WILLIAMS LAKE, British Columbia, September 21, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Williams Lake city council has narrowly denied a request to proclaim the first week in October “Celebrate Life Week,” a move that local pro-life leader Shannon Wedel said could only hurt the British Columbia Interior community.
The four-to-three vote ended seven years of civic endorsement for the life event, and followed two years of opposition from local pro-abortion activists. But it does not end the event, said Shannon Wedel, president of the Choice for Life Society of Williams Lake. “We will do everything the same,” she told LifeSiteNews. “It’s a shame, however, that Williams Lake won’t have that spiritual cover over it that the Lord provides when community leaders endorse something like this.”
It didn’t take much to end the practice: last year a local pro-abortion activist, Carrie Julius, picketed outside City Hall after council endorsed it, but councillors decided not to reverse their position.
This time they decided such proclamations were never intended to be political, while Celebrate Life Week’s goal was deemed to push the pro-life agenda. According to an even-handed story in the Williams Lake Tribune, Councillor Jason Ryll said at the decisive council meeting, “This is something that government does not need to be involved in.” Agreed Councillor Craig Smith, ”It is not ‘celebrate life,’ it’s pro-life, there are no ifs ands or buts about it.”
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Mayor Walt Cobb, however, defended the proclamation against charges from the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada that it violated the human rights of women. He told council that the city’s proclamations policy “says they must be issued in a manner that does not discriminate on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex or sexual orientation.” The proclamation only stated, “We believe that the most basic and valuable right is the right to life on which
all other rights depend” and “that the value of every life is determined not by what he or she does or produces but rather by the fact that every human being is unique,” without reference to unborn babies, abortion or euthanasia or any political issue.
Mrs. Wedel said she was “not surprised” at council’s action, given that some councillors elected right after the controversy last year were critical of the city’s endorsement. “It’s too bad they didn’t ask us to comment on it, and only heard the other side.”
Nonetheless, the week’s events will proceed: there will be a sing-along at Deni House, a seniors’ residence on September 29 and a showing of the pro-life movie October Baby, on October 1 at the Youth for Christ building. “The story behind that movie is what brought me into the pro-life movement,” said Wedel, referring to abortion survivor Gianna Jessen’s witness.
The week’s climax on October 4 will begin with a rally at Boitanio Park followed by a march finishing with LifeChain, a half-hour event taking place in hundreds of communities in the U.S. and Canada that afternoon. Mrs. Wedel expects to see 50 people with signage standing along Oliver Street.
“Because the city council won’t proclaim Celebrate Life Week, we will ask all the churches to do so,” said Mrs. Wedel. “All the Catholic churches will do it and we expect more of the Protestants to do so each year.” This year in particular interest is high among Evangelical Protestants because of the scandal over “Planned Parenthood in the U.S. selling baby parts,” she added.
