by MARIA DALGARNO
OTTAWA, Ontario (Zenit) — The 15th annual March for Life in Ottawa drew close to 20,000 to Parliament Hill on May 10, as marchers called for an end to abortion.
The date is chosen as it falls in line with the anniversary of the passage of the “Omnibus Bill” in 1969, brought into law by deceased Prime Minister Elliot Trudeau.
The biggest majority in the ever-growing crowd of marchers were young people, with families, religious, educators, workers, professionals — people from all walks of life — joining them. The organisers, the Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), said the numbers of young people are growing every year. They have joined the ranks of those before them forming protagonists for life all over Canada.
CLC’s national president, Jim Hughes, said he hopes for an “even larger march next year, and encourages all the provincial marches commemorating the death of four million Canadian children before birth”.
Some bishops are leading marches in their own dioceses.
Canada is the only developed nation without any restrictions on abortion and it is legal in Canada to kill a baby right up until shortly before birth. Abortion in Canada is fully covered by taxpayers’ money. CLC launched a Defund Abortion Campaign two years ago with great success.
MP Stephen Woodworth, one of 18 MPs from the Conservative Party, who all took part in the March, has put forth Motion-312, to examine the present Criminal Code that says an unborn baby is not a human being until he or she exits the birth canal.
The motion is asking for a parliamentary committee to look at the scientific evidence on what makes a human being. It was a blow to many when Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, said he would vote against this motion. However Woodworth, in his comments, said that human rights are inalienable and are not a gift from the state that Parliament can cancel at any time.
From the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Bruce Clemenger clarified that even though Canada’s Supreme Court struck down the abortion law, it did not in fact grant a right and there is no right to abortion.
Cardinals, bishops, priests and other religious leaders travelled to the capitol with many of their own flocks to the march.
Seven Catholic bishops also greeted the crowd at the March. Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto archdiocese spoke about the need for love, clarity and charity when discussing the sanctity of life. And Bishop Nicola De Angelis of Peterborough, in his homily to an overflowing church in St Patrick’s Basilica, reflected that without children there is no need for schools; without children there is no family, there is no future society.