Paul Tuns:

James (Jim) Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, died on May 18 at the age of 82.

Hughes became involved in the pro-life movement in the 1970s after seeing a Toronto Right to Life presentation at the Canadian National Exhibition. After a conversation with his wife, Virginia, they agreed that he would give up his successful career in business to work in pro-life for two years. CLC said in a press release, “what began as a two-year commitment became a lifetime of service to the pro-life cause.”

After Kathleen Toth resigned as president of Campaign Life after the battle over the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Hughes succeeded her in 1984, a post he held until 2018. John-Henry Westen, editor of LifeSiteNews, said of Jim, “under his leadership, CLC became the powerhouse of the pro-life movement.”

CLC worked closely for many years with Toronto Right to Life under its leader Laura McArthur and Alliance for Life Ontario and its leader Jakki Jeffs.

Hughes often told the story of why McArthur and CLC were able to work together. McArthur asked Hughes if he was a compromiser and he replied that he wasn’t. McArthur said “I hate compromise (because) every child and human being is important and essential.” (Before Campaign Life and the Coalition for Life merged, CLL had supported abortion in cases of fetal deformity.)

CLC would organize politically, educating voters where candidates stood politically and encouraging pro-lifers to vote only for candidates committed to total opposition to abortion.

After the 1988 Morgentaler decision, the Brian Mulroney government introduced Bill C-43 which ostensibly limited abortion but permitted it for a wide-open physical and psychological health of the mother. While some pro-life groups supported Bill C-43, after extensive deliberation CLC opposed because it was convinced that it would not save preborn babies.  In 1991, on a tie vote in the Senate after several pro-life senators opposed the bill, C-43 was defeated. Hughes and CLC have caught flack ever since for C-43’s defeat but Hughes long maintained, in interviews with The Interim, LifeSiteNews, and The Catholic Register, that if C-43 was passed, “abortion would have been legalized in Canada.”

Hughes built numerous institutions beyond CLC. In 1983, he was the founding editor of The Interim, after the mainstream media virtually ignored a series of debates between abortionist Henry Morgentaler and former U.S. abortionist Bernard Nathanson.

In 1997, he encouraged Westen and Steve Jalsevac, a long-time CLC employee, to launch LifeSiteNews, and was a member of the founding board of directors of that online news site.

Under Hughes’ guidance, CLC helped launch REAL Women, the Family Coalition Party, the Pro-Life Party of Canada, Liberals for Life, Tories for Life, Business for Life, and the bipartisan Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus. After a conversation with Jeanne Mancini, founder of the March for Life in Washington, CLC started a March for Life in Ottawa, which became the largest annual demonstration on Parliament. CLC helped bring LifeChain and 40 Days for Life to Canada and encouraged the organizers of other groups such as Aid to Women, Show the Truth, and Silent No More.

In the early 1990s, Hughes heeded the call by Pope John Paul II to become active at the United Nations to thwart the Culture of Death and gender ideology at international conferences such the Beijing women’s conference in 1995 and Istanbul Habitat II conference in 1998. CLC would attain non-governmental organization status at the UN and remains active at annual events at the international organization’s New York headquarters.

Jim would also serve as vice president of the International Right to Life Federation.

Jeff Gunnarson, who replaced Hughes as president, said “Jim had a remarkable mind and extraordinary memory.” He told The Interim that, “I traveled on the road with him many days over the 12 years working under him” and “These hours spent with him were full of learning, but lots of stories and hilarity.”

Gunnarson said Hughes “listened, consulted widely, and always kept the mission” of saving preborn babies “at the centre of his work.”

Mary Ellen Douglas, former CLC national organizer, said Hughes was “the kind of leader every organization should have.” Douglas praised “his strength and leadership” but noted especially his humility. “He would start something but quickly give it away to somebody else,” she told the Register.

Gunnarson said that Hughes would call himself a “connector of people” matching the skills of the many people he knew within the movement to specific tasks and jobs.

Patrick Craine, president of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, said on Facebook of Hughes, “the movement is immeasurably poorer for his absence.” But, he added, “the leaders he formed, the institutions he built, and the lives he helped protect are his lasting legacy.”

Craine wrote, “He understood the defense of the unborn not a cause among many, but as a profound moral and spiritual calling.”

Hughes stepped down as president of CLC in 2018, saying he reduced his workload of between 80 and 100 hours weekly to 60 hours in his role of CLC president emeritus. Gunnarson said, “I took great comfort in knowing I could still lean on his wisdom, experience, and friendship.”

In 2024, Hughes’ health began deteriorating and in March 2025 he suffered a stroke. He was unable to return to working for the pro-life cause after that, although he would continue praying for the pro-life movement and the protection of preborn babies.

Gunnarson said, “we will miss him deeply, but we trust he will continue to intercede for this movement and the unborn children he spent his life defending.”

Hughes is survived by his wife of 59 years, Virginia, and his children Jim Jr., Denise, Michael, and Jennifer, his sister Patricia Jacobs, and six grandchildren. He is predeceased by his son Stephen and daughter Jacqueline.

He was a leader throughout his life, becoming president of the student council at Neil McNeil High School and was an active parishioner at Corpus Christi Parish as a member of the parish council, funeral committee, and picnic organizer.

Over the years, he also worked with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Legion of Mary, Catholic Children’s Aid Society, Second Harvest, Knights of Columbus, and Legatus.

The funeral was held May 25 at St. Paul’s Basilica in Toronto.