What's at stake:

Sixteen years after the infamous Morgentaler decision in which the Supreme Court of Canada struck down very limited "restrictions" on abortion and urged Parliament to draft a new abortion law, abortion in Canada still operates in a legal void. Our country is the only Western democracy to not have a law or any federal regulations on abortion and as a result a pregnant woman can have her child killed for any reason, at any time during her pregnancy and almost always with taxpayer funding. Indeed, with partial-birth abortion, the child can even be killed during the birth process. Also, soon after conception the child can now be killed via the morning after pill. And now, thanks to Bill C-6, "left-over" or "spare" humans from IVF or other artificial means can be legally used and killed for "research" or to provide body parts.

The abortion lobby and many of their allied politicians claim that abortion is a constitutional right. However, none of the judges in the four written decisions in Morgentaler found abortion to be a constitutional right. Indeed, they found the need for Parliament to regulate it. But Parliament has abrogated its duties in ignoring not just the Supreme Court's request but its responsibility to address fundamental issues of rights and justice. Abortion violates the rights of the unborn and has allowed the injustice of more than 106,000 abortions in the last reported year and over 2.5 million since 1969! Despite this, too many parliamentarians are silent on this issue. It is perverse to think that the blood spilled by the killing of so many babies could be described as a peaceful situation. Euthanasia, assisted suicide, "the duty to die" are now looming as the next logical progression of the culture of death let loose by abortion.

The role of voters:

We know the unborn child is a human being. That is not a religious belief but a scientific fact. We also know that the child in the womb is as deserving of protection before the law as you or I. So we must ask ourselves: does the person I intend to vote for recognize these very simple and straightforward facts? Does the candidate that you intend to vote for share your views on the life and death issue of abortion and related issues? If a candidate does not share your pro-life views, that candidate does not deserve your vote. We must act on our pro-life convictions and demand that our elected representatives protect life. If we do not, then we must share the blame for the victims of abortion (mother, child, extended family, our nation). We must demand that Parliament act to protect human life from the time of conception (fertilization) to natural death. It is your responsibility to know where your candidates stand on life issues.

You will receive the June issue of The Interim which has purchased the right to reprint the CLC Voter's Guide. It will list all the candidates for all the ridings outside Quebec. Not all candidates will have completed the CLC election questionnaire by the time The Interim goes to press, so if you don't see your candidate listed, check out the election coverage at LifeSite (http://www.lifesite.net) or call Campaign Life Coalition for more information. We also encourage you to talk your candidates about life issues so that not only you understand the candidates' positions but that those seeking your support know how important life issues are to voters. We urge you to put aside partisan considerations and (at the very least) vote pro-life. If you can do more to help pro-life candidates - volunteer in their campaign office, put up a lawn sign, whatever - please do. Candidates for elected office who take a strong stand in defence of the sanctity of human life deserve our support.

Slippery politicians and false arguments:

Many MPs and candidates will try to side-step the issue, using various tactics. Most commonly used is the patently untrue argument that abortion is a constitutional right. We have already addressed that but please look at the story "16 Years Later" in the Voter's Guide, which you have either received or will receive soon, which has more specific information including direct quotes and references from various Supreme Court decisions.

Many politicians who do not want to address abortion believe (or say they believe) abortion is a provincial matter. Conveniently, many provincial politicians claim it is a federal matter. They are both right. As a healthcare service - which is how abortion is perversely treated in Canada right now - abortion is funded and largely regulated by the provinces. When being treated as a criminal matter or in some circumstances as "healthcare," it is a federal matter. Furthermore, don't let politicians get away with claiming abortion must be funded under the Canada Health Act. No specific procedures, including abortion, are mentioned in the Canada Health Act. Provinces can determine which procedures are covered and which are not. When a politician says abortion must be covered, ask him where in the Act abortion is mentioned.

Politicians will sometimes seek wiggle room in wanting to keep abortion legal in cases where the mother's health is in danger. This is an unnecessary "exception". According to traditional medical ethics and sound pro-life principles, a medical intervention designed to prevent the death of the mother that inadvertently causes the death of the child in the womb (ectopic pregnancy or cancer of the uterus), is not considered an abortion and is therefore not illicit. While the argument for the health exception carries a strong emotional plea, there is no substance to it.

On the exception of rape and incest, we remind Canadians that the circumstances of conception make no difference to the dignity of the life created and therefore abortion should not be permitted. In fact, accepting this exception undermines the pro-life argument that the unborn are full-fledged members of the human race and thus deserve every legal protection that the rest of us do. Besides, conception during rape or incest is extremely rare. Again, there seems to be a powerful emotional case for this exception which does not stand up to moral or logical scrutiny. Women who find themselves pregnant in such cases deserve love and support not the trauma of an abortion which would only aggravate the trauma.

Same-sex unions issue:

Yes, this is also a very important issue. The natural family is the cradle of life, in which new life is most ideally conceived and nurtured. The legal acceptance not only of same-sex unions, but also of all other developments attempting to change sex into a recreational, feel good realtionship activity only, separated from procreation, ultimately undermines the dignity and sacredness of human life. However, as serious as it is, the same-sex unions issue cannot be compared to the devastation of the culture of death spawned by abortion. If anything, same-sex unions, are a natural symptom of the abortion mentality which ruthlessly acts to exclude children and meeting the needs of children, from a life of pleasurable and emotional pursuits. Make your voting decision first on the direct life issues, then on the candidates' views on same-sex unions and then on other issues.

Get out and vote pro-life June 28:

It is your responsibility to elect MPs that will uphold the values that you believe in. No issue could possibly be as important as abortion. Without the basic right to life all else is meaningless. There is no social justice issue that comes even close to the importance of this one. Don't accept anyone telling you otherwise. If we stand together for pro-life candidates, we will make a difference in this country. We desperately need pro-life MPs, regardless of party, to help enact pro-life legislation.

In each of the last three elections, voter turnout has fallen. Experts expect that trend to continue. That means if we do go out and vote in unison for pro-life candidates, and strongly encourage others to do likewise, we will have a greater influence than we might have had in previous elections. It would be a tragedy if we let this opportunity to elect pro-life men and women, regardless of party, slip past us. With pro-life political successes south of the border and a renewed vigour and enthusiasm here in Canada among pro-lifers, it is just a matter of time until the tide changes in our fair country. But we need every pro-life Canadian to commit to helping elect MPs that share our commitment to life or defeat those who don't. On Monday, June 28, vote pro-life.

1. Read the Voter's Guide in the June issue of The Interim.
2. If your candidates' information is not in the guide, call us at 1-800-730-5358 or (416) 204-9749 or check out www.lifesite.net (if you don't have the internet, ask a family member, co-worker or friend who has web access to find you the information).
3. Engage your local candidates about life issues during all-candidates meetings, when you visit their offices or when they visit or call you, or their campaign workers when they knock on your door.
4. Support pro-life candidates in whichever way fits your schedule and abilities.
5. Vote pro-life on June 28.

On May 18, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the sections of the Elections Act of Canada which severely restrict the ability of third parties - organizations such as Campaign Life Coalition - to freely participate in elections. In its 6-3 decision, the majority of justices admitted that the so-called gag law restricted freedom of speech but that it did so in a way in which the harm done to people's liberties was minimal. The now rarely objective high court said it was better to restrict the ability of people to participate in the electoral process than to risk having the wealthy become the predominant players in elected politics. It all sounds very good but it is a ruse - a grievous violation of freedom.

It is precisely by allowing organizations such as CLC - and anti-poverty groups, environmental organizations, anti-tax outfits, really any group of like-minded citizens - to operate, that regular people, who normally would not be able to buy television, radio, newspaper and billboard advertising and other forms of distributing information, are able to raise issues during election campaigns. So the repressive gag law above all limits the ability of grassroots Canadians to work together in the political arena.

The gag law limits organizations to $3000 worth of election advertising (which is not even defined within the Act) in any one riding and a maximum of $150,000 nation-wide. That may sound like a lot of money but consider this: the Act permits the parties to spend $37 million nationally and local candidates a maximum of $75,000 in their own riding. In other words, groups such as ours can only spend 4/10ths of 1% of what registered political parties are allowed to spend. The restrictions may sound reasonable but they are prohibitive; where can groups get their messages out for $3000 a riding. A quarter-page ad in a daily newspaper will cost twice that much.

The gag law is designed to limit the ability of non-party members to raise issues during the campaign. In short, it gives a near monopoly to political parties and the media to set the agenda. If hundreds of thousands of citizens are not getting answers to the issues that concern them because the political elite have side-stepped the issue (this will most often happen on abortion, but there are many other issues politicians avoid in order to stay "on message"), there is no recourse such as third-party advertising to raise such issues. The political elite and their media accomplices want this because it serves their interests, but certainly during a campaign, individual voters, either on their own or with like-minded citizens, should be able to raise such issues. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the draconian new measures, imposed by the backroom people who run the parties, to violate the rights of every Canadian with their May 18 decision. We call upon politicians in all parties to overturn these new, unjust and dangerous restrictions on democratic participation in elections.

Also on May 18, Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew announced that he intends to amend the Food and Drug Regulations to allow a 0.75 milligram dose of the so-called morning-after pill levonorgestrel to be available without a doctor's prescription. Three provinces - BC, Quebec and Saskatchewan - already allow these sometimes abortifacient pills to be distributed by pharmacists. Pettigrew said the change is needed so that "women would have timely access to the drug and receive professional health advice regarding its use."

The morning-after pill or "emergency contraceptive" is taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to "prevent pregnancy." However, often it does not prevent pregnancy, but rather the implantation of a fertilized egg (a tiny embryonic human being) and is thus a chemical abortion. The necessity for a federal regulation to make the drug readily available is dubious. According to the Globe and Mail, outside the three provinces that already provide the MAP over-the-counter, it is "currently available in the other seven provinces with a doctor's prescription, at walk-in clinics and at certain hassle-free sexual health clinics."

Walk-in clinics? Hassle-free clinics? Doesn't sound like there is difficulty obtaining these human pesticides as it is. Furthermore, the drug is harmful to women. The MAP is essentially a double dosage birth control pill. We know that birth control pills are harmful to women's health and we consider it most unwise to allow young women to have easy access of such pills without their doctors being the least bit aware of what's going on. Furthermore, many women will use the MAP when there is no chance of getting pregnant. Most women are capable of conceiving just five or six days a month but the pharmaceutical companies (who stand to make windfall profits at the expense of unsuspecting women) is pushing them to use the MAP after every instance of "unprotected" sexual intercourse.

The morning-after pill kills unborn babies and harms women. Health Canada is not living up to its name when it makes decisions such as that announced by Pettigrew on May 18. May we suggest a change in the ministerial name: Death Canada, perhaps.

Action Item: Contact Health Canada and urge them to protect women's health by not going forward with its decision to allow the morning-after pill without a doctor's prescription and ask them to conduct studies on the health affects of the morning-after pill on women. Write Submissions can be sent, by August 5, to: Karen Ash, Policy Division, Bureau of Policy, Therapeutic Products Directorate, Department of Health, Address Locator 3102C5, 1600 Scott St., Holland Cross, Tower B, 2nd Floor, Ottawa, Ont., K1A 0K9. Tel: (613) 957-6455; fax: (613) 941-6458; e-mail: karen_ash@hc-sc.gc.ca.

Organized by Campaign Life Coalition and co-sponsored by more than 20 pro-life and pro-family organizations, the National March for Life in Ottawa on May 13 was a tremendous success. At least 3,500 people took part in the public witness on Parliament Hill and through the streets of Ottawa to oppose the injustice of abortion - that it kills unborn children, hurts women and Parliament must address this issue. Pro-life, religious and political leaders spoke including Rabbi Rueven Bulka, Archbishop Marcel Gervais, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's Bruce Clemenger, pastors Eric Lantheir and Robert McRoberts, CLC National President Jim Hughes, and MPs Cheryl Gallant, Leon Benoit, Garry Breitkreuz, Reed Elley, Jason Kenney, Dan McTeague, Paul Steckle, Elsie Wayne, Rose Marie Ur, David Anderson, Dr. James Lunney, Ken Epp, Brian Fitzpatrick, Pat O'Brien, John O'Reilly, Janko Peric, Paul Szabo, Tom Wappel, and others.

After the speeches and just before the march, Hughes presented Szabo with the Joseph P. Borowski Award for 2003. We present the Borowski Award to the parliamentarian who in the opinion of you, our CLC supporters, best stands up for the rights of the unborn in the public arena. Szabo began his acceptance speech boldly declaring: "My name is Paul Szabo and I am pro-life." The crowd responded by cheering loudly, an affirmation that the Mississauga South MP deserves this honour.

Unfortunately, before Jean Migneault, Deputy Supreme Knight, representing Carl Anderson, the Supreme Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus, could address the audience, the police warned organizers that the March had to begin. The 4th Degree Knights, dressed in full regalia, led the March through Ottawa; others participated in the March with their families. We thank them for their visible support in this pro-life witness.

Along the route, cars blasted their horns in support and gave thumbs-up signs as the pro-life throng marched with banners and placards with dozens of pro-life slogans.

Throughout the crowd there were priests and pastors from different denominations, people from all the provinces, from the newly born to the most veteran of pro-life supporters. We were pleased to see a large contingent of youth that came with parents or friends or their schools. We thank all those teachers and chaperones that brought students to the March for their hard work and commitment in nurturing the next generation of pro-lifers.

Large crowds attended the Masses and prayer services which preceded the events. On the evening of May 12, at St. Theresa's parish, Fr. Bob Bedard of the Companions of the Cross received great applause for his homily urging us to continue to be strong in defense of life, reminding us that the pro-life battle is God's battle. On the morning of May 13, at St. George's Anglican Church, Pastor Robert McRoberts of Calvary Baptist Church in Ottawa, led the prayer service, as he has for several years. Rev. Reynolds James of the Methodists from Kingston, said that it was a wonderful service with everyone sharing. At the same time, Archbishop Marcel Gervais con-celebrated Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral with a crowd of well over 1,000, with Bishop Richard Smith of Pembroke and over 50 priests. In his homily, Archbishop Gervais condemned the killing of human embryos for their stem cells.

After the March, Silent No More (Canada) had their first major Canadian event where about a dozen individuals shared their personal stories - women who regretted their abortions and men who regret lost fatherhood. It was an especially moving event. That evening, American pro-life and pro-family crusader Sandy Rios dazzled more than 400 people who attended the annual Rose Dinner, which was sold out weeks in advance. She informed and inspired those who attended about the cultural battles in the United States - the challenges and the victories.

The day before the March for Life, at least 300 people attended the candlelight vigil at the Canadian Human Rights Monument, a recognition that abortion violates the human rights of the unborn child. Candles were lit, representing the thousands of people across Canada who signed candle pledge forms. The day after the March, the Campaign Life Coalition Youth conference had its best turnout ever - about 250 youth heard a wide variety of speakers including the Other Side Team (formerly the Chastity Challenge Team), Angelina Steenstra and David MacDonald (who gave their personal abortion stories) and Senator Anne Cools who talked about the fight to defeat C-250 and received a much-deserved standing ovation.

All in all, this year's March for Life was a wonderful series of events. People were upbeat, the media covered the event more than in previous years and the number of Canadians participating held steady. We should let you know that the MPs really appreciated the show of support that you gave them and the cause. We are already making plans for next year's March for Life which will be held May 12. I hope to see you there again. If you have never attended before, mark your calender and start saving your pennies now. When you experience next year what this year's participants experienced, you will be glad you made the effort to attend this event of growing national significance.

Yours for life
Jim Hughes
National President

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