If variety is indeed the spice of life, the 1991 annual conference, sponsored by Campaign Life Coalition and Alliance for Life, was a feast.
Hosted by Winnipeg League for Life, the conference which carried the theme :Life is Irreplaceable,” offered workshops on almost every facet of pro-life education and activism and involved an impressive slate of speakers from home and abroad.
During a Plenary Session facilitated by Marilyn Bergeron, President of Alliance for Life, and Jim Hughes, President of Campaign Life Coalition, 350 delegates were reminded of what lies ahead but encouraged by the good news in the movement.
In presentations on the Disabled, Euthanasia and New Reproductive Technologies and Foetal Experimentation, listeners were forced, once again, to confront the harsh reality of a society which has been conditioned in brutality, only to be revived by the selfishness exposed in discussions on the Hospice Movement and Home Care.
For those needing a taste of pure nobility there was Bishop Austin Vaughn, of New York, calling listeners to Public Witness while humbly chastising himself for not having acted sooner, and, in Eugenics in the ‘90’s, a moving account of the abuse of Native Canadians through abortion and the dignity restored when a mother and daughter fought back.
Teaching Pre-Natal Development to Young Children and Handling the Stress of Pro-Life Work was revitalizing and soothing while Abortion Recovery offered hope and healing. To tempt those who like a challenge there was Building a Pro-Life Organization, Answers to Difficult Questions and Changing the Minds of Canadians, while those wanting to experience intellectual pro-life history were treated to Recent Canadian Court Cases.
For the seasoned and not so seasoned activists, Influencing Old Parties and Forming New Parties were once again analyzed, while Political Action addressed the practical nature of policy and strategy.
Initiatives which are close to home were investigated in Local Politics, School Boards and City Hall, plus the Politics of Churches, Bureaucracy, Big Business – Negative Efforts, which unveiled some surprisingly positive options.
Charming in her simplicity and earnestness was Banquet Speaker, Kitty Werthmann, who used personal experience to compare prewar Nazi Germany to the present radical feminist struggle for power.
