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(LifeSiteNews) — The pro-abortion Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) has issued a retraction after falsely claiming that Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) was behind a recent poll showing most Albertans favor parental consent for minors to obtain an abortion.
Last week, CAHN ran a story claiming “anti-abortion groups Campaign Life Coalition and RightNow” were behind poll results released by National Public Research Canada (NPRC), which asked people their opinion on whether parental consent or notification for minors to get abortions should be required.
After some uncertainty as to who NPRC was, or even if it was a real polling company, it was later determined by LifeSiteNews as well as other media that the firm is linked to Calgary, Alberta-based Blue Direct. The principal of Blue Direct is Richard Dur, who also is the volunteer executive director of Prolife Alberta.
CLC has no connection to Prolife Alberta, yet the pro-abortion CAHN falsely claimed it might be in the report it ran on February 6.
As a result, last week, CLC’s Director of Communications Pete Baklinski issued a statement blasting CAHN for claiming that CLC was behind the poll.
“As I already told the Network [CAHN] CLC did not commission this poll and was not involved in creating it in any way. We only learned about it after CTV broke the story about the poll on Feb. 5 (archived version): https://archive.ph/itUv7,” wrote Baklinski on X (formerly Twitter) last Tuesday.
“CLC put out a press release that same day on our website praising the poll. The press release included a link to the PDF of the poll that we received in an email that same day that originated from the polling company National Public Research Canada.”
LifeSiteNews learned that after a back-and-forth argument on X (formerly Twitter) late last Tuesday, CAHN’s executive director, Evan Balgord, personally apologized to Baklinski and promised that a retraction of the February 6 story would be coming.
CAHN then issued a correction, which read, “A previous version of this story suggested that Campaign Life Coalition posted a report based on the parental right’s poll on or around February 1st, before it was public. We did research, but ultimately misinterpreted, how Google ascribes dates to its search results and made an error on that basis.”
“To be clear, we have no evidence to suggest that Campaign Life Coalition had any foreknowledge of the poll. This error appeared online for fewer than three hours. We care deeply about journalistic ethics, which is why we are addressing this quickly, comprehensively, and transparently. We genuinely apologize for the mistake.”
Baklinski, on behalf of CLC, had called on CAHN to “correct its story and do some better investigation as to the origin of this poll, as recently performed by CTV.”
Baklinski said the CAHN hit piece “deliberately spreads misinformation about the recent Alberta poll on abortion.”
“The Network bizarrely implies that CLC was somehow behind the poll based on loopy Google cache information,” he said.
On X last week, Baklinski said that “facts matter” when it comes to reporting after sharing news of CAHN’s retraction.
“WOAH! The Canadian Anti-Hate Network just issued a HUGE correction and apology for getting the facts wrong in a report about @CampaignLife being involved in an Alberta abortion poll when CLC had nothing to do with it,” wrote Baklinski.
“The organization has a big axe to grind against the pro-life movement and its bias blinded it to the facts. Facts matter!”
In a statement to the media last Monday, CLC praised the news of the NPRC poll, with its National President Jeff Gunnarson saying about it, “While it’s only common sense that parents be involved in every major medical decision of their child, no parent knowing what an abortion is and how it harms their daughter and destroys the life of their grandchild would consent to such evil.”
“A consent law would make parents aware of the situation so they can act lovingly to protect both their child and grandchild,” he added.
Polling firm stands by survey results
Last Tuesday, LifeSiteNews reported that NPRC only released the results of its poll showing most respondents favor parental consent for minors to obtain an abortion because of a mainstream media story about mysterious “robocalls” related to the poll.
According to NPRC, the registered name under which over “6,000 Albertans were surveyed on parental rights in Alberta for minors seeking abortions” stands by the results of “that survey.”
Last Monday, LifeSiteNews reported that the survey released by NPRC revealed that 62 percent of Albertans expressed “some form of parental consent and/or notification for minors seeking abortions.”
However, pro-abortion activist groups stoked controversy regarding the polling company, NPRC, as web searches do not reveal anything about NPRC online as a polling firm. But there is a phone number associated with the company.
In a statement sent to LifeSiteNews, a representative from NPRC said the company stands by its survey results.
“Anyone who questions the veracity of the results is welcome to put their money where their mouth is and see for themselves: a majority of Albertans recognize that parental rights should include consent and/or notification when their minor child wishes to undergo the irreversible surgical procedure of abortion,” said the NPRC representative.
LifeSiteNews contacted Blue Direct to confirm that NPRC is one of its operating firms and was sent a response by email late last Tuesday.
“Yes. NPRC is one of several operating names belonging to Blue Direct,” wrote a Blue Direct spokesperson to LifeSiteNews.
“The sole reason we shared the results with the media in this instance was due to the significant interest generated on social media and following a CTV news story,” said the representative.
“We do not, normally, conduct surveys for public dissemination. We typically use the data collected to advise, privately, governments, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations.”
Send a note thanking Danielle Smith for recent pro-family policies today