1,000 `March for Life' at B.C. Parliament

By Cleveland Stordy
VICTORIA

In Western Canada's first-ever March for Life to the B.C. legislature about 1,000 pro-lifers marched peacefully on Government Street in Victoria to the seat of provincial government.

The May 8 event was timed to coincide with a national March for Life in Ottawa and with marches in provincial capitals across the country. The theme for the B.C. march was Marching for Women's Lives.

"A woman-centred theme resonates well with our culture," Natalie Hudson of Pro-life BC said in an interview before the march. Canadian women have become much more aware of all the implications of abortion.

"Abortion is not a women's right, and in fact it's extremely detrimental to her health, both physically and mentally," said Hudson.

"The march was scheduled for a work day because we want to let the MLAs know we are still here," she added.

While the question of the legality of abortion is federal, the issue of funding is provincial, said Hudson. The provincial government pays for abortion by funding private abortion clinics.

The march, an act of peaceful public witness, began at Centennial Square. At the Parliament building the pro-life crowd was greeted by live music before they listened to speakers.

The organizers: Pro-life BC, Campaign Life BC, and the B.C. Knights of Columbus, planned the march in a demonstration of solidarity with women who have suffered the grief and harm of abortion, and to mourn the loss of 2.5 million babies in Canada since 1969. They also wanted to educate the public that abortion hurts women and takes the lives of more than 14,000 pre-born babies every year in B.C.

Speakers included Hudson and her sister-in-law Sarah Hudson from Pro Life BC; Dan O'Hara, Knights of Columbus B.C. & Yukon State Deputy; John Sutherland, a member of the board of directors of the Abbotsford Right to Life Society; Colleen Roy, the Director of the Coquitlam Pro-Life Society and a columnist for The B.C. Catholic; Senator Gerry St. Germain, who sent a message that was read; Heather Stilwell, a long-time politically active pro-lifer; Father Dean Henderson, Catholic chaplain at the University of Victoria and Camosun College as well as an assistant pastor at St. Andrew's Cathedral, and Bishop Richard Gagnon of Victoria.

Sarah Hudson told the rally, "Abortion is touted as a woman's choice, a fundamental freedom that women have a right to exercise. Our intention is to show that abortion does not bring freedom to women, but instead is wounding them to a far greater extent than an unplanned pregnancy ever could.

"We would like to draw on this slogan from Feminists for Life, `A woman experiencing an unplanned pregnancy should also experience unplanned joy.'"

Sarah Hudson, who's expecting to give birth soon, is the western director of National Campus Life Network, an organization dedicated to supporting, training, and networking post-secondary pro-life students.

"I'm here to encourage you to proclaim this life principle where it is needed the most: on the university campuses."

"This is not just a march, this is the beginning of an education effort for the other 364 days of the year. This march must serve as the momentum for an education movement that we proclaim the truth of this principle that is the foundation of a culture of life, that every human being is a human person who possesses immeasurable, profound human dignity," no matter how small that human being might be.

During his talk Father Henderson read to the children in the crowd from the book Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. The line "A person's a person, no matter how small" refers to a little speck of dust which Horton found to contain life. Horton struggles with himself about whether he should discard the speck, and he champions the cause of life because the defence of life is reasonable. "These speakers have reason on the side of life," said the priest.

Speaker Roy asked all people to go out and confront the truth. She spoke of the fact that we should all be able to rest in peace and joy. "We should not have to be worried about the genocide of our own defenceless citizens," she said. "We are voices for the voiceless."

She asked the crowd to share their own joy. "God's asking you to leave the comfort of your inner home and be the first one to go out into the street and meet that woman standing alone and cold in the streets."

She warned them this might have a cost for them and asked, "Will you act?" The crowd responded with a resounding, "Yes!"

A lone voice in the crowd could be heard heckling at this point, so Roy warned, "You will experience pain, confusion, and misunderstanding by strangers yelling things at you in the streets because of it.

"Will you be persecuted?" she asked. "Yes you will," she said, "because all of God's children from the beginning of time have been persecuted for doing what is right, what is beautiful, and what is true, but you will also experience the comfort and joy of living life in the palm of Our Father's hand; you are called today to share that life."

God today defines choice, she said, asking the crowd of pro-lifers to share truth with a world which dares to say that truth lies in death, with a nation that does the unspeakable to its own children.

She concluded with a poem by Mother Teresa and asked, "What will you do with your right to choose?"

In her turn at the microphone Stilwell said, "Abortion leaves black holes of emptiness in women's wombs, in their minds, hearts, and psyches, and in the hearts of the fathers and families of those not yet born."

Bishop Gagnon told his audience, "Abortion in Canada is not something that is settled. The practice of abortion in Canada is a profound injustice to future citizens of this country."

"Abortion is not strictly a religious question but one of fundamental human rights: the right to life. All of us have been given this right but it has been denied in the womb to many others."

So many today are concerned with the environment, he said, but we should be concerned about the environment of the body and the right to life.

Senator St. Germain had prepared a speech which was read because he was awaiting heart surgery and could not be present.

"In all of the years that I have served in public office I have never feared the wrath of those who viciously condemn those who bring their values to the table when making decisions," he wrote.

"After all, at the centre of the concept of freedom or liberty is the fundamental premise that a person has the right to their beliefs and a right to express their beliefs without fear of censure. It is ironic that most often those who are critical of people whose words reflect their values are the same people who talk about preserving rights and acting with their free will. They are the ones who often speak with vitriolic hatred yet defend free speech."

Sutherland spoke about the political system and his sympathy for the political task. "Some decisions I think are good, some not so good, and some controversial, but there's only one decision that I've found to be absolutely repugnant: that any group of men and women could think that they could argue over God's sacred gift of life and deny personhood."

He continued, "It's easy enough to blame the politicians and then go home and wipe our hands off, but as Colleen [Roy] so beautifully challenged us, we can take the crisis out of crisis pregnancy. We don't need laws of approval of a legislature. If we wait for that we could wait a long time."

He asked those present to be open hearted and open handed and to pray for those in positions of influence.

"We don't need legislation to be good. It's up to us in my view to turn an unplanned pregnancy for women into an unplanned joy, and that's up to you and me, so let's devote ourselves to that."

The message going out over the sound system reached across Victoria Harbour. One man who gave his name as Norman Smith, age 76, told O'Hara how grateful he was for his mother's strength. At a young age she was pregnant and on her own, but decided not to have an abortion and to give him up for adoption.

"He told me that he could never tell anyone that story without tears coming to his eyes," said O'Hara.