News

KELOWNA, British Columbia, September 21, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the city of Kelowna prepares to celebrate Protect Human Life Week beginning on September 22, the executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada has said the abortion advocacy group will stage a pro-abortion protest at city hall every day of the week.

ARCC Executive Director Joyce Arthur lamented that “the city is undermining women’s equality rights and encouraging and endorsing a view that is contrary to Canadian and international law,” according to a report from Kelowna Capital News.

“The mayor has claimed proclamations do not represent an endorsement by the city, but the city’s proclamation policy tells a different story,“ Arthur complained.

However, Kelowna’s Director of Communications Tom Wilson told the media that city council had no intention of rescinding the Protect Human Life Week proclamation, noting that Mayor Gray had signed more than 50 proclamations since the beginning of the year and that none of them were “intended as an endorsement of one view over another.”

“As the BC Human Rights Commission has established, a proclamation is a service provided by the office of the mayor, not an expression of the personal views of the mayor,” Wilson told the Kelowna Daily Courier.

Arthur had previously blasted Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray in an earlier attempt to have him rescind this proclamation.

Arthur said her group intends to protest for one hour outside city hall at noon each day except for Wednesday, September 26, when they will protest until 5:00 p.m. to demonstrate their opposition to a scheduled vote on Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth’s motion to have a Parliamentary committee examine the scientific evidence on the definition of human life.

Although Kelowna city council had backed away from flying the Protect Human Life Week pro-life flag, Kelowna Right to Life’s Executive Director Marlon Bartram issued an invitation to local schools to fly the pro-life flag during the week.

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“We welcome schools of any and all faiths, or no faith at all, to participate in Protect Human Life Week,” Bartram said. He added, “In Kelowna General Hospital alone, the equivalent of an average sized-classroom is aborted every week. Across the province, schools continue to close and enrollment continues to drop.”

“In fact,” Bartram pointed out, “according the BC Teacher’s Union, 197 schools have closed in BC in the past ten years, and there are nearly 20,000 fewer students overall than there were just five years ago. Certainly, the aborting of 15,000 unborn future students each and every year in BC is having a devastating impact.”

According to Kelowna Right to Life, one Christian school and three Catholic schools in Kelowna had agreed to fly the pro-life flag.

However, on Sept. 19, the superintendent of Catholic schools, Bev Pulyk announced that because Kelowna Right to Life had received e-mails threatening to burn the pro-life flags if they were flown, she reversed her earlier decision to allow the flags to fly at Immacuata Catholic Regional High School and St Joseph’s Elementary school in Kelowna and at Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary school in Westbank, because of safety issues.

Nevertheless, the principal of Heritage Christian School in Rutland, Paul Kelly, said his school, which has about 300 students ranging from kindergarten to Grade 12, will fly the pro-life flag during school hours next week.

“We feel it’s an opportunity to take the stance that human life should be protected,” Kelly told Kelowna Capital News, adding that though he respected Pulyk’s decision he had no concern over safety, because the flag would only be flown during school hours.

To back down from flying the pro-life flag would be “doing kids a disservice by not addressing the issue,” Kelly said.

Kelowna’s Protect Human Life Week begins with the Walk for Life fundraiser September 22 in Mission Creek Park.

For more information on Protect Human Life Week, visit the events section of the Kelowna Right to Life website.