Despite strong winds and dark clouds, at least 15,000 pro-life Canadians converged on Ottawa Thursday for the annual March for Life.
Organized by the Campaign Life Coalition, its president, Jim Hughes, reminded the crowd that “there should be no compromises on the lives of the unborn, no exceptions and we added — no excuses, no apologies. So every single human being created by God…is worthy of our defense.”
Canada has not had an abortion law since the country’s Supreme Court struck down the existing legislation in 1988. The current government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promotes abortion policies at home and abroad with foreign aid money — even insisting that groups applying for grants to hire summer students agree to the federal government’s abortion on demand position.
Catherine Glenn Foster, the president and CEO of Americans United for Life, also spoke at the event. Foster told The Daily Caller that the Trudeau government’s policy of excluding groups with pro-life beliefs from programs is “unbelievable. It’s like the government dictating what you believe.”
Foster said Canada can learn from the experiences of the pro-life movement in the U.S. that has long used incremental changes to abortion policy, “going state to state to pass good, life-affirming laws.” She cited Wyoming “passing its first pro-life legislation in 28 years” that has ensured the rights of mothers to see ultrasound pictures of their unborn children. \
Foster is the keynote speaker at the March for Life’s windup dinner Thursday night.
Many in the crowd found Trudeau’s hard-line on abortion difficult to understand. Frank DeAngelo, who works with the pro-life group Aid to Women, came to the rally with one of the most popular signs. It featured a picture of Trudeau and a fetus with the caption, “Look Justin, Peoplekind,” in reference to Trudeau’s notorious moment at a town hall meeting when he dressed-down a pro-life woman for saying “mankind” and not “peoplekind.”
DeAngelo told The Daily Caller, “I try to come up with a good sign every year. It wasn’t too hard to think of this one.”
There were about a dozen Members of Parliament (MPs) in attendance — all belonging to the Conservative Party. The governing Liberals and the opposition New Democrats both insist that MPs or candidates accept their party’s strict adherence to abortion on demand.