News & Analysis

NOTE: This is a web-based version of an email that was sent to our supporters.

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Is it just me or was 2021 a crazy year?

To say it was “frustrating” or a “complete disaster” doesn’t quite sum it up.

But it wasn’t just one thing, do you know what I mean?

You can’t just point to any single event and say, “that’s it, that’s exactly why this year was a big mess.”

Was it all bad, though?

No, not entirely.

We definitely had some inspiring moments - ones that give me hope that God has incredible things in store for the pro-life movement.

That alone is a good enough reason to take time and reflect. Why?

Well, there’s this old saying that it’s always good to look back if you want to see how far you’ve actually come.

That’s why we put our heads together over here at Campaign Life Coalition and came up with our (official) list of the Top 10 Life and Family Stories of 2021.

Whenever you put something together like this, you’re always going to end up with a mix of the good, the bad, and the really ugly.

So let’s not worry about being politically correct or stepping on eggshells. Let’s tackle the bad and the ugly first.

CLICK HERE TO HELP US GET READY FOR 2022

10. THE C-4 DEBACLE

This was a complete disaster.

We fought C-4, the bill to ban “conversion therapy,” with everything we had.

There were years of activism and lobbying against previous versions of this legislation in Bills C-6, C-8, and S-202. We launched the website stoptheban.ca to raise awareness, we produced some incredibly powerful video testimonials, and we gathered more than 23,000 petition signatures.

That’s on top of all the emails, postcards, and phone calls you, our supporters, made to try and stop this anti-parental rights and anti-Christian bill in parliament.

In the end, the House of Commons and the Senate rammed through Justin Trudeau’s “conversion therapy” bill, passing it without any debate or sobering second thoughts.

It was a total disgrace.

9. MORE LEGAL KILLING

They just don't want to stop the killing.

Back in March, Bill C-7, Justin Trudeau’s legislation to expand euthanasia across Canada, was given Royal Assent.

In a nutshell, the new law gives doctors and nurses the legal right to murder more of their hurting and vulnerable patients.

To put some of this into perspective …

Today in Canada, someone can apply for euthanasia even if they’re not actually dying.

And don’t forget, thanks to C-7, it’ll also be legal to euthanize someone in Canada on the sole basis of having a mental illness by 2023.

This is just one more attack on the sanctity and dignity of every human life by Canada’s Culture of Death Prime Minister.

8. GIVING GENDERCIDE A PASS

How shameful was this?

We saw a majority of our elected Members of Parliament vote to keep the status quo on gendercide in Canada.

It happened with the Sex Selective Abortion Act or Bill C-233, which was brought forward by Cathay Wagantall, the pro-life MP for Yorkton-Melville, Saskatchewan.

In addition to mobilizing Canadians to support this legislative effort through petitions and contacting their MPs, we brought this issue forward to a global audience by organizing a parallel event for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women back in March.

Our event included a panel featuring the author of the bill, MP Cathay Wagantall; a Canadian physician; and an expert on international law.

Click on the image to view the video of the panel we hosted.

Back home in Canada, Wagantall’s parliamentary colleagues had a chance to do the right thing here, but they couldn't bring themselves to support a bill intended to curtail the evil practice of abortion.

7. TRUDEAU WINS AGAIN

Not even a growing mountain of political scandals was enough to get voters to fire Justin Trudeau.

The anti-life Liberal leader pulled off another election victory in 2021, even if it was only with enough votes to form a second minority government.

Working within the unjust regulations set by Elections Canada for third parties, CLC launched voteprolife.ca, the only pro-life and pro-family voters' guide in Canada, which included a party comparison, a leaders report card, and individual ratings for hundreds of candidates from all the major parties.

CLC identified 137 pro-life candidates, with 38 being elected.

In my opinion, the Conservative Party leader sabotaged his own chance of defeating Trudeau, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

At one point, Erin O’Toole’s party was even surging in the polls …

But then he flipflopped on conscience rights and a number of other issues, which was a total slap in the face to the social-conservative base of the party.

During an election, no one wants to vote for a counterfeit, so they voted for the real Trudeau.

Is it any wonder a senator from his own party started a petition to oust O’Toole?

Speaking of that ...

6. WEAK LEADERSHIP IN THE CPC

The petition was started by Conservative Senator Denise Batters, following the rules set out in the Conservative Party of Canada’s Constitution. CLC has urged its Conservative supporters to sign it.

Essentially, the petition is demanding that a confidence vote be held to review Erin O’Toole’s leadership within 6 months …

And so far, thousands of party members have signed it.

I’m not surprised in the least.

Campaign Life Coalition was the first organization to call for the resignation of Mr. O'Toole in our election-night press release.

In fact, Campaign Life Coalition took the principled approach and never supported Mr. O’Toole in his leadership aspirations.

We knew he was lying about being a "true blue Conservative" and urged pro-life voters to keep his name off the ballot, even though we took flak for it.

The thing is, though, ever since he’s taken control of the party, he has done nothing to change our minds.

He’s been pro-abortion from the start, and weak as an opposition leader.

I guess it doesn’t help you to oppose Trudeau when you’re sounding more and more like him every day.

5. TRUDEAU VS. PRO-LIFE CHARITIES

This one is particularly egregious.

During the last election, Mr. Trudeau promised to go after pro-life charities across the country. It was even part of the Liberal Election platform. They falsely claimed that:

“[A]nti-choice organizations are actively working to spread misinformation about abortion, putting the health and safety of young people and vulnerable women at risk.”

That’s nothing but a bald-faced lie.

One of the biggest consequences of Trudeau’s agenda here is that pregnancy care centres will lose their charitable tax status.

These centres are vital and depend on charitable donations to keep them going …

And Trudeau wants to shut them down.

Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand - Norfolk) at CLC’s “Save our Charities” rally on Parliament Hill on Nov. 24, 2021.

In just a few weeks, we managed to hand over a petition with more than 15,000 signatures to three MPs who attended our “Save our Charities” rally on Parliament Hill.

We’ve been assured by pro-life MPs that they'll fight this tooth and nail.

CLICK HERE TO HELP US GET READY FOR 2022

4. MORE BUBBLE ZONES POPPING UP

Whatever happened to big government moving slow?

When we were fighting the Bubble Zone legislation in Saskatchewan, we launched a coordinated campaign, encouraging the Members of the Legislative Assembly to back down.

Before we knew it, though, they passed two bills at neck-breaking speed, imposing anti-freedom of speech bubble zones around every hospital and school in the province.

We dodged a bullet in Manitoba where the MLAs defeated a bubble zone bill put forward by the NDP, but wouldn’t you know it …

They just brought back another one.

And so have the NDP in Saskatchewan, who won’t be satisfied until every pharmacy, health centre, and any other facility complicit in facilitating abortion has a bubble zone around it too.

And, we can’t forget about Ontario where the NDP introduced another bill, targeting the use of abortion victim photography in postcards and other mail.

Then, just last week at the federal level, Bill C-3 passed the House of Commons and the Senate with little debate.

The government claims this bill won’t affect peaceful demonstrations, so pro-life activities are safe, right? Given the Trudeau government’s track record on vilifying pro-lifers, we remain skeptical and will hold the government to account to ensure that pro-life expression continues in the public square.

Unfortunately, many MPs used this legislation to slander the pro-life movement, accusing pro-lifers of harassment and inciting violence …

And they did this without any facts to back up their claims - go figure.

So that does it for the bad and the ugly …

I think we need some good news now!

3. EXPOSING TRUDEAU’S OBSESSION WITH ABORTION

If we didn’t get involved with a project like this next story, Canadians would have no idea about the extent of Trudeau’s abortion funding overseas. 

In January, we produced Obsessed: Canada’s Coercive Diplomacy.

Click on the image to watch Obsessed: Canada’s Coercive Diplomacy.

This was new territory for us.

We worked with David Mulroney, a Canadian ex-diplomat and leading expert on China, for a conversation with author, filmmaker, and global human rights activist Obianuju Ekeocha.

The two covered a lot of ground, looking at everything from Canada’s aid priorities for Africa to how it all ties into China’s own agenda.

This was definitely one of the highlights of the year for us.

But the problem continues.

Just this year, Trudeau has shipped $37 million to pro-abortion giant Marie Stopes International, who are mentioned in our documentary.

This is all part of a plan to fund abortion organizations to the tune of $700 million-per-year by 2023.

If you haven’t watched it yet, please do so at coercivediplomacy.ca.

2. CALL IT A COMEBACK!

One of the biggest stories for us in 2021 was the National March for Life returning to Parliament Hill.

It was great to be back!

In 2020, COVID-19 restrictions forced us to keep the March entirely virtual, but this year, we were able to gather again in person.

We didn’t hit the tens of thousands of marchers as in previous years, but we were very happy to have a few hundred committed pro-lifers join us on the Hill to be that voice for the voiceless, defending all human life, from the moment of conception until natural death.

Former MP Derek Sloan, with his family, addressing pro-lifers at the National March for Life in Ottawa, May 13, 2021.

In addition to the in-person march, we produced a week-long schedule of online events that were viewed by thousands of Canadians from coast to coast. (And we know the corporate media were peeking in as well!)

Stay updated at marchforlife.ca and don’t forget to save the date for next year: May 12, 2022.

1. PRO-LIFERS REALLY DO CARE

Finally, this was one of the brightest spots of the year for us.

We launched a special fundraising campaign on Giving Tuesday and the response absolutely blew us away.

Our goal was to raise $10,000 in 10 days to help new and expecting mothers across Canada’s far north.

But instead of taking 10 days to reach our target, we hit it in three and a half hours!

So far, we’ve raised over $60,000. (Click here to donate.)

But the amazing news doesn’t end there.

I’m still in awe of God’s generosity and the charity He inspired in the hearts of our supporters.

Mona Netser in Nunavut buying supplies to help mothers in Canada's far north.

We’re already working with some friends of ours in Nunavut, former MLA, Patterk Netser, and his lovely wife, Mona, to help dozens of women and their babies this Christmas.

We’re planning to make this campaign permanent throughout the year - a Coral Harbour, Nunavut-based Pregnancy Care Centre.

Keep an eye on your inbox in 2022 for more updates.

CLICK HERE TO HELP US GET READY FOR 2022

WHAT A YEAR!

There you have it! Our Top 10 Life and Family Stories of 2021.

There were other notable mentions, too, like reaching a record number of Life Chain locations in recent years, an expansion of the Summer Internship program with us taking on 12 participants, and all of CLC’s work on raising awareness about the abortion-tainted vaccines and government mandates.

The truth is …

There’s only so much you can read in an email. Did we miss anything? How would you have ranked them? Let us know!

This past year was quite the ride and we’re getting ready to do it all again in 2022.

The only way we can keep the pro-life message in the public square and in the halls of power – with no compromises – is to continue fighting, and we can’t do that without God’s grace and your sacrificial giving.

We’ll definitely need your help.

With a Christmas gift of $20.22, we’ll be better prepared to face the battles in 2022.

Thank you for sticking with us during this hard year.

I truly believe that God called each one of us to live in this exact moment in history for a reason, so let’s seek out His wisdom and go for it!

In the meantime, may the good Lord bless you and your loved ones this Christmas season and, please, keep us in your prayers.

For life and family,

Jeff Gunnarson
National President
Campaign Life Coalition

P.S. If you don't wish to give online, please send cheques to: 157 Catharine St. N., 2nd Floor, Hamilton, ON, L8L 4S4 1-800-730-5358.

CLICK HERE TO HELP US GET READY FOR 2022

P.P.S. By the way, we are taking donations in the form of Crypto Currency now, too. So, if you’d like to contribute in that way, then click here.

P.P.P.S. If you liked this email, you should print it off and share it with your family and friends over some eggnog and fruitcake.