(LifeSiteNews) –– LifeSiteNews staff who interact with him on a regular basis know Steve Jalsevac as many things: the media agency’s grandfatherly co-founder, a sarcastic and friendly Canadian who enjoys conversing and learning new information, an avid and merry follower of the news who always keeps in mind the “big picture.”
At the Canadian edition of LifeSite’s 25th anniversary gala on July 18 in Markham, Ontario, readers will have the opportunity to meet and hear from Jalsevac, who went from a pro-abortion, card-carrying member of “Zero Population Growth” to the co-founder of the Internet’s #1 pro-life news website.
“The miracle of seeing our first child born after my conversion, and then seeing aborted baby photos, opened my eyes wide to the horror of abortion. I then realized I had been completely duped by the abortion movement,” said Jalsevac.
Something unexpected that has come out of Jalsevac’s work with LifeSite is “tremendous personal work satisfaction and a wonderful, blessed family life, with eight children and so far 27 grandchildren,” he said.
But, he noted, pro-life work also “involves enduring a great deal of irrationality, frequent criticisms, lack of support from those whom one would naturally expect to be supported by, and the negative influence of institutionally-minded persons and leaders who are blinded by ambitions, intellectual pride, comfort, fear and not willing to endure any supposed harm to their reputation.”
Jalsevac is a loud voice against coronavirus tyranny – and was even right as it began, sounding the alarm early about masks, lockdowns, and the push for complete societal conformity – something he credits to his decades of work fighting for life, family, and truth internationally.
At LifeSite, we are “simply open-minded much more than others to the reality of evil,” he said, “and had encountered research from relatively obscure persons whose research was impeccable on totalitarian minded movements and personalities. I also extensively studied communism in university and read all the Solzhenitsyn novels. That is, the depravity of elites was a known, historical entity to me. I knew for a fact there was nothing, no matter how depraved, that some persons and movements would not do to advance their ideological goals. I knew that Satan was a real being who wanted to destroy all of mankind through humans who let him take over their hearts and minds.”
Jalsevac continued, “When you understand these realities, you know that anything is possible and you should not automatically discount some things as not possible from other humans. I was very familiar with the Incas and their depravity, the Nazis, and many similar trends throughout history. LifeSiteNews therefore faces these possibilities head-on and investigates them instead of saying, as far too many do, ‘no, that can’t possibly be true.’ Time and time again, we were proven to be right on our initial suspicions although in almost every case, the later proven reality was much worse than our initial suspicions. That definitely applies to Covid and the injections.”
Jalsevac said he is most looking forward to meeting and talking to gala attendees.
“Being in such a large crowd of like-minded, wonderful persons, and free to say whatever you want to any of them and not be rebuked or ridiculed and to just enjoy being with them makes for an exceptionally memorable evening. It is not a common experience for most people who attend galas. Ours our unique in that respect.”
Tickets for the gala – where after enjoying a reception and plated dinner, attendees will be part of LifeSite’s live studio audience – can be purchased here.
Below is a conversation with Steve Jalsevac which touches on just a few themes relevant to our Canadian 25th anniversary celebration, of which we very much hope readers will be a part.
What is something most LifeSite readers might not know about you?
Steve Jalsevac: I began with CLC [Campaign Life Coalition – Canada’s national pro-life organization] as a volunteer after a dramatic spiritual conversion in April 1977, while for 10 years running a successful, large paint and wallpaper business. I was drawn to it because of my conversion. It has been like a vocation.
I ended up doing so much volunteer work that Jim Hughes, president of CLC, invited me to join CLC full-time. I then sold the business and began a new, very fulfilling life working with CLC doing everything imaginable, including writing, research, speaking, fundraising, photography, videography, setting up their first computer network, political lobbying, organizing special events, and on and on. It resulted in a huge drop from my previous income and using up my life savings, but in the end, all has worked out well for myself and my eventually large family. As Pope John Paul II said to Father Paul Marx of Human Life International, “it is the most important work in the world” to be battling the culture of death and working to restore a culture of life. I took that very much to heart, as did all of the CLC team. Later, developing and running LifeSiteNews was just one more of my many CLC tasks.
After 15 years with CLC, gladly working usually six days per week and 12 to 16 intense hours per day, Jim Hughes asked me to establish CLC’s first internet website. I managed that project, also set up another one for the Interim newspaper, CLC’s national pro-life newspaper, and then, along with a new hire straight out of university, John-Henry Westen, we developed LifeSiteNews which was funded by CLC for the next 12 years to give the pro-life movement its own reliable, truthful, international news and information service. There was a desperate need for this because of the terrible coverage pro-life initiatives were receiving in all the mainstream media. CLC had a unique international focus and understanding of the “big picture” of all the forces behind the anti-life, anti-family movement. We continued and greatly expanded on that approach to countering the culture of death. I have always been immensely grateful for having been given the opportunity to do this work for God.
What is something unexpected that has come out of your decades of work with LifeSite?
Tremendous personal work satisfaction and a wonderful, blessed family life, with eight children and so far 27 grandchildren. For the first 5 years of our marriage, pre-conversion, Bonnie and I did not even talk about having children. There are special, unexpected rewards given to those who humbly give their all to do this usually very difficult work. However, I learned it is not for everyone. One has to be disposed to it and to be able to endure frequent lack of normally expected results from good efforts that would otherwise be experienced in a business or other career.
Doing this work 'has been a great learning experience about human nature unlike any other.'
Pro-life work involves enduring a great deal of irrationality, frequent criticisms, lack of support from those whom one would naturally expect to be supported by and the negative reactions from institutionally minded persons and leaders who are blinded by ambition, intellectual pride, comfort, fear and not willing to endure any risk to their personal reputation.
It has been a great learning experience about human nature unlike any other. It separates the proud from the meek, the courageous from the cowardly, those who prize security from those who trust in God. Out of necessity, I have learned to persevere and to endure many disappointments and betrayals and yet get back up again and keep going because of how incredibly important this work is and not wanting to meet my Creator at the end and be confronted with having failed to do what I knew He wanted me to do.
A lot of people immediately “fell” for COVID panic. LifeSite was seriously criticized in early and mid-2020 for being anti-lockdown and pointing out many of the civil liberties violations that were occurring around the world. Why do you think LifeSite was so ahead of the curve when it came to coronavirus insanity, and, later, the coronavirus vaccines?
The many years of experiences with CLC, its international focus and all that we learned from direct involvement in numerous U.N. conferences and from some of CLC’s amazing staff opened my eyes wide to a lot of things that most people would never expect could be true.
I eventually developed a sort of sixth sense to immediately recognize that alleged “conspiracy theories” could very well be true. My mind was opened by people such as Winifride Prestwich, who did exceptional research resulting in the Vatican removing its symbolic annual financial support for UNICEF because of the evidence of it being pro-abortion at a time when almost everyone thought it was a wonderful pro-child organization. She endured a lot of flack and disbelief for her efforts.
Then there was Gilles Grondin, who was a former Canadian government diplomat who exposed the U.S. government’s secret document NSSM 200 by Henry Kissinger that committed all U.S. government entities, including the defense department, to depopulation of a large number of countries to protect U.S. financial hegemony. Jim Hughes was an exceptionally knowledgeable, well-connected person and voracious reader who developed an openness to investigating any possible influences advancing the culture of death that most would naively reject. He constantly encouraged us to similarly research topics, seek out and read alternative sources and be open to things that most might reject. He fully supported our efforts as long as we stayed on the CLC mission.
'I knew for a fact there was nothing, no matter how depraved, that some persons and movements would not do to advance their ideological goals.'
Karl Scharfe was very skeptical of the official government lines about what happened in Rwanda during the genocide. He and I met with General Romeo D’Allaire who directed the UN forces in Rwanda during the killings. We met D’Allaire at a small event at which he was speaking in Toronto. He privately confirmed our suspicions which we voiced to him – that what happened there was part of a globalist depopulation exercise. Most of what LifeSiteNews reports on is related to a worldwide, several decades long depopulation conspiracy by global elites. These and others at CLC gave me a tremendous education that very few experience.
We were simply open-minded much more than others to the reality of evil and encountered a huge amount of information from often relatively obscure persons whose research was impeccable on totalitarian minded movements and personalities. I also extensively studied communism in university and read all the Solzhenitsyn novels. That is, the depravity of elites was a known, historical entity to me. I knew for a fact there was nothing, no matter how depraved, that some persons and movements would not do to advance their ideological goals. I knew that Satan was a real being who wanted to destroy all of mankind through humans who let him take over their hearts and minds.
When you understand these realities, you know that anything is possible and you should not automatically discount some things as not possible from other humans. I was very familiar with the Incas and their depravity, the evil of the Nazis, the Cambodian genocide, the Moloch child sacrifices and many similar trends throughout history. LifeSiteNews therefore faces these possibilities head-on and investigates them instead of saying, as far too many do, “no, that can’t possibly be true.” Time and time again, we were proven to be right on our initial suspicions although in almost every case, the later proven reality turned out to be much worse. That definitely applies to COVID, the injections, and the Great Reset.
Thanks to many heroic, brilliant minds, such as Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, Michael Yeadon, Dr. Paul Alexander, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Peter McCullough, the great, humble, brilliant Dr. Zelenko and many others, we learned the hard, evil truths about COVID and the COVID fake “vaccines.” We just had to be open to listening to these professionals and letting them tell us what they knew. They have all been proven to be right, but initially there was a lot of skepticism, hostility, and complaints from readers and even from some of our younger staff. Nevertheless, I knew we had to persevere, knew these doctors and scientists were trustworthy and knew they had nothing to personally gain from being so outspoken. In fact, they all endured tremendous persecution and loss of status and income for doing so. Those are the people we and you can trust and MUST listen to. They are some of today’s prophets and we should be immensely grateful for what they have done for us and for all of humanity.
What part of the Canadian gala are you most excited about?
That question is the easiest one. Simply meeting all the people there is by far the best part of every LifeSiteNews gala. Being in such a large crowd of like-minded, wonderful persons, and free to say whatever you want to any of them and not be rebuked or ridiculed and to just enjoy being with them makes for an exceptionally enjoyable evening. It is not a common experience for most people who attend galas. Ours is unique in that respect.
We usually have to ask gala attendees to leave the hall because they are so involved in ongoing conversations that they go past the time the facility has given us for the evening. It is a nice problem to have.