carlton University in Ottawa, spoke of the fear she first experienced proclaiming the pro-life message. “Fear is like poison. It can paralyze you.” She said the cure for the poison is to gain “knowledge and courage to face the inevitable confrontations with a culture that condones abortion,” by attending pro-life events like the March.
Steve Carlin, director of North American outreach for 40 Days for Life, said that Ottawa was instrumental in expanding the pro-life prayer vigils around the globe, reporting that a visitor from the United Kingdom encountered the 40 Days for Life there and then began organizing the first such event in Britain.
On Thursday morning, there were four Catholic Masses and three Christian prayer services offered for the pro-life cause so participants could spiritually prepare themselves for the March that afternoon.
Pembroke Bishop Michael Mulhall celebrated Mass at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish. He said, “today is a day of action for us. We’re doing something, proclaiming something, marching, we’re walking, we’re testifying.” Bishop Mulhall emphasized the need for prayer and sacrifice within the movement. “No action that is not founded on prayer and sacrifice will be a fruitful action, because it will almost always be one that comes back to ‘myself’ again, and it will lose its foundation and its rudder where it’s going.”
The ecumenical prayer service at St. Peter and St. Paul Anglican Church was attended by about 125 pro-life activists of various denominations. During the Bible study, Rev. Paul Donison, rector of the church, wondered why more Christians are not vocally pro-life. His answer: “We’re fearful of what will happen if we stand up for life within a culture of death,” and he compared pro-life activism to the Christians who professed their faith in pagan Rome despite the risk of persecution. He prayed that God would “banish our fear” and “make us faithful.” The prayer service also featured the new Anglicans for Life Canada and Georgette Forney, who heads up Anglicans for Life USA and co-founded Silent No More Awareness. She shared her testimony of have an abortion at the age of 16.
Several bishops extended greetings to the marchers. Cardinal Gerald Cyprien Lacroix of Quebec City, the Primate of Canada, said, “it’s a joy to be here together today once a year but I’m very proud that all year long we continue to help people around us to respect life and we are committed in our own homes, families, parishes, and in our cities and towns, to be lovers of life.” He also delivered a message from Pope Francis I, the first time papal greetings were read to the march. Cardinal Lacroix, reading the Pope’s message, said: “He prays that this event foster greater respect for the inviolable right to life of each person from conception to natural death and support the efforts of all who labour to ensure that this fundamental human right receives adequate legal protection.”
He was interrupted two topless protesters who got to the dais, militant feminists from the group Femen. One rushed toward the Cardinal screaming “my body, my rules” and “f— your morals” as her partner parked her naked body in front of the MPs, including the family of Conservative MP Jeff Watson.
The two women were stopped and taken off the stage by RCMP officers and were placed under arrest.
Speaking immediately after Cardinal Lacroix, Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto urged those in attendance to pray for those who oppose the pro-life message, saying, “sometimes we face angry people who are very, very troubled by the message which we proclaim, but it is a message that brings peace.” He explained: “Each person is not an object to be treated with disdain, but a person to be loved from the first moment of existence until natural death, and as they come into the home of the heavenly Father. So we pray for them.”
While fewer than a dozen spoke, 23 MPs and senators attended the March. Former Liberal MP Tom Wappel introduced those who spoke and acknowledged those who came to show support but did not address the crowd. Many MPs introduced their spouses and families, noting how many children and grandchildren they have as a testament to living their pro-life values.
MPs and other speakers such as LifeSiteNews editor John-Henry Westen noted Justin Trudeau’s comments the day before disqualifying pro-life candidates from running for Liberal Party nominations in the future. Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge, chair of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, said “as a parliamentarian I actually believe all of you should be able to hold (the pro-life) view in society” and “I believe you should be able to join political parties, actually run for political office. And thankfully in my party I have that right. I can run as a pro-lifer and I’m very proud of that.”
Conservative MP Pierre Lemieux told the youth in the audience, “never underestimate the strength of your voice and never underestimate the power of your presence, especially on this life issue.”
Conservative MP Lawrence Toet said the crowd of young, predominantly female students: “Thank you for being here today and dispelling one of the biggest myths out there that this is an issue of a bunch of old men telling women what to do, this crowd proves that totally wrong.”
Conservative MP Royal Galipeau reminded marchers, “you are the landlords of this place. … We are just tenants and temporary tenants.” Conservative MP Bob Zimmer urged everyone to “change hearts and minds” with the goal of enacting pro-life laws a probability. Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth told participants, “please demand that each and every single member of Parliament recognize the equal worth and dignity of every member of the human family.”
MP Stephen Woodworth
Woodworth also praised CLC: “Each year Campaign Life outdoes itself. This is by far and away the biggest crowd that we’ve had.”
Campaign Life Coalition national president Jim Hughes told the throng it was the “backbone of the pro-life movement.” He said the vitality of the crowd was a sign that the movement was “healthy.”
Pro-life leaders such as Stephanie Gray of Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform and Janet Morana of Priests for Life and Silent No More Awareness also spoke.
At the Rose Dinner, attended by about 500 people, former abortion mill owner Carol Everett recounted how the abortion industry operates. Everett, who owned four abortuaries in Texas from 1977 through 1983, revealed that abortionists promote sex education to get teenage girls sexually active so they become pregnant and will turn to abortion. “How do you sell an abortion?” she asked rhetorically. “In the U.S. it’s very simple: You do it through sex education.”
Everett said sex education creates the “market for abortions.” She said sex education as early as kindergarten is designed to undermine parental influence and to erode “natural modesty” so that they will be open to sexual activity by the time they reach their teens. Everett said that by promoting contraception, in particular low-dose birth control pills by middle grade school, young people were well on their way to becoming sexually active. She explained that when she ran her abortion center, “my goal was to get them sexually active on a low dose birth control pill that we knew they would get pregnant on.”
Once pregnant teens were brought to her abortion facilities, counselors, who she described as “marketers,” aggressively pushed abortion as the only option. Everett said, “we trained them with a script designed to overcome every single objection. That’s what sales is, isn’t it? Overcoming the objection and filling the order, in this case the abortion.”
Across the hall at the Youth Banquet more than a 1000 students heard Jason Evert of the Chastity Project speak. He encouraged young people to remain chaste and avoid temptation. CLC Youth coordinator Alissa Golob said “he is one of the best speakers we’ve ever had.”
The next day, slightly fewer high school students remained for the Youth Conference, where they heard Sun News personality Faith Goldy, LifeSiteNews editor John Jalsevac, and Golob speak, among others, on the media and pro-life apologetics.
The March received more media coverage than usual in the major daily newspapers and evening news broadcasts, including three stories in La Presse, the most important newspaper in Quebec. The U.S. Catholic broadcaster EWTN featured the March live on both their television broadcast and over the internet. The Sun News Network also provided extensive coverage and commentary on the event. The Globe and Mail was the only Toronto daily that did not feature the story in their paper edition the day after the March. Much of the media coverage centered on the feminist protesters and Justin Trudeau’s comments the day before.
CLC’s Jim Hughes told The Interim he was “immensely pleased” with the March and congratulated the organizing committee for “putting on a wonderful event.” He also thanked teachers, church groups, and pastors who organized groups to come to the National March for Life. “It’s because of great grassroots pro-lifers across the country that the National March for Life is a great success,” he said.
