• March for Life a tremendous success
• CLC trains candidates/staff
• Weigel pitches positive message to CLC clergy luncheon

Each year, the March for Life in Ottawa gets bigger and better. This year marked the 9th annual event in which thousands of Canadian pro-lifers give witness to the injustice of abortion, sending a message to our nation that it kills children and harms women. It was motivating and moving, informative and inspirational. With speakers from the religious, political, medical and activist arenas, the more than 5,700 participants were recharged with the knowledge and will to return to their communities to raise the flag for the unborn for years to come.

Probably the most notable aspect of the March is the participation of young people. At least half and perhaps as much as 60% of those in attendance on the Hill and marching through the streets of our nation’s capital were high school and university students and young families with their children.

The pro-life movement is a vibrant one, ready for the challenges of both today and tomorrow. With their homemade (or perhaps classroom-made) signs, young people spoke out against the great evil of abortion and the damage it causes to women. They recognize that protecting life is a human rights issue for both women and children, that abortion exploits the desperation of would-be mothers and kills their unborn children, thus eliminating the planet’s most precious resource: people. And not only are these young people getting involved, becoming initiated into the movement to defend the unborn, but they bring great energy to these events and reinvigorate the veterans of the pro-life movement.

It is good for those of us who have been waging this battle against the Culture of Death to see the next generation of activists and leaders take a stand; we know that the movement will continue to be on firm ground tomorrow as we have laid a strong foundation for them today. It is vitally important that we inculcate a pro-life worldview for Canada’s youth and erode the erroneous agenda of the pro-abortionists. The final victory will be on God’s timetable, not our mere earthly schedule,

And the annual March for Life is precisely that. Each year it gets bigger. Each year, more people notice. Each year, there is more media coverage. When 5,700 people rally on the front lawn of Parliament and then peacefully proceed through the busy streets of the nation’s capital, the public, the press and the politicians cannot help but take notice. This year, at least 15 parliamentarians addressed the audience on the Hill and several more came to the Rose Dinner. This year, there were more stories in newspapers and on television, even if they get the numbers abysmally wrong (the Globe and Mail reported “a few hundred” participants) and come with their own spin (they tried to imply it was all part of the Conservative Party’s ‘hidden agenda’). The right message is getting out despite attempts to downplay it.

The annual March for Life event is so much more than a march – it is a series of rallies, church services, dinners, speakers and conferences, all witnessing to life. The evening before the March, there was a powerful candlelight vigil at the Human Rights Monument. There were Masses and church services in at least three different denominations. Silent No More proclaimed the damage abortion does to women and men and the crowd heard about how they regretted their abortions. The saying that there was so much to do and so little time comes to mind.

The annual Rose Dinner was an outstanding success. We had to move our location due to a strike that closed our original venue and we were forced to turn away many people who wanted to buy tickets. We still had more than 900 people in attendance but it could have been well over 1,000. Those who were fortunate enough to be in attendance heard the inspirational message of Fr. Frank Pavone, the head of Priests for Life USA. He told the audience that victory will be ours because of the truth and goodness of our cause. He said that we are, in fact, winning, having forced the pro-abortion side to change tactics, including admitting that the unborn is a child. Noting that the pro-abortion side is arguing that the mother “owns” her unborn baby and that her rights trump that of the child’s, Pavone says our response is to say, “Let’s love them both. We can and we must.”

The youth conference was also a sold-out event with more than 500 participants. These young people – mostly from high schools, and joined by about 50 university students – heard from an array of speakers who motivated and educated them. CLC National President Jim Hughes reminded them that this battle is impossible without prayer; LifeSiteNews.com editor John-Henry Westen cautioned them to be skeptical of the media and to challenge the lies that journalists peddle; MP Pierre Lemieux told them that they can make a difference in political campaigns and that he would not have been elected without the dedicated assistance of dozens of youth; Samanatha Singson, a former international affairs officer with CLC, now working full-time at the UN, educated the students about the anti-life, anti-family agenda of the United Nations. Other speakers included lawyer Alex Vernon and McMaster LifeLine president Johanna Miller.

We want to thank everyone who made this event a tremendous and growing success. The organizers were faced with many challenges, notably the strike at the National Congress Centre which forced a last minute move, and the fact that long-time organizer Frank Mountain of CLC Ottawa was ill. But everything worked out in the end. Of course we want to thank you, the pro-life community, for making all that hard work worthwhile. Without you – the local pro-life groups, church groups, youth organizations, campus pro-life clubs, teachers who brought their classes, the Knights of Columbus, families who brought their children, and you, our supporters – this March would not have been the great public witness that it has become.

It is hard to believe, but plans are already underway for next year’s March for Life. We are compiling lists of potential speakers, scouting out suitably sized venues and enlisting financial sponsors. You, too, should make plans now, to join us on May 9-11. Together we will send out a powerful pro-life message to our nation that abortion is killing our future and we must put an end to this terrible scourge that has cost Canada more than 3 million people since 1969.

Next year will be our 10th March for Life. Let’s hope and pray that 10,000 people – or more! – participate for year 10.

On April 29, CLC held a day-long “Nut ‘n’ Bolts Political Training Session” at the Wyndham Bristol Place Hotel near the Toronto airport for various people from across Ontario who are interested in running for elected office or working on a political campaign. We brought in experienced politicians and other speakers to give the participants a practical street-level look at politics – the do’s and don’ts of winning nominations and running campaigns. Not only did the speakers inform them of what is necessary to become a candidate or work on a campaign, but they are themselves examples of the kind of people whom we are looking for in the public arena.

With speakers such as Mike Del Grande (a former school board trustee and current Toronto city councillor), Joanne Matters (a Halton school board trustee), John Oostrom (a former PC MP) and Paul Szabo (a Liberal MP), we provided information about both non-partisan local campaigns and provincial and federal elections. Several CLC activists, who are veterans of political campaigns at all levels, informed the audience about how to support pro-life candidates at both the nomination level and when an election campaign has begun.

Overall, the lesson learned is that, while running for elected office or helping someone do so is a lot of work, it is possible for men and women of good character and strong values to have a major impact on the political process. As one appreciative participant wrote afterward, it demonstrated how “we can play a very important and positive role in getting our country back to a firmer ground to things that really matter whether it be pro-life or upholding the values and tenets of our faith.”

On May 9, CLC held a clergy luncheon for Toronto-area priests and deacons and presented papal biographer George Weigel as speaker. Weigel, author of Witness to Hope (among numerous other books), told the 70 clergy in attendance that the pro-life cause is scoring victories as the pro-abortion side has been forced to go on the defensive in their support of such barbaric practices as partial-birth abortion and their opposition to parental notification of their minor aged children seeking abortions.

Weigel noted that the partial-birth abortion debate, as well as scientific advances, have forced many to recognize the child in the womb. He also said that there is a growing philosophical realization that unborn children deserve legal protection. Even though these trends are going our way, he called upon the pro-life movement to change the narrative in public discourse about abortion by highlighting the life-affirming work of outreach to women facing crisis pregnancies, to further chip away at the edges of abortion through incremental pieces of legislation and to highlight that the pro-life movement is part of the liberal tradition of extending human rights to new classes of people (in this case the unborn). Weigel concluded that with current trends and this new appoach, the pro-life cause will gain new converts and become a critical mass sufficient to end the injustice of abortion.

Yours for life
Jim Hughes
National President

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