Crowd on Parliament Hill for national pro-life rally told 'Canada must do better'

OTTAWA — A wide range of speakers took the stage on Thursday afternoon in Ottawa for the annual National March for Life to tell the country it “must do better” when it comes to medical assistance in dying (MAID) and abortion.

Organized by the Campaign Life Coalition, the rally attracted a throng of supporters that filled the lawn on Parliament Hill under a grey, overcast sky.

Campaign Life Coalition vice president Matthew Wojciechowski hosted the event, saying brief remarks and introducing speakers before they stepped up to the podium.

“We’re here to call upon Parliament” and elected officials, said Wojciechowski, “to enact legal protection for all human beings from conception until natural death.” He said rally participants wanted to remind politicians of “four simple words: thou shall not kill.”

A number of presenters Wojciechowski introduced represented various pro-life and faith-based organizations.

Jeff Gunnarson, president of Campaign for Life, insisted rally attendees were gathered to send “a message to our country. Canada can do better. Canada must do better.”

He said each attendee is a “witness to something profoundly beautiful, that every human life has value, dignity, and purpose.”

Arnold Viersen, MP for Peace River—Westlock in Alberta, was among the more than a dozen speakers to take the mic during the event. He told the crowd that “we stand here today in proud solidarity with our fellow citizens who are rallying across this country, calling for a renewed commitment to uphold the dignity of human life from conception to natural death.”

Several presenters also expressed to the audience their own personal or family experience with abortion or MAID.

Rebecca Kiessling, a Michigan attorney and president of Save the 1 advocacy organization, told attendees she was “conceived in rape” and that her mother had considered seeking an abortion. She said, “I literally owe my birth to the law, which protected me.”

Before taking the stage, Kiessling said in an interview that her first trip to Parliament in Ottawa was 22 years ago, to speak out against abortion. She said she advocates for a policy of “100 per cent pro-life, no exceptions, and no compromise.”

Benjamin Turland, a missionary for Catholic Christian Outreach, told those in attendance that two of his grandmothers “decided to choose medical assistance in dying or euthanasia.” Turland closed his remarks by encouraging everyone “today to defend life from beginning to natural death and to have those hard conversations because it is worth it.”

On the streets of downtown Ottawa after the rally at Parliament Hill, Marina Van Halteren of Richmond Hill said she was carrying on a family tradition by attending the National March for Life. She said her parents frequently joined the event while they were alive, and Van Halteren was present Thursday with two daughters of her own.

She said the annual event is significant because it emphasizes the “help we give moms” across Canada to “stand up for the unborn.”

Pat Bailey told National Post during the march that he first attended the rally in 2002 and has returned approximately 15 times since then.

He said his wife, Lisa Bailey, became active in the pro-life movement decades ago, and they now attend the rally every year they are able to make the journey from Belleville.

Bailey said it is important to him to participate in the annual rally to serve as a “voice for the voiceless” and to “stand up for the right to life.”

National Post

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