On Friday, April 11, 2008 CLC Ontario leaders gathered in Mississauga, Ont., for three days to discuss current and future strategies. Decisions made at this meeting are then forwarded to the CLC National Executive and Board for further action, and discussion continues on our monthly Ontario and National Conference calls. Some of the discussions involved preparations for the Federal election; strategies for Federal and Provincial action, communication, euthanasia, activism, the international agenda, the National March for Life 2008 and suggestions for the 2009 March for Life which will mark 40 years of legal abortion Canada thanks to the 1969 Liberal Omnibus Bill. These annual meetings are a very important part of CLC Ontario as they give us the opportunity not available on a monthly one hour call to strategize in depth and make plans for the future.

The social aspect is also very important and the discussions usually continue well into the evening as we relax and enjoy each other’s company. The hockey game on TV, with fans on both sides at the meeting, provided us some friendly rivalry too. We missed Frank Mountain, the number one Ottawa Senators fan. We were blessed this year with many young children of the participants in attendance. The children joined us for a special celebration for Ileen and Frank Kennedy’s 40th wedding anniversary where cake and pop was enjoyed by all.

As we departed for our homes across the Province, each of us made a new commitment to activate our neighbours, intensify the local activities and move forward in every way we are able to protect the unborn and the vulnerable. You will be hearing about the strategies discussed at this meeting in the months to come.

 

 

 

As we reported last month, C-484, the Private Members Bill extending legal recognition and protection to the unborn victims of crime, passed Second Reading in March by a vote of 147-132 and is now slated to be discussed in the House of Commons Standing Justice and Human Rights Committee. Some concerned citizens are calling for hearings across the country, most especially in the communities such as Winnipeg and Edmonton where pregnant women and their unborn children have been the victims of violent crimes.

However, thus far there has been no indication that the Committee is considering such hearings. In fact, we hear that the majority of the Committee – those who voted against C-484 at Second Hearing – will try to kill the bill or recommend to Parliament that it be defeated. Right now, with delays in all Committees it seems that the Opposition is attempting to derail the Government’s agenda. This is an abuse of the Committee process and an affront to democracy, but that is another issue. The Justice Committee’s lack of discussion of this issue (thus far) is probably not a nefarious plot to kill C-484 as much as its part of the overall Conservative legislative game plan.

Still, the effect is to prevent much-needed discussion of the Unborn Victims of Crime Bill. According to the Parliamentary website, no Committee hearings are set, no testimony is being sought and no studies are being commissioned. We are afraid that if this continues, the Bill could die in Committee when an election is eventually called. It is extremely important that the Bill gets a fair hearing and is returned to the House of Commons for a final vote.

Please mail or call the Committee members – Art Hanger, Real Menard, Brian Murphy, Larry Bagnell, Blaine Calkins, Joe Comartin, Rick Dykstra, Carole Freeman, Dominic LeBlanc, Derek Lee, Rob Moore and Daniel Petit – to urge them to hold hearings, both in Ottawa and across the country, to study the issue in depth and with an open mind and to let the whole Parliament decide the issue.

Meanwhile, pro-abortion extremists continue to rail against C-484, exposing the fact that they do not care about ‘choice’ – rather, these activists and politicians support the killing of unborn children, even when women have decided to keep their babies. Their public statements (speeches in Parliament, letters to the editor, newspaper column and media interviews) expose the nasty, ugly side of the abortion movement and it cannot be winning them any friends or sympathizers. But it does expose the desperation with which they cling to their barbaric ideas about human life in utero and the extremes to which they they will go to in order to protect the non-existent ‘right to abortion’.

Action Item: Send individual letters to all Committee members urging them to have full hearings on C-484 and return it to Parliament for a vote. Send them, postage free, to the House of Commons, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Ont., Canada, K1A 0A6.

The Toronto Star and NBC news both highlighted the story of Zack Dunlop, a 21-year-old Oklahoman diagnosed as ‘brain dead’ who was minutes away from having his organs harvested shortly after an accident left him with serious head trauma. The media reported that his awakening was a miracle, but Dr. Paul Bryne, a former President of the US Catholic Medical Association and an expert on brain-death, has said that such occurrences are not as rare as the media’s lack of reporting would indicate. Dr. Byrne says what made Dunlop’s case unusual is that Zack was lucky enough to be found out to be alive before his vital organs were removed. “If there is anything miraculous about it,”

Dr. Bryne said, “it is that they didn’t get his organs before someone was able to notice some sort of other response. He was always living – his heart was always beating, there was always blood pressure, he was always very much alive.” Dr. Byrne says that over the years he has collected information pertaining to numerous cases where patients labeled brain dead have “returned from the dead.” The reason being, says Byrne, is that “brain death is never really death.” Pam Dunlop, Zack’s mother, said that when doctors informed the family that their son was dead, they “wanted to make sure that some lucky person got to live on through Zack’s” transplanted organs.

NBC reported that on a hunch, Zack’s cousin Dan Coffin ran a pocket knife against Zack’s foot. The patient jerked back his foot. He then attempted to stimulate the skin under Zack’s fingernail (a particularly tender spot on the body) and his cousin once again reacted by drawing his arm across his body. Notably, Zack told NBC that he heard the doctors pronounce him dead but that he was unable to do anything about it. “It just makes me thankful, it makes me thankful that they didn’t give up,” he said about his relatives’ last attempts to find out if he was still alive.

Despite being declared ‘brain dead’ Zack returned home 48 days after the accident, walking on his own two feet. He still suffers memory loss and emotional problems and a full physical recovery is not expected for another year, but the story of Zack Dunlop demonstrates the dangers of accepting brain death as a criteria for declaring a patient suitable for organ harvesting. As Dr. Byrne says, “The question is, how many of the other organ donors are in a similar situation, that the only thing is that they [doctors] end up getting their organs?”

Campaign Life Coalition medical advisor Dr. John Shea has made clear that brain death is a scientific theory concocted to permit organ harvesting and denial of medical treatment. As policy-makers consider ways to expand organ transplants, the case of Zack Dunlop serves as powerful reminder of the dangers of recognizing brain death as a basis for organ harvesting.

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Executive Director Alex Schadenberg warned at the CLC Ontario Strategy Meeting on April 11 that there would be a new push for euthanasia very soon. He noted that in a March interview on the CBC radio show Cross Country Checkup, Jocelyn Downie, the Canada Research Chair in Health, Law and Policy from Dalhousie University, said she was aware that new legislation was being drafted to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. She also said that a new test case had been drafted to challenge the Criminal Code prohibitions of euthanasia via the courts. Schadenberg warned that while the last attempt to decriminalize euthanasia in 2005 by BQ MP Francine Lalonde’s Bill C-407 was poorly worded and went nowhere, this time around the pro-euthanasia side will make a more concerted effort to get its law passed.

On April 13 – just two days after Schadenberg’s presentation – Canadian Press reported that Lalonde intends to introduce new legislation to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide soon. She wants to “relaunch the debate on assisted suicide.”

Bill C-407 would have legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide for people suffering chronic physical and mental pain even though such pain can be treated effectively. The Bill did not require that persons at least attempt effective treatment for their chronic physical or mental pain. Nor did C-407 limit euthanasia to competent people – permitting it for people who ‘appear to be lucid’. Furthermore, it allowed anyone to carry out euthanasia or assist in the suicide of individuals as long as they were assisted by a medical practitioner.

There were no safeguards – even phony ones. It would have opened wide the door to killing the vulnerable. It is unlikely that an identical bill will be re-introduced but, as Schadenberg noted, “Even if Lalonde tightens up the wording in her new proposal, we already know her intentions based on the wording of Bill C-407.”

In her interview with CP, Lalonde said “I am not worried about abuse” – although she was worried about the lack of euthanasia or assisted suicide in Quebec. Unlike Ms. Lalonde we think it would be much better to treat people’s pain, depression and anxieties – to show them love – rather than give up on those who are suffering physically and emotionally and just kill them. Once society allows one person to kill another it becomes impossible to protect those who are made to feel like a burden upon society. It is precisely the sick and infirm, the elderly and people with disabilities, who need compassion and protection, not death delivered in the name of mercy.

Action Item: Let your MP know that you oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide and that it is a voting issue for you. Firmly but politely urge him or her to protect vulnerable individuals from the twin threats of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Send letters, postage free, to the House of Commons, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Ont., Canada, K1A 0A6. If you are comfortable doing so, it is even better to arrange to visit your MP, along with a friend or family member, in his or her Constituency office.

Bella, the movie with a powerful pro-life message that won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006 and which was released in the United States last year, was finally released in Canada on April 11. The life-affirming, independent film needs pro-lifers to attend the screenings to ensure that it will get a wider showing. Its initial release was slated for just 25 theatres across the country – but no showings in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, PEI or Newfoundland and only one in each of Quebec, Nova Scotia and Manitoba. Major releases often open in several hundred theatres. Indeed, we hear that after a great turnout on opening weekend, theatre chains are going to put the movie on even more screens.

Lead actor Eduardo Verastegui and producer Leo Severino spoke to the Rose Dinner at last year’s National March for Life in Ottawa where they shared their moving stories about how they are using their independent film company Metanoia Films and Bella, its first release, to encourage uplifting, family friendly cinema. In Bella, a woman considers an abortion but changes her mind and gives her baby up for adoption. The producers report that the film has already had a profound affect in the U.S., with numerous women contacting them, informing them that the movie’s presentation of an alternative choice to abortion led them to choose to give birth to their unborn child, instead of having an abortion. One mother named her child Bella because the movie is the reason her child is alive today.

Action Item: See Bella if it is in a theatre near you and if it is not, please ask the manager to get the film. Encourage your friends to see the film. If it is no longer in theatres by the time you receive this newsletter, begin to ask for it at your local video and DVD stores.

Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said abortion and racism are linked. Both, she said, are “symptoms of a fundamental human error.” She elaborated: “The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness.” She says that to justify getting people out of our lives, we must “create the deceptions that the other person is less important, less worthy, less human.

These pretenses help us feel a bit better about discriminating against someone because of his skin color or gestational age, but they’re still lies and our actions are still wrong.” She said that all human beings, regardless of colour or age, are part of one race – the human race. She said, “If we simply treat other people the way we’d like to be treated, racism, abortion, and other forms of inhumanity will be things of the past.” King, who will speak to both the National March for Life in Ottawa on May 8 and the Youth Conference on May 9, said, “The fight against abortion is a new frontier in the civil rights movement.”

The Interim celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a dinner at Spirale’s in Toronto on April 10, attended by nearly 300 readers and supporters. The night was a tremendous success, full of good food, great fellowship, a well-received silent auction and a hopeful guest speaker. Interim business board chairman Dan Di Rocco was the Master of Ceremonies and retired Auxiliary Bishop Pearse Lacey gave the invocation.

CLC National President and Interim founding editor, Jim Hughes reflected on 25 years of pro-life journalism, acknowledging those who have made the paper possible. Editor Paul Tuns recognized special guests including Fr. Alphonse de Valk, editor of Catholic Insight; Joanne McGarry and Phil Horgan of the Catholic Civil Rights League; Interim columnist Frank Kennedy; John-Henry Westen and Steve Jalsevac of LifeSiteNews.com; Theresa Smyth of Aid to Women; Mike del Grande, a Toronto city councilor; and Angela Kennedy, a trustee with the Toronto District Catholic School Board. Rev. Royal Hamel, an Interim columnist, offered grace.

After pleasant conversation with friends, family and acquaintances over a generous helping of roast beef, potatoes and mixed vegetables, Andrea Mrozek of the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, noted the trends in media which, she says, are cause for optimism. She said the new generation of journalists do not seem as ideologically pro-abortion (although they are pro-abortion) and are more interested in real news. She said that life issues that can be presented in ways that make good stories, will make the light of day and shared some of her experiences in the press. She said she wouldn’t want to be a pro-abortionist today because so many developments are going against them.

A lot has changed in society and in the media since CLC founded The Interim in 1983, but what hasn’t changed is the need to communicate to the pro-life movement and the general public, honest reporting and common sense commentary provided by The Interim. Sure the media is beginning to report on the abortion-breast cancer link or that post-abortive women are committing suicide, but not to the extent the public needs to hear these news stories. The paper is constantly improving to best serve and activate the pro-life movement of Canada. The dinner on April 10 was a worthy celebration of the paper’s contribution to the cause.

 

On April 3, more than two dozen pro-lifers were at the Robarts Library outside the University of Toronto to hold signs from the Genocide Awareness Project. Activists from Show the Truth, Campaign Life Coalition and campus pro-life groups drew attention to the inconsistent treatment of abortion and the truth of the humanity of the child with pictures of an aborted child and prematurely born child and the captions ‘Unwanted Child’ and ‘Wanted Child’. Another had butchered whales and an aborted child with the caption, ‘Save the whales. Kill the children.’ Another had pictures of Jews in a concentration camp, a black man hanging and an aborted child with the caption ‘Ungentile. Unwhite. Unborn’.

A small counter-demonstration attempted to disrupt the five-and-a-half hour demonstration (originally intended for 10 am – 2 pm), but they did not prevent the pro-life message from being provided to thousands of passers-by. During the witness, more than the expected amount of literature was used, emptying the box of pamphlets, cards, bookmarks and newspaper supplements.

 

The first annual Niagara Region Right to Life’s Golf for Life tournament is fast approaching. It will be held at the Royal Woodbine Golf Club on Thursday, May 29, 2008. This will be an exciting event for all golf lovers and all amateurs and duffers are welcome. It is also a great pro-life fundraiser. It includes 18 holes of golf with cart and a four player scramble format with shot-gun start. There will be a delicious BBQ lunch and supper and exciting prizes. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. Call Jeff at (416) 204-9749 or 1-800-730-5358 to book or for further information.

The National March for Life is May 7-9 with a candlelight vigil at the Canadian Human Rights Memorial on May 7, the March and Rose Dinner on May 8 and the Youth Conference on May 9. Mary Ann Kuharski of ProLife Across America is confirmed as the speaker for the Dinner and many other notable pro-lifers will be at the various pro-life functions throughout the three-day programme.

On Monday, May 14, Pro Life BC’s Focus on Life Gala Dinner will be held at the Hyatt Hotel in Vancouver. Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life will be the guest speaker. For more information contact, CLC BC President John Hof at (604) 534-4828 or email info@clcbc.org.

The National Pro-life Conference will be held October 2-4 at the Marriot Airport Hotel in Mississauga, Ont.

LifeChain will be held October 5 this year. Mark your calendar and join tens of thousands of your fellow pro-lifers to stand up for life for one hour.

 

CLC needs a secretary for the National President in our Toronto office and a full-time lobbyist for our Ottawa-based National Affairs office. The secretary needs to be a strongly self-motivated, flexible and people-oriented person especially competent in reliably providing a wide variety of secretarial services in a fast-paced environment. The lobbyist must also be strongly self-motivated, be familiar with the Parliamentary process, be a people person and non-partisan. Both positions need extensive knowledge of pro-life issues and a strong, personal commitment to the pro-life cause. Candidates for these positions would ideally be very familiar with Campaign Life Coalition and its work. Please contact office manager Deny Dieleman at (416) 204-9749 or 1-800-730-5358.

Occasionally, it is necessary to activate pro-lifers for immediate action. For those of you with access to the internet, please forward your email address to clc@lifesite.net. This will enable us to enhance our communications with supporters for specific action items.

Legendary actor Charlton Heston, who starred in The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur, died at the age of 84. He fought for civil rights – against segregation in the 1960s and, more recently, for the unborn. He provided the introduction to the 1987 Bernard Nathanson pro-life documentary Eclipse of Reason. He was a rare conservative voice in Hollywood and he will be greatly missed.

Yours for life and family
Jim Hughes
CLC National President