Alexandra Jezierski organized Letters for Life

A Grade 12 student achieved her goal of sending 100,000 letters to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and MPs asking them to support Motion-312. Alexandra Jezierski from Kingsville, Ont., launched the campaign to support MP Stephen Woodworth’s private members motion that would start a debate on when human life begins. Her inspiration was the Teenage Life Club in the United States, a group of teenage girls aiming to have one million letters sent to the White House by November. “If the government can ignore 100,000 letters from people across Canada and still do nothing about the issue, then clearly there’s something very wrong there,” Jezierski said in a press release in June. “Clearly they’re not representing the people anymore.”

Her original goal was to have 100,000 letters sent by May 10, 2012, the date of the National March for Life, but the deadline was extended to September 26, the same day as the vote for M-312. The letter-writing campaign got off to a slow start, but picked up steam as time went by and it received publicity online, through social media, and within pro-life circles; Jezierski addressed the pre-march rally on Parliament Hill in May and spoke to pro-life student forum in Toronto that same month.

On Sept. 18, Jezierski announced on her website that not only had the goal been reached, but it had also been surpassed by 16,000 letters.

“Thank you for working for Motion 312 on those days it seems that its only fate is to be crushed and never heard of again.” she wrote on her website. “Those days when it seems the government is covering their ears and pretending they can’t hear you, that you’re in the minority, and that your voice doesn’t count. Because they’re trying so hard to ignore us, Motion 312 might not pass… But is that enough to stop up from fighting for what seems impossible?? We are the pro-life generation. With God’s help, we do impossible things.”

The Catholic Register reported that Letters4Life had a core of ten members in addition to Jezierski working on the campaign. Occasionally, Jezierski and her peers had letter-writing parties and she told the Catholic Register that she had “unbelievable” numbers of youth participating in the campaign. Not all her supporters were youth; her web site listed nine bishops as supporters.

Not everyone is a fan. After Letters4Life went public, she received death and other threats over Facebook from self-described “pro-choice” supporters.

Jezierski’s website, letters4life.ca, provides two different form letters to send to the Prime Minister. It also encouraged people to send their own letter and register with her website the fact a letter was sent to Stephen Harper.

A recent blog post included a list of MPs undecided about M-312 and a template that pro-lifers may use for their messages to them. Moreover, her group has partnered with an Alberta family, the Driedgers, who are printing postcards that citizens may purchase and send to their MPs in support of the motion. LifeSiteNews reported that tens of thousands of these postcards have filled Parliament’s mailing system. The pro-life groups, When Am I Human and PASS 312, are also working with Jezierski’s campaign. Pro-lifers can record the number of letters they have sent using an online survey. If anything, the number of letters sent to Harper about abortion may exceed 116,000. Jezierski acknowledges on her site that “the numbers may not be accurate because many people write letters without taking the survey.”

“I’m grateful for Alexandra’s support and the support of the many thousands of people across Canada who share with me a desire to see an unjust law at least looked at and discussed,” M-312 sponsor Stephen Woodworth (CPC, Kitchener-Center) told the Catholic Register.

Campaign Life Coalition Youth co-ordinator Alissa Golob, whose organization has promoted Letters4Life, congratulated Jezierski on her successful campaign. Golob told The Interim “Jezierski is an example of what youth can do with a lot of work and determination.”