Pete Baklinski:
There are so many reasons why I’m attending this year’s National March for Life on May 11, 2023, the 26th march since the event was first begun by Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of Canada’s pro-life movement. Not only is it lots of fun to be openly pro-life in a crowd of thousands of like-minded people standing on Parliament Hill, but you get to be inspired by awesome speakers, you get to be encouraged in your pro-life activism, and you get to witness to life in the streets of Ottawa during the actual march.
I’ll tell you why I’m especially excited to go to this year’s March for Life. But first I’ll tell you about why the March first came into existence.
The National March for Life takes place in May to mark our country’s “Day of Infamy” when Justin Trudeau’s father Pierre Elliott Trudeau decriminalized abortion in 1969. May 14th, 54 years ago, will always be a day of shame for our country. The elder Trudeau oversaw the passage of a bill that introduced the evil practice of allowing doctors to kill children in the womb. Over four million Canadian children have had their lives snuffed out by abortion since then. Abortion violence kills an estimated 100,000 children annually, making it the leading cause of death in Canada, ahead of cancer at 80,000 deaths annually.
So, why am I so excited to go to this year’s march?
For the first time, momentum is on the pro-life side. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. last year can be aptly compared to an enormous earthquake that took place in the middle of the ocean. At first, immediately after the earthquake, all seemed relatively calm and normal, with the people on the shore only experiencing minor tremors. But that earthquake sent shockwaves throughout the ocean. As the shockwaves approached the shoreline, long after the original tremors ceased to bother those on the land, they turned into massive waves. The massive waves turned into an unstoppable tsunami that swept into the mainland, levelling everything in its path. Just as it can take the tsunami hours to reach the mainland after a mid-ocean earthquake, so will it take some time before the effects on jurisprudence in courts around the world, including our own, are felt by the overturning of Roe. But the earthquake has happened. Roe has been overturned. The overturning has practically destroyed the argument that killing a child through abortion is somehow a “universal right” that must belong to all peoples in all places as a “basic human right.”
Yes, here in Canada, we certainly have those pro-abortion politicians, like Prime Minister Trudeau, who have shrieked out against the overturning of Roe, falsely stating that abortion is a “right” in Canada and that they will always “defend” a woman’s “right to choose” to kill her own offspring. Trudeau, and others like him, are in essence at the seashore after the mid-ocean earthquake, shouting uselessly at the sea to remain calm so they can continue their sunbathing. But the tsunami is coming. All who remain in its path will be swept away.
Going to the March for Life this year is an invitation to ride the wave of the tsunami. Yes, momentum is on the pro-life side. Change is already happening in the U.S., with numerous states passing laws protecting life in the womb. Babies in these states are being saved from abortion by the thousands. It’s now time, more than ever before, to demand from our legislators that they take up the Supreme Court’s 1988 invitation in the infamous Morgentaler decision that Parliament pass a law protecting humans in the womb. It’s been said that politics is downstream from culture. It takes a critical mass of people standing-up with one voice demanding change. Every pro-life advocate from across the country needs to get on top of this tsunami and ride it all the way into our country’s seat of power, demanding justice for preborn children.
Together, you and I, can make a difference. But we need to ride this wave. We need to take advantage of the momentum and demand change. It’s been said that the wheels of justice grind slowly, but finely. The overturn of Roe just flipped the grinder’s switch onto max speed. A day of justice for the preborn is now closer than ever before. With God’s help, we will live to see this day of justice and even pitch in to make it happen. And that’s why I’ll be attending the National March for Life and hope to see you there!
Pete Baklinski is the director of communications for Campaign Life Coalition.
