Monday February 8, 2010
Rally Planned in Defence of Canadian Pro-Life Ad
Note: A petition in favor of the ad can be found here. The Facebook group in favor of the ad can be found here.
KELOWNA, B.C., February 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canadian pro-lifers are planning a rally on Tuesday in defence of the pro-life ad that was pulled last week by Global TV affiliate CHBC.
Tuesday’s rally will be held at the Global Okanagan building at 342 Leon Avenue in Kelowna, B.C. and will begin at 4:00 pm. Members of the local pro-life community are organizing the event in an attempt to “respectfully but firmly” ask Global Okanagan to run the ad.
The ad, produced by Priests for Life, New York, and sponsored by Kelowna Right to Life, begins with the text, “Everyone against abortion please raise your hand,” and depicts and adult hand holding up the hand of an unborn child killed by abortion.
The ad had received prior approval by Global TV and the Television Bureau of Canada. Last week, CHBC news director Derek Hinchliffe told The Province that it would be wrong for Global to refuse the ad. “It has met with [TVB] approval, so if we were to say, ‘No, we’re not going to run it,’ we would have been offensive,” he said.
Despite their initial approval, Global TV did a last minute about-face and decided not to run the ad. Station manager Dennis Gabelhouse said Thursday, “The more we looked at it, the more convinced we were that this ad was probably going to be objectionable to a lot of our viewers.”
Rally co-organizer Marlon Bartram said, however, that “disturbing imagery is shown on TV all the time, much if it far more graphic than what’s in this ad.”
He added: “This issue is more than just pro-life vs pro-choice, it is a matter of truth in media and their persistent refusal to show the reality of abortion. Certainly abortion is one of the most, if not the most important moral and social issue of our time, and it is an affront to the idea of informed civil discourse to deliberately keep the truth of it hidden from public view.”
A facebook group entitled “Let the Ad Run!” is attracting people from across Canada and elsewhere, and an on-line petition sponsored by the Campaign Life Coalition is also gaining steam. An on-line poll, access to see the ad, and a link to sign the petition are all available here.