Dear Pro-lifers:

I start this summer appeal letter with a prayer of thanks to Almighty God for the many wonderful pastors, priests and other religious leaders across Canada who have provided spiritual nourishment and leadership in our efforts to defend life and family. May God continue to send his Holy Spirit to inspire and strengthen them.

We thank Him, too, for the courageous grassroots supporters who unflinchingly carry out pro-life work within their families, churches and neighbourhoods. May God continue to give them spines of steel in the face of the evil they encounter and grace to trust in His power and strength.

Our prayers would not be complete without thanks for our many elected representatives; federal, provincial and local who fight the good fight, often against overwhelming opposition.

Thus far, this year's struggles have been as deadly and relentless as those which have gone before: unbridled abortion; the push to clone human beings; the demand by scientists and drug companies to use and kill human beings at the embryonic stage of life for experimental purposes; judicial activism by the courts to allow homosexual marriages; and much, much more.

Fortunately, the rising of the House of Commons and the Senate and the provincial legislatures removes, for a time, the threat of harmful legislation which has been proposed and detailed in the past few years.

However, most abortionists continue their grisly work unabated; pharmacists dispense over-the-counter, do-it-yourself abortions; the courts abuse their mandate and turn society on its head with their ideological decisions. Its too bad that these purveyors of death and up-rooters of society don't take a summer recess.

Only a few pro-life organizations remain active during July and August. Campaign Life Coalition has always maintained that as long as babies are being killed, we have a duty to remain vigilant.

However, our paid staff and volunteers need a break from the heavy action, in order to re-charge their batteries.

Many rely on outdoor sports activities, gardening, walking, camping, a trip to the cottage or camp, swimming, just to name a few, but we all need some relief from the constant stress of defending life and family on the front lines. See over….

During Campaign Life's 25 years, it has made a strong commitment to youth. Each summer, students are hired and trained in pro-life work in our offices in Toronto and Ottawa. Their presence ensures that the work continues unabated during the summer months and allows our regular staff and volunteers a break from the action. We need your special donations, too, to help us pay their wages.

For those of you in the Toronto area who receive this letter, call now for tickets for the Toronto islands boat cruise celebrating the 90th birthday of Fr. Ted Colleton, a great pro-life leader.

We all need to celebrate as well. So Ill try to end on a light note. For years, we have been working towards an annual joint strategy session with pro-life political and educational leaders coming together to share common strategies. In Guelph, Ontario, in June, a strategy and one-day conference was held which included:

* Jakki Jeffs, executive director of Alliance for Life Ontario introducing Professor Donald DeMarco as "one of the finest communists, er, columnists" she had ever known.

* Mary Ellen Douglas, president of CLC Ontario urged everyone to demand that Parliament enact legislation to "ban clothing, oops, cloning".

Yes, these slips of the tongue really happened. Ah, we all need such lighter moments!

Please continue to pray for all our efforts and please send us a donation to help us save babies and protect the vulnerable and elderly at risk.

Donations tend to fall off dramatically in the summer months as people often wind down from the hectic pace they set throughout the year. So we need you to remember us when you receive this appeal. Remember, while school is out and many people take holidays, abortionists keep their doors open and continue the killing regardless of the season.

Also, just another gentle reminder to consider including CLC in your will - if your circumstances allow that. The few legacies left to us in the past came at just the most needed times, as though from a guardian angel, and saved us from serious financial dilemmas.

For Life,
Jim Hughes

P.S. In addition to our regular fundraisers, we are also planning an annual walk or hike for life in the Toronto area and also an annual golf tournament. Please add these initiatives to your prayers.

P.P.S. For the Fall and on a regular monthly basis, we will be organizing prayer vigils at Toronto abortuaries. We will provide details when they become available.

In an interview with The Hill Times (June 2), Government House Leader Don Boudria said that eight bills must receive Royal Assent before the June 20 summer recess, and on top of that list was Bill C-13, the Human Reproduction Act. 3, which all of you know by now, allows destructive research on live human embryos, including the creation of embryos specifically for research, and human cloning. The next week, the Toronto Star reported that the House might recess without a vote on C-13. As always there was the usual confusion on the legislative status of this bill, confusion that might be part of a deliberate strategy by the government to frustrate the efforts of pro-life MPs.

Then, suddenly and surprisingly, we caught a break when the government recessed for the summer on June 19, thus stalling C-13 once again. As Dr. Jack Willke, president of the International Right to Life Federation, told our March for Life banquet this year, the longer this legislation is delayed, the more time society will have to see that embryonic stem cell research is not the way to go. For our part, we will continue our efforts to protect the sanctity of human life from the moment of fertilization and work to amend C-13. For the past two years - ever since former Health Minister Allan Rock asked the Standing Committee on Health to examine the issue of reproductive and experimental technologies in May 2001 - Campaign Life Coalition has worked with parliamentarians on this issue. We thank all of you who contacted your MPs urging them to support ethical adult stem cell research and to oppose destructive embryonic stem cell research and cloning. Know that your letters, calls, emails and visits have made an enormous difference. They have bolstered the courage of many MPs to make a strong stand for life. It is almost a certainty that the government would have been able to ram through C-13 if it weren't for the backbench Liberal MPs and the Loyal Opposition standing in defence of the sanctity of human life - a stand they were able to make knowing that their pro-life supporters were solidly behind them.

Despite the government's failure to amend the Bill and establish the rules prohibiting, governing and regulating reproductive and experimental technologies, scientists eager to destroy embryonic human beings for research may begin as early as this fall. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a federal funding agency, is being petitioned by the Stem Cell Network (SCN) to fund two projects that will use embryos for research. Dr. Ron Worton, the SCN's scientific director, said that scientists are tired of waiting for government to act and that the "courtesy" of not going ahead with such research will soon end. Worton added "There is nothing that we are doing or contemplating doing that would be outlawed or banned by the legislation as it stands." This admission proves that the government's claim that every ethical avenue for stem cell research must be exhausted before considering requests for ESCR is bogus. Despite some wonderful success, adult or somatic stem cell research has not been exhaustively researched in Canada and yet scientists are eager to begin embryonic stem cell research. All sides - the CIHR, the SCN, Health Minister Anne McLellan - say that the CIHR guidelines mirror the regulations of C-13.

Of course not, unless you share the warped view of the Prime Minister. Twice in May, Prime Minister Jean Chretien said that Canada is a better country than the United States because it has gun control, abortion and no capital punishment. Putting aside the other two issues, it is a sick, sick person who thinks that the murder of 115,000 unborn babies in the womb is a sign of Canada's superiority. Anyway, what is Chretien thinking? The U.S., about ten times the size of Canada, has about ten times the number of abortions. Chretien ignores the fact that abortion is, unfortunately, legal and easily available in both Canada and the United States - unless he's talking about the fact that Americans actually debate the issue and allow pro-life proposals to be voted on in their legislatures. In which case, Chretien is saying that the lack of democratic debate about abortion makes Canada a better country. Chretien's comments are an instructive but disturbing glimpse into how his mind works.

On one of the occasions in which Chretien made his strange boast (on route to a meeting in Athens, Greece), he said "I am a Catholic and for abortion." Chretien's bishop, Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais indicated to LifeSite, the internet arm of Interim Publishing, that he would be addressing the matter with the Prime Minister. Archbishop Gervais' spokesman Gabrielle Tasse said that the matter would be dealt with privately, but was clear that Chretien would be rebuked for his pro-abortion comments. Still, grassroots pro-lifers, whether Catholic or not, cannot understand why the Catholic Church does not publicly recognize that the Prime Minister has excommunicated himself from the Church.

Health Canada has approved the abortifacient morning after pill for over-the-counter distribution on a provisional basis. The government will solicit public feedback before finalizing any changes to the drug's status. Last year, Paladin Labs Inc., the Montreal-based company that distributes the abortifacient morning after pill Plan B, announced it had submitted an application to Health Canada to change Plan B from prescription-only to non-prescription status. The Canadian Pharmacists Association and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada collaborated on the submission. Campaign Life Coalition urges Health Canada to reject the move because the morning after pill is a dangerous abortifacient that acts upon the uterine lining to make it hostile to the implantation of the human embryo. This would be analogous to leaving a newborn baby alone in the desert. While we oppose the availability of these drugs at all because they are lethal to the unborn, we think it is just plain stupid to put women's health at risk with what are essentially high dosage birth control pills.

Manitoba: Gary Doer's NDP government won a second term in the June 2 provincial election, increasing their majority by 3 seats for a total of 35. For pro-life, pro-family advocates, there appears to be little to cheer about. Many candidates refused to respond to Campaign Life Coalition's questionnaire, and it appears that only a handful of the elected MLA's are pro-life, including Jim Malloway (NDP, Elmwood), Jack Penner (PC, Emerson), Health Minister Dave Chomiak (NDP, Kildonan), Gerald Hawranik (PC, Lac du Bonnet), Kelvin Goertzen (PC, Steinbach) and Oscar Lathlin (NDP, The Pas). CLC Manitoba President Maria Slykerman did a great job getting a significant number of responses and would have done even better if the NDP and Liberal leaders had not pressured their candidates to not answer the questionnaires. A significant loss was strongly pro-life PC incumbent Marcel Laurendeau who was defeated, 3341 to 2604, by pro-abortion NDP candidate Marilyne Brick. It is certainly notable that most of the candidates qualified as pro-life are NDP. The Doer government has been feuding with abortionist Henry Morgentaler, who wants to sell his Winnipeg abortuary to the province. It must be noted that other MLAs may be pro-life but did not return questionnaires nor respond to calls from CLC Manitoba.

New Brunswick: The Progressive Conservative government of Bernard Lord had its huge majority cut down to a one seat majority as they fell to just 28 seats in the 55 seat provincial house. More than half of the 165 candidates contacted by CLC New Brunswick returned their questionnaire with more than half of all respondents answering pro-life or pro-life with exceptions. In total, CLC NB says there are 23 pro-life MLAs and 3 pro-abortion MLAs. Furthermore, some candidates, including Premier Lord, who answered some but not all of the questions, indicated support for some pro-life, pro-family policies. Still, they could not be rated pro-life or pro-life with exceptions. Eleven such candidates were elected. Of the remaining 18 MLAs who did not answer a questionnaire, there is some indication that many of them will be open to supporting pro-life initiatives. CLC NB President Peter Ryan expressed his disappointment that both Lord and Liberal opposition leader Shawn Graham are both committed to the status quo on taxpayer-funding of abortions committed in New Brunswick hospitals. However, he said it is quite possible that there are the numbers in the provincial legislature to get issues such as women's right to know legislation and respecting parental rights when it comes to sex education considered by the government. For those with access to the internet, check out our website (www.lifesite.net) regularly for further information.

On June 10, the Ontario Court of Appeal decided in the Halpern v. Canada case that the traditional definition of marriage as "the union of one man and one woman" was a violation of the Charter Rights of homosexuals. But unlike other recent court decisions in Ontario, B.C., and Quebec, the Ontario Court of Appeals did not instruct Parliament to address this perceived discrimination or give it time to act; the Court allowed same-sex couples to "marry" immediately. Over the next few days, the evening news and daily papers showed homosexual couples lining up for their "marriage" licenses. This is raw judicial activism, fundamentally changing the definition of marriage that existed for thousands of years. Marriage is a fundamental institution of society and we tamper with it at our peril. We warned that this type of court action (usurping the role of our elected representatives) would occur when we fought over the Charter in the early 1980s. Our lawyer at the time (one of CLC's founders) Gwen Landolt sounded the warning far and wide but it fell mainly on deaf ears.

An expose by LifeSite Daily News about the Arthritis Society's (TAS) support for embryonic stem cell research has led to a clarification of TAS's policy on such research. LifeSite exposed a position paper and statements by TAS President and CEO Denis Morrice in support of funding embryonic stem cell research which led to the Knights of Columbus requesting a meeting with the Society. KofC of Ontario has given TAS some $15 million over the years and at the meeting expressed its concerns that TAS supports research that depends on the destruction of human embryos. In a June letter to all Grand Knights in Ontario, KofC Ontario State Deputy Robert Cayea explained TAS assured the Knights that they have not yet funded any projects involving embryonic stem cell research, nor received any requests for funding of such research. TAS, for its part, confirmed that "there is no specific Arthritis Society Board-approved policy with respect to embryonic stem cell research." Furthermore, the KofC noted that "the Arthritis Society will not enter into research involving the use of ESCR without prior consultation with the Knights of Columbus." Consultation is no guarantee that TAS will not go ahead down the road and fund embryonic stem cell research applications in the future, but it is good that they know one of their biggest funding partners is against such research. Grant Ertel the liaison from the KofC Ontario State Council to TAS told LifeSite that TAS President Morrice "has no authority to authorize funding of research without the approval of the advisory board." Ertel assured LifeSite that the advisory board's promise to consult with the Knights prior to embarking on such research is a virtual rejection of such research since "the Knights will never accept it." Good work Knights of Columbus! Congratulations to Grant Ertel and to all of you for moving so quickly on this issue.

CTV released its Fall lineup including movies of the week on abortionist Henry Morgentaler and a gay student seeking acceptance to go to his high school prom, both of which will help fill the network's Canadian content quota. It is lamentable that these are the best Canadian stories that CTV can come up with considering their immoral and highly divisive content. We are especially concerned with "Choice" which CTV bills as "the filmed-in-Montreal story of famed Canadian abortionist Dr. Henry Morgentaler," the title role which will be played by David Eisner. With the title "Choice" we do not expect much in the way of a balanced portrayal. Nor do we expect the ugly truth about abortion - bloody pieces of aborted babies and the trauma experienced by women - to be shown on TV. Nor about Morgentaler attempting to re-use disposable vacurettes (which cannot be properly sterilized) to save a buck. "Prom Queen," is "about a gay student who generates controversy when he declares he wants to bring his boyfriend as his date to the high-school prom."

This year, we have 9 summer students working in our Toronto office. Although a substantial portion of some of the students' salaries is subsidized, we still have to pay the bulk of the total salaries. Our summer students are involved in numerous important projects including pre-election preparations, monitoring the debates in the House of Commons, updating files, and archiving information. Furthermore, we are providing regular seminars for the students so they are better informed about life issues and equipped to return to university in the Fall to defend the sanctity of human life. Our summer students program is an important way of getting young people involved in pro-life activities. While we have a full complement of students this summer, please encourage young people you know who might be interested in a summer 2004 placement, to send us their resumes. Furthermore, students who are interested in volunteering in our offices this summer or during the school year are most welcome. Please contact Deny at (416) 204-9749 for more details.

We would like to congratulate MP Pat O'Brien (Lib, London-Fanshawe) and recently appointed London, Ontario Catholic Bishop Ronald Fabbro for demonstrating political and spiritual leadership, respectively, and taking part in an eight kilometer pro-life walkathon May 31. Leading up to the event, Bishop Fabbro told the London Free Press' Herman Goodden that "There's a mentality in this culture that maintains you can be a Catholic and pro-choice and that would be acceptable. It's not. We need to educate people - even our Catholics - about why we take the stance we do for life, that there is a specifically Catholic position on abortion that is based on human reason and experience."

Bishop Fabbro added that he took part in the walk because "I think it's an opportunity for those who support our stance on life to show our solidarity with one another. Often it's a lonely struggle for them. A lot of people in our society just don't see the appalling destruction of human life that is going on." It is always encouraging to see such high-level participation at pro-life events and we thank O'Brien and Bishop Fabbro for doing so.

Renowned pro-life priest, Fr. Ted Colleton is celebrating his 90th birthday this month and we hope you will join us in honouring his tremendous contribution to the pro-life cause. On July 19, there will be a three hour cruise on the Empress of Canada in Toronto harbour, rain or shine. A light buffet, Irish music and entertainment will be provided. Unfortunately, space is limited for this celebration so call Sofia or Yoli at (416) 204-9749 or 1-800-730-5358 to order tickets, which are just $45.

Alberta Pro-life will host and Campaign Life Coalition, Life Canada and the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will co-sponsor "Silent No More," the National Pro-Life Conference November 6-8 in Edmonton, Alberta. There is an exciting roster of speakers including Scott Klusendorf of Stand to Reason; Janet Epp Buckingham of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada; Bryan Kemper of Rock for Life; Ted Byfield, founder of Report magazine; Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition; Mary Ellen Douglas, national organizer for Campaign Life Coalition; Karen Murawsky, director of CLC's Public Affairs office in Ottawa; pro-life activists Heather Stilwell and Hermina Dykxhoorn; and Keynote Banquet Speaker Dr. David Reardon, founder of the Elliot Institute and an expert on the health effects of abortion. It will be held at the West Edmonton Mall, Fantasyland Hotel (special rates of $109 and $129 if you call now), with other hotels nearby. For more information, call us at (416) 204-9749 or 1-800-730-5358.

Aid to Women, a crisis pregnancy counselling centre in downtown Toronto needs your help. They sent a wish list that includes volunteers:

1. To be a peaceful, prayerful witness as picketers near a local abortuary (exercising an important democratic right).

2. To help deliver donations to our moms and their babies.

3. To volunteer a storage area (a garage, perhaps) for cribs, strollers, playpens, etc...

To help, please phone Aid to Women at (416) 921-6016. They are also putting on a sidewalk counselling workshop Saturday, July 12 from 10 a.m. to noon at the CLC offices (104 Bond St., Toronto). For more information about this workshop, call Alex at (416) 204-1687.

Show the Truth is an organization that tours various regions and witnesseses to the injustice of abortion using graphic photos of aborted babies. They have two tours scheduled this summer: Ottawa and Quebec from July 7-11 and Toronto August 11-14. For more information check out www.angelfire.com/ok5/youthforlife.

One way for you to contribute to Campaign Life Coalition that won't cost you a cent but which will save us a lot on transportation costs, is the donation of your air miles to CLC. There are several limitations and rules, but generally if you have accrued enough to purchase a plane ticket, you can get that ticket and purchase it for us. Call our office for more details before you obtain the ticket.

Please plan to join us September 13, at the Regal Constellation in Toronto, for fun and reminisces as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Campaign Life. While some may look at fighting against abortion for the better part of a quarter-century as a trial, it is a pleasure to do God's life-affirming work. Please plan on joining us for this anniversary.

Yours for life
Jim Hughes
National President