“I gained an important perspective on Auschwitz from an Israeli dentist who had spent years in that camp. We were completing a long interview, during which he had told me about many things, including details of SS dentists’ supervision of prisoners’ removal of gold fillings from the teeth of fellow jews killed in the gas chambers. He looked about the comfortable room in his house with its beautiful view of Haifa, sighed deeply and said, “This world is not this world.” What I think he meant was that, after Auschwitz, the ordinary rhythms and appearances of life, however innocuous or pleasant, were far from the truth of human existence. Underneath those rhythms and appearances lay darkness and menace.” (Robert Jay Lifton The Nazi Doctors – Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide)
I begin our invitation to you to attend this most important National Pro-Life Conference with the above quote to reiterate what we already know as pro-lifers, that this world is not this world and each day pro-lifers actually face the darkness and menace that lay underneath the rhythms and appearances of Canadian life. Who cannot remember the first time that you suddenly saw the killing for what it is ? “In a dark time the eye begins to see” (Theodore Reuthke) When you looked at your family, neighbours friends and wondered how their lives just go on when you are suddenly aware of the terrible attacks on human life that have now become part of everyday life in this country. You ask yourself and them how can we go on as if nothing is happening? But they do not see what you see!
On November 25,26,27 1999 you have a chance to become part of changing our country to one which supports human life at every stage – you really do not have an option – you must be with us. Pro-lifers from all walks of life will gather to prepare themselves to face a new millennium in which we lay the foundations of a pro-life century together. Those who work in politics, education, pregnancy support, pro-life youth, businessmen, professionals, lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, ministers, home-makers, policy makers, journalists, parliamentarians and family activists. You name them we have them and we are all coming together to set the stage for reclaiming our nation for Life. Pope John Paul 2nd has stated that “belief that you cannot change the world is a sin against justice.” We do believe, we are committed, but we must be united in our efforts to bring about what many now refer to as the Culture of Life.
This will be our last opportunity to get it right as we head into the 3rd millennium – what strategies shall we adopt and how can each of us as individuals or groups, adapt them to fit our own work? Do not miss this opportunity to have your say and share your thoughts in the wonderful plenary sessions which have been planned. Come and hear nationally and internationally renowned speakers;
John Cavanaugh O’Keefe; Foundations of Pro-Life Century – A Challenge to develop a Strategy. In this inspiring presentation we will be treated to Mr O’Keefe’s thoughts on how we have arrived at this point, what we need to learn from that journey and what plans we must make for the future. He will challenge, educate and demand much from us as he makes his presentation. A total commitment to nonviolence is a resounding message from Mr O’Keefe.
“Nonviolence is a deliberate decision to bring hidden violence out into the open, and then to stand in it’s way. It is a decision to “go boldly like God against the swords.” The only way to end violence is to absorb it and forgive it. This is the way of Jesus, the way of the cross. It is not optional. It is not weak. It does get you in trouble.”
Doug Scott, President of Life Decisions International will inform us concerning the current status of Planned Parenthood as the leading promoter and advocate of abortion world wide. It’s planned boycott of Wal-Mart because the company will not carry the contra-implantive drug PREVEN. Its efforts to remove the Vatican seat as an Observer Mission to the United Nations and much more.
What kind of murder is it, which not only many suffer, but many commit? (Dietrich Goldschmidt)
Link Byfield, Editor of the Alberta Report, will shock you with his account of the response to his magazine’s coverage of the neglect of induced newborns at Calgary’s Foothills Hospital and the scandalous involvement of Canadian researchers in the buying and selling of body parts from aborted human beings.
Mark Pickup, will inspire you by sharing his personal story as a husband and father living with multiple sclerosis. Mark credits his wife for bringing him through the worst days, “She valued me, when I didn’t value myself.” Mr Pickup has discerning insight into the efforts to legalize mercy killing and many important comments to share. “Dignity is not achieved by injecting a toxic substance into people’s bloodstream when they are at their lowest ebb. Dying with dignity is a by-product of having lived with it….. Civilized societies by definition do not put down their most vulnerable. Societies that do lose their right to call themselves civilized.” Mark asks, Do I still have value? Is life still worth living? Am I welcome in society?
Hugh Scher, advocate for those living with disabilities will share with you the horrifying effects of the euthanasia debate. He will discuss the killing of Tracy Lynn Latimer by her father and explain the fall-out of that tragic event on the lives of those living with disabilities. Judith Snow, MA, Chairperson for the Ontario Advocacy Coalition put the situation succinctly in a CCD Latimer watch last year.”My problem is that these death mongers won’t keep their private ignorance and irrationality to themselves. Rather they firmly, publicly parade their death sentences around, drawing the comfort of assumed solidarity from convincing others that I should be dead too.”
Dr Barry DeVeber, president emeritus of the DeVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social research will take us through the development of a united strategy to defeat the push for legalization of mercy-killing in Canada. “Currently, the struggle to defend helpless individuals from mercy killing goes on, and fortunately an alliance of palliative care workers, pro-life groups handicapped advocates, as well as church groups has the potential to not only prevent legalized mercy killing but also to ensure prosecution of doctors and individuals who kill people out of so called compassion..”
“The doctor,…if not living in a moral situation…where limits are very clear…is very dangerous.” (Auschwitz survivor) Elizabeth Cassidy, researcher at for the Deveber Institute for Bioethics and Social Sciences will present material which will be available in Abortion’s Aftermath 111 Update to be released later this year in Canada. Her presentation will include important new research on grief and spontaneous abortion, the abortion researchers – who they are, the statistics- should we believe them, repeat abortions – what are the implications and much more. Both Mrs Cassidy’s presentation and the upcoming new edition of Abortion’s Aftermath will be a valuable resource for people working with pre-abortive and post-abortive women, as well as those interested in research in the area of abortion complications.
“We cannot seek wholeness through those who don’t really understand or believe in the reality of our brokenness.”
Dr. Robert Pankratz, President, Physicians for Life Canada will introduce us to the new killing fields of medical (chemical) abortion, RU486, PREVEN, Methotrexate/Misoprostol and Michael Izotti , President of Pharmacists for Life Canada will explain the intricate mechanisms of these methods and the importance of providing that information to the public.
Dr Joel Brind, will inform us of the latest in the induced abortion and cancer connection. “I first came across the ABC link in November of 1992, gradually devoting more and more time and effort to bring the issue into public awareness, two years ago, when the publication of the Danish Study by Melbye et al signaled that the National Cancer Institute and its many allies in the US and around the world had decided to take a stand in full denial of evidence of the link, I inaugerated this journal. The ABCQ Update continues to serve well as a means to communicate life-saving information to many individuals and organizations simultaneously. Unfortunately, denial is still the “mainstream” order of the day, and the requirements to combat it have become more and more demanding.” Dr Brind recently presenting his paper, “Reporting bias as a cause of the apparent association between breast cancer and induced abortion,” at the Second World Conference on Breast Cancer in Ottawa .
Paul Swope, will present the idea of using the media to impact positively on public opinion in order to create a cultural change for the restoration of life values and respect for human life and to build a more caring and compassionate society. Already we have hear comments from abortion advocates in Ottawa on these pro-life ads. Renee Parent a worker at Woman’s Place in Ottawa said, “The anti-abortion groups are getting very loud.” And the commercials are fueling the anxiety. “I was totally flabbergasted to that see on TV. I think it is pretty outrageous..It’s going to distort the picture.” .
Kathleen Ross -Youth involvement in pro-life efforts; In an article entitled “From where I stand,” Sara Roney a “regular teenager, gives her answer to the reason for the horrendous killings at Columbine High School and elsewhere “It is this culture of death, this culture in which liberals and feminists and activists are so anxious to let anything be okay that the once tightened, knotted rope of society is unraveling beneath us….If you don’t want the kid, kill it. If you don’t want to live out the rest of your God-given days, kill yourself. Or better yet, have someone else come and do it.
I guess, no matter how horrible, or gruesome or gut-wrenching it may be, it was just a matter of time before someone got that “killing-as-a-means-to-an-end” idea stuck in their head.” What amazing insight from a self described “regular teenager.”
Kathleen Ross will be joining us to present a challenge to pro-lifers across Canada to get their youth involved, they are energetic, enthusiastic and committed to defending life. We need to learn from the developing wisdom of our young people.
Gilles Grondin, will shock you with his revelations on what is happening at the United Nations and Canada’s leading role. “Radical feminism, now deeply embedded in the UN’ Secretariat’s global agenda, is being imposed on countries through the prescriptive documents coming from the UN Conference circuit and from the UN treaty monitoring bodies, especially the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women…The basic plan is ingeniously simple. The idea is to couch the feminist agenda in the language of human rights. Under the guise of being obliged to honor a newly coined set of counterfeit human rights called “reproductive and sexual rights,” countries are to be constrained by the UN to adopt population programs dictated by an unholy alliance of radical feminists and population control advocates.” (Rita M.. Joseph, PRIN June/July 1999)
Dr Robert Wally, will enthrall you with his project for the new millennium under Matercare International – An idea for the Millennium year 2000. Matercare International is an international association of health care professionals who are dedicated to improving the lives and health of mothers and their unborn children throughout the world, through ne initiatives of service, training, and research, in accordance with the teaching contained in the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (the Gospel of Life) The Challenge: it is unacceptable that modern maternal health care should be dominated by an anti-life, anti-natalist culture; It is unacceptable that mothers in the developing world are experiencing unimaginable suffering and that 585,000 mothers are dying annually because of a scandalous lack of effective care during pregnancy and labour; It is unacceptable to MCI that tens of thousands of mothers in the developing world should suffer the consequences of birth trauma known as obstetric fistula, which results in permanent incontinence of urine and faeces and that little is being done to relieve their suffering; It is unacceptable to MCI that abortion and contraception should have become the basis of modern maternal health care in the developed world and of the international safe motherhood initiative in the developing world, resulting in the deaths of millions of unborn children.
Other speakers, will cover abortion statistics, defunding, ethics committees, powers of attorney for health care, new reproductive technology, human embryo stem cell research, eugenics and more. Strategy sessions will cover what we do currently as pro-life individuals and groups, what works , what doesn and what more can we do?
Two chairs of the Pro-Life Parliamentary Caucus, Mrs Elsie Wayne and Tom Wapell will update us and challenge us to greater work and support for pro-life members’ of parliament.
Your challenge: Is to find a way to be with us at this most exciting conference. If you don’t want to be part of the problem come and be part of the solution. You will go away from this conference uplifted, educated, inspired and determined to work harder than ever to overturn this culture of death. Together we will build towards the new dawn of the culture of life. See you in Toronto!!
Respectfully submitted,
