MARCH FOR LIFE 2002 SUCCESS

OTTAWA, May 13, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Organizers estimate that 2,300 people participated in this year’s March for Life on Parliament Hill.  Pro-lifers from across Canada rallied to this year’s theme, “Let them live.” The march was given extra timeliness due to the previous day’s introduction of Bill C-56, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which allows for the destruction of living human embryos for research purposes.  Campaign Life National President Jim Hughes told the crowd, “We must let them know there is no such thing as a spare embryo. We must also let them know that if they vote for this legislation, we will defeat them in the next election.”  An exuberant, mostly young crowd danced to music from pro-life performers and took in speeches from religious, political, and pro-life organization leaders. Many of the youths gave an impressive witness for life with their enthusiastic chants for life during the long march through downtown Ottawa.  Many of the MP’s present mentioned Bill C-56 and pledged to work to promote adult stem cell research and prevent the destruction of embryos. Canadian Alliance MPs David Anderson, Leon Benoit, Gary Breitkreuz, Stockwell Day, Jason Kenney, Myron Thompson, and Maurice Vellacott joined Liberals Dan McTeague, Paul Steckle, Paul Szabo and Tom Wappel in addressing the crowd.  Progressive Conservative MP Elsie Wayne, and Alliance members James Lunney and Monte Solberg sent their greetings.  Former Alliance leader Day received a warm response from the crowd for his criticisms of the stem cell legislation, and was surrounded by well wishers and autograph seekers after his address.  As usual, the mainstream media took little notice of the rally, with the Ottawa Citizen underestimating the crowd at a mere 600. The Citizen reporter was told by Campaign Life Coalition president Jim Hughes during the pre-march speeches that her estimate of 500 at that time was obviously far off the mark. Hughes counted the crowd during the march and the tally came to 2300.