Over 25,000 Life Chain supporters peacefully lined up for life June 9 on the streets of many Ontario cities.
In Toronto, 5200 Life Chain participants, holding signs which read, ‘Abortion Kills Children’, stationed themselves for 20 kilometres along Bloor and Yonge Streets, two of the city’s major intersecting arteries.
From Timmins to Sarnia, pro-lifers in 14 other Ontario cities took part in the event, which Life Chain spokesman and chief organizer Louis Di Rocco called “a powerful witness to the truth, namely, that abortion kills children and hurts women.” The following is a list of the Ontario cities with the number of participants:
Oshawa 8,000
Mississauga 3,000
London 2,500
Halton 1,000
Kitchener 1,000
Ottawa 1,000
Brampton 750
North Bay 465
Thunder Bay 250
Simcoe 400
Cambridge 200
Peterborough 200
St. Thomas 150
Ingersoll 120
Pembroke 114
Timmins 60
Organizers of a Life Chain in Winnipeg were able to get 600 on the street, but a late-starting Montreal committee only managed a disappointing 120.
Media coverage of the largest pro-life demonstration in years ran from fair to dismal. A number of Toronto-based radio and TV stations reported the event, with the conspicuous exception of the CBC affiliate, which entirely ignored it. The majority of community newspapers in smaller centres covered the story.
Again, in Toronto, the Star’s morning edition of June 10 ran a brief story and a photo, but this had disappeared by the afternoon. However, columnist Rosie DiManno’s belittlement of Life Chain as an effort by a few hundred of the elderly and children appeared in both editions of the newspaper.
The Toronto Sun’s page 16 report consisted of a few words and a medium-sized photo prominently featuring a counter-demonstration by the seven pro-abortionists who attended.
The Globe and Mail carried neither report nor picture. In contrast, the same paper on May 27 featured a large photo of a demonstration by some 75 Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics (OCAC) supporters.
