Campaign Life Coalition has scrambled to organize a virtual and truly national March for Life the second week of May after city and provincial officials closed down events and venues because of COVID-19, making the annual event in Ottawa an impossibility.
Pro-lifers across Canada are asked to tune into the livestream at MarchForLife.ca throughout the week for a number of events.
Obianuju Ekeocha
The schedule of events (see ad on page 9) includes a screening of the movies Strings Attached(along with a conversation with Obianuju Ekeocha, founder of Culture of Life Africa) and Fatal Flaws: Legalizing Assisted Death(and a conversation with Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition). There will be a virtual candlelight vigil with testimonials on May 13 at 8 pm; the Canadian national Mass for Life at noon on May 14; “Be Not Afraid,” an EWTN special featuring pro-life speakers from 1-2:30 pm, followed by the Virtual Pro-life Rally and March for Life from 2:30 to 4:30 hosted by CLC vice president Matt Wojciechowski and CLC youth coordinator Josie Luetke. On May 15, from 12:30-3 pm, there will be a pro-life webinar “run by youth for youth.”
Debbie Duval, national capital organizer of Campaign Life Coalition, told The Interim, “we have done the best with a tough situation” and despite technological challenges and time constraints is excited with the program CLC has developed for the week. “We did not want the plight of the unborn to be dropped because of the pandemic.”
Duval said that this year’s virtual March will be “a true national March for Life” because everyone from across Canada can take part. She said if any jurisdictions relax the pandemic restrictions, people “should put on their pro-life t-shirts, grab their signs, and watch the Virtual March for Life together,” within local rules.
She said the week’s programs will give “action items” so the March is not a “one-day or one-week event” because “people will take this back to their communities to help save lives every day.”
Duval also said she looks forward to the March returning to Parliament Hill next year. She said it is important for MPs to see the masses of pro-lifers demanding justice for the preborn.
