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February 1, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Canadian pro-lifers announced today that they’re planning a “physical” March for Life in Ottawa in May if current COVID-related restrictions are no longer in place.
“I cannot wait to go back to Ottawa and have that physical March For Life experience,” said Matt Wojciechowski, vice president of Campaign Life Coalition, in a video announcement this afternoon about the upcoming event in May. “It's only been one year that we've missed out, but it feels like … I just want to be part of a big crowd!”
The National March for Life was forced to go virtual last year due to coronavirus emergency regulations.
Kevin Dunn, a filmmaker and speaker who joined in the March for Life video announcement, said that people coming together to physically march for life in Ottawa is “important” and makes a tangible impact.
“Even though much of the country is still in lockdown, abortions are still happening, euthanasia — medical aid in dying — is still happening,” he said. “People's lives are being ended early or don't have the opportunity to live at all through abortion.”
About 300 women undergo an abortion every day in Canada. About 15 vulnerable Canadians will be killed by a doctor through Medical Aid in Dying (MaiD).
This year, March for Life organizers will be hosting both an online and physical march. The online portion will run May 9-11 and will feature pro-life films, interviews with pro-life activists, and a live-streaming of a Mass for Life from Notre Dame in Ottawa. The physical event will include a candlelight vigil on May 12 at the Human Rights monument in Ottawa followed by a march through downtown on May 13.
“We're hoping that all of the restrictions will be off and we'll be able to gather, even if the crowd sizes are smaller,” said Debbie Duval, Campaign Life Coalition’s national capital organizer. “We still want to show our presence, we need to show our presence for this most important event.”
The theme for this year’s National March for Life is “You are not alone.”
A promotional video for the event states about the theme: “Child in the womb, you are not alone. Pregnant mother fearing an unknown future, you are not alone. Beloved senior feeling isolated and afraid, you are not alone.”
“On May 13th, Canadians will march peacefully on Parliament Hill and online to implore our leaders to enact laws that protect life from conception until natural death. In these days of uncertainty, let us reach out and tell those most in need, ‘you are not alone,’” states the promotional video.
Dunn said that pro-lifers know abortion and euthanasia are murder. He said they can help others to see what they see “by meeting people where they're at and assuring them that they are not alone in their journey.”
Steve Karlen, 40 Day for Life campaign director, joined in the March for Life video announcement, telling Canadian pro-lifers that “loneliness” and “being alone” is one of the “key drivers of the abortion epidemic.”
“Peer-reviewed medical research tells us that 78 percent of women who have abortions don't know about the support that's available to empower them to choose life,” he said. “We hear that of women who have experienced the trauma of abortion. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 percent report that if just one person had reached out a helping hand and encouraged them to choose life that they would have done so.”
Karlen said the physical presence of pro-lifers at abortion centers helps abortion-bound women to know that they are not alone and there are other options available.
“That's what we do at 40 Days for Life. We go pray in front of abortion facilities all across Canada and around the world. And former abortion workers report that breaking that sense of loneliness in front of an abortion facility works, that when there's even one person there praying – of women planning to have an abortion up to 75 percent of those abortion appointments are canceled or turn into no-shows.”
Karlen said that marching through the streets of Ottawa for life is a “powerful, tangible, physical witness to the dignity of each and every human life, to the dignity of motherhood, and to the fact that each pregnant mother is not alone.”
Stephanie Gray Connors, pro-life speaker and writer, said the theme “you are not alone” is more relevant than ever.
“If ever there were a time where that message was relevant, it is now where so many have experienced the devastating consequences of lockdown isolation and feeling alone,” she said during the launch event.
“It's so important as a pro-life movement that we declare ‘you are not alone,’ in particular (to the) pre-born child, you are not alone. First of all, you are in the body of your mother and where she is scared, where she is afraid, you as a mother and child are not alone because the pro-life movement stands with you, to walk alongside you and your mother and love you and care for you.”
Genevieve Schadenberg, director of Compassionate Community Care, said that coronavirus restrictions have given people a sense of isolation, especially when it comes to the elderly.
“Seniors and those experiencing significant health concerns are afraid of dying alone and dying in pain,” she said. “Instead of giving them proper pain management and personal support, our government has given them euthanasia and assisted suicide as a way out of this fear. But this is not solving anyone's fear. This is simply ending a life.”
Schadenberg said pro-lifers must “work together to build a stronger connection” with seniors so that they will know that they are not alone.”
March for Life organizers have launched a countdown to the march for life that includes activities for the next 100 days. The 100-day countdown is rolling out on March for Life’s Facebook page.
Jeff Gunnarson, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSiteNews that the pro-life movement in Canada is “strong and restless.”
“CLC has never received so much mail, email and snail mail, from people who are engaged politically and/or culturally in the pro-life cause; our supporters understand what it will take to see real progress,” he said. “They are actively engaging in the political process — signing up for party memberships, helping to nominate pro-life candidates and then going one step further by signing up for conventions, becoming delegates and drafting pro-life/family policy to be voted on in an effort to turn the amoral secular mainstream Canadian position toward one of virtue and traditional morals — which will ultimately lead to a more dignified society.”
Gunnarson said that protecting life from “womb to tomb” is a “battle.”
“We are engaged culturally, legally, and spiritually in the battle to protect all human life,” he said.
“We are fully engaged in the necessary work to move the political landscape in Canada to one which recognizes, acknowledges, and holds up the dignity and worth of each of its citizens from the womb to the tomb. The battle will always be uphill. Before you do anything, you must accept that this is first and foremost a spiritual battle. We are up against the master of deception and lies, and no one said it will be easy. But the Good News is that we are not alone in this battle. Our heavenly Father does not abandon us, and the truth will prevail.”
Gunnarson said the biggest difficulty the pro-life movement faces in Canada is the lack of an “even playing field.”
“Censorship, cancel-culture, anti-Christian bigotry and the list goes on and on. This reality is becoming all too common in Canada,” he said. “The socio-political culture of Canada has drifted away from its founding principles, there is no denying that. Canada has become a pluralistic and secular society which places man at the centre. Unless we acknowledge, as a nation, that Christ must rule, we work in vain.”