News

I am pleased to announce that we are participating in an event organized by the Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) on the 35th anniversary of the infamous R. v. Morgentaler decision that created a legal vacuum in Canada around abortion. Since that unfortunate day, tens of thousands of unborn children are killed every year.

The event will take place tomorrow, Thursday, January 26, at 10am, in front of the Supreme Court of Canada building, 301 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON K1A 0J1, and will end in front of Parliament (also Wellington St). Come one, come all! Part of our team is currently in Ottawa to participate in the event.

I am also announcing here the 2023 summer internship programs for students of CLC and The Interim. These are paid internships in which students will learn about the philosophy of the pro-life movement, practical apologetics, various modes of action, from administrative tasks, to writing articles, to design or management of social networks, to participation in concrete events.

For more details, click here.

For Life,
Augustin Hamilton

This Week's Quebec Pro-Life News

A five year old child’s breathing tube will be removed even if it kills him
The Quebec Court of Appeal has ruled that a child’s breathing tube can be permanently removed despite his parents opposing the decision.

Why is abortion victim photography important? An interview with Merichel Diaz
Montreal Against Abortion (MAA) is a pro-life group in Montreal that is focused on Abortion Victim Photography (AVP).

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition — Photo : Unsplash.com

MONTREAL – The Quebec Court of Appeal has ruled that a child’s breathing tube can be permanently removed despite his parents opposing the decision.

According to Global News, Quebec’s Court of Appeal has ruled that hospital Sainte-Justine can permanently remove the breathing tube from a five year old child in intensive care who has been in a coma since he fell into the family pool in June 2022.

“The parents were hoping that the Court of Appeal would force the hospital to keep the child alive with a breathing tube”...“but the court said ‘No’ ” reported Stephane Giroux for CTV news. 

“The principle of preserving life at all costs is not absolute when the conditions for maintaining life are unacceptable,” the high court wrote.

The judgment confirms an earlier court judgment based on what doctors and experts were saying that there was no chance for the child to ever improve, as he has no brain activity, according to them. 

“Quebec Superior Court Justice Bernard Jolin wrote in his Nov. 1 ruling that the parents’ objections were not in the child’s best interest and were based on the hope that God would miraculously return the boy to the way he was before he fell into the pool” reports Global News. 

Patrick Martin-Ménard, the lawyer of the family, explains to CTV that this situation is very challenging for a family with limited resources and that cannot afford to fight the doctors. 

“We will decide when to remove the breathing tube” said Hospital Saint Justine, while also stating that they will “respect the will of the parents”. 

But the will of the parents is not being respected. They wish to save the life of the child, allowing extubation only if it does not lead to their child’s death, a condition which the hospital does not agree with...

Despite this, the experts say it would be best to provide end of life care. The parents of the five year old have one remaining option, to follow up with the Supreme Court of Canada.

Doctors can and have been wrong in the past. Below are a few examples of stories covered by LifeSiteNews that support this point. 

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition — Photo : Montreal Against Abortion

Montreal Against Abortion (MAA) is a pro-life group in Montreal that is focused on Abortion Victim Photography (AVP).

The group was founded in 2021 by Manuel Medina and Merichel Diaz. It organizes activism sessions throughout the year and has been growing in activity for the last two years.

Quebec Life Coalition was able to interview one of its co-founders prior to the launch of Students For Life event in Montreal. 

Joanna for QLC: Can you present yourself and your group Montreal Against Abortion? 

Merichel for Montreal Against Abortion: I am Mexican. I came to Montreal 12 years ago. The group MAA was founded two years ago. We completed the second year of operation, but we built it one year prior to launching it. Therefore, we have two years of operation, but technically we exist since three years. We started in 2021 during the summer. It was founded by Manuel and myself. Friends in common helped us to meet, because they knew we were interested in the pro-life movement. I had a call to do something in the pro-life movement and he also had the same call. We decided to work together since we had the same purpose. Manuel had a previous contact in Toronto from CCBR (Canadian Center Bioethical Reform) and TRTL (Toronto Right To Life).

From TRTL we received online training (apologetics training) that was very helpful and we received some tools to defend the culture of life. We got the training in 2020, we also started to read books on the topic. 

We were convinced that abortion is wrong, but we needed to know how to explain that it is wrong to other people. 

It was important to learn about science and human rights. Because we defend life using science and human rights, it’s not a personal opinion or idea. We were encouraged to do it in a proper way, when we found out that there is a lot of scientific information that states that life starts from the moment of conception and a lot of literature confirms that. Learning that and learning that the first right is the right to life helped us recognize that we need to give a voice to the voiceless. 

“Stuck” by Justina Van Manem is a book that explains how to go through each argument. How to defend life from the moment of conception if the mother is in danger, for example. 

Right now the technology is improved, there is no need to do an abortion if we can do a C section. If they put the baby in the incubator, it can be saved and survive. We also don’t need to dismember the baby in pieces to save the life of the mother. 

The book also explains what to say if the mother was raped. We first must have empathy for them, and show that we care about the trauma of the woman who has been raped, but we also need to show care about the trauma of an abortion. 

We tried to learn all those sides of the arguments to explain these complicated situations to people.

When we got all this clarity,  we decided to spread this information to other people who were also pro-life and we launched Montreal Against Abortion in 2021. We only had the idea in our heart that abortion was wrong and from that idea - we decided to put it into action. 

Volunteers doing activism in the city of Montreal — Photo : Montreal Against Abortion

Joanna for QLC : You mentioned that you felt a calling for this mission. How did that happen specifically for you? 

Merichel for M.A.A. :  As I mentioned earlier, I am from Cancun,Mexico. In Cancun we protect nature, the ocean, the animals and the eggs of the turtles. There are a lot of groups who care about nature. Therefore, it was a shock for me to see that I was involved in groups that protect the eggs of the turtles and realize that in this country [Canada]  we can kill a child, a baby in the womb and it just broke my heart. (...)

It was a call for me when I saw that behind all this, there is a business, because the same narrative that I hear from people in Canada is the same narrative I hear in Mexico and Latin America. So I am wondering why is the message the same when 

in Mexico we care about family? There are a lot of poor people who would never have this idea, but why people who have more education are receiving and open to that message? Probably because they are closer to the media. The message being : “It’s just a clump of cells” 

When I saw the same narrative in US and Latin America, it didn't make sense in my mind. In my country we care about family, I said to myself that maybe I should spread the message about why it’s important to care about family.  

We held an excellent pro-life conference for students in Montreal last Saturday. You can read our article about it here, read an interview of one of the guest speakers, here, and see some pictures of the event, here. I would like to thank Kim Headley and Maeve Roche (pictured, below) from Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), Blaise Alleyne from the Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform, Katie Somers from Toronto Right to Life, Mérichel Diaz from the Montreal against abortion, Philippe from the Montreal pro-life group Action Vitale, as well as my colleague Brian Jenkins for their presentations. A special thank you to Joanna for the photos, Mario and Karine for the logistical support as well as all the volunteers and participants. Also, congratulations to our political organizer, Arpad Nagy, for organizing this event.

We are thinking of doing it again in Montreal a little later in the year. Also, if you wish to form a pro-life group in another city in Quebec (I am thinking of Quebec, Sherbrooke, Gatineau, among others) do not hesitate to contact us; we may have the pleasure of organizing such conferences near you!

For Life,

Georges Buscemi, President
Quebec Life Coalition

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition — Photo : Joanne Of Arc

MONTREAL – On January 14th, 2023, Quebec Life Coalition held an afternoon conference for pro-life students at the former Grand seminary of Montreal.

Director of Political Operations, Arpad Nagy, organized a conference in Montreal to encourage pro-life students to come together and network, while discussing the culture of life in Quebec. 

The conference hosted special guests from Campaign Life Coalition, Maeve Roche, Youth Coordinator and Kim Headley, CLC’s Assistant Youth Coordinator. The Canadian Center For Bioethical Reform was also invited with their Outreach Director, Blaise Alleyne. Katie Somers from Toronto Right To Life also made an appearance as well as Merichel Diaz from Montreal Against Abortion. Finally, Philip from Action Vitale briefly took the stage to present his pro-life initiative. 

The event was well received, students were grateful for an opportunity to meet in person and discuss with like-minded individuals that care about human rights and defending life from natural conception to natural death. 

Maeve Roche spoke on behalf of Campaign Life Coalition. She mentioned the importance of reaching a demographic that is most likely to seek an abortion in the instance of an unplanned pregnancy. That is why university and college pro-life clubs play an integral role in reaching those students before it's too late and providing support after an abortion. Kim, CLC'S Assistant Youth Coordinator gave a touching speech about her personal testimony of how she became pro-life. 

Maeve and Kim from Campaign Life Coalition before giving their presentations — Photo : Joanne Of Arc

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition— Photo : Joanne Of Arc

On Saturday, January 14th 2023, Quebec Life Coalition is hosting a Students For Life Event in Montreal, Quebec.

The purpose of this event is to encourage all pro-life students to come together for an afternoon of discussion, training and networking.

Amongst the different speakers that will be present at the event, we have invited Maeve Roche from Campaign Life Coalition who is their Youth Coordinator to speak about her involvement in the culture of life.

Maeve has agreed to speak with us prior to the event, so that you could get to know her better as well as learn more about what it means to be "pro-life". 

Joanna from QLC: Thanks so much for making the time to talk with us. Can you please present yourself, your age and your current job position ? 

Maeve from CLC: My name is Maeve Roche. I am 20 years old and serve as the Youth Coordinator at Campaign Life Coalition. Central to my role is engaging and mobilizing youth to become pro-life leaders in their own communities. As youth coordinator, I run our youth social media pages (@clcyouthprolife on all platforms), organize youth events and trips, namely the National March for Life in Ottawa’s Youth Banquet and Summit, run our summer internship program, do ‘Pro-Life 101’ presentations at schools and youth groups, bring a delegation of youth to the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women and much more!

Joanna from QLC: How long have you been working for CLC ?

Maeve from CLC: I have been with CLC for almost 3 years. I was a summer intern in 2020 and 2021 and worked part-time through the school year. I began officially working full-time for CLC in November of 2021.

Joanna from QLC: What is your background (work/school education)?

Maeve from CLC: I studied philosophy at the University of Toronto for a year and bit before I decided to pursue full-time, pro-life work.

Joanna from QLC: What does it mean to be pro-life to you?

Maeve from CLC: While the term “pro-life” is often convoluted to convey generality, being pro-life is the desire to afford equal human rights to all human beings, from the moment of conception until natural death. Pro-lifers can summarize their philosophy through this syllogism: it is wrong to kill an innocent human being; abortion kills an innocent human being; therefore, abortion is wrong. To be pro-life is to oppose the killing of the preborn. Working in the pro-life movement runs so much deeper, you work alongside people who have the same calling, who you genuinely love and admire.

Joanna from QLC: Why is it important to be active in this movement according to you?

Maeve from CLC: With the pro-life movement’s concerns being that of life and death, it is integral that those who oppose abortion take action. When we talk about abortion, we are talking about a grave human rights injustice. The unborn are the victims of dehumanization and violent slaughter, 3.4 million preborn children have been killed since the decriminalization of abortion following the R v. Morgentaler case. We cannot sit idly by as human beings are being killed. We must work to both change the hearts of the public and of lawmakers in order to protect innocent human beings. Being personally pro-life does not afford human rights to innocent human beings, we have to be practically pro-life, as well, and there are many facets and opportunities to do so.

Joanna from QLC: How long have you been involved or passionate about the pro-life movement?

Maeve from CLC: I have been involved in the prolife since high school, close to 7 years. I was raised Catholic and learned about abortion when I was quite young. My dad is a high school religion and philosophy teacher and I deeply admired his vast knowledge about both the world and theology as a whole. In turn, through our close bond, I adopted many of his passions and interests, namely an interest in philosophy and understanding moral issues. I’m not exactly certain what sparked it, but there was something about the moral issue of abortion that I really felt connected and drawn to. It was probably one of the first things that truly broke my heart. As a child, you often see the world through rose-coloured glasses, but there comes a point when you begin to realize that the world is much more hostile and sinister than you were led to believe. Legal baby-killing is certainly one of those things, that upon discovering takes place, can truly alter your perception of society. I attended the National March for Life in Ottawa, organized by CLC, for the first time when I was in grade 9 and began interning for CLC in the summer of 2020, through their summer internship program.

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition— Photo : Unsplash.com

QUEBEC - 2023 has been declared the year of "assisted suicide" by Quebec media. 

"Are we about to take the step from medical assisted dying to assisted suicide as if it were the normal order of things?" asks Le Journal de Québec in an article titled "Make way for the year of assisted suicide" by Emmanuelle Latraverse. 

Starting March 2023, patients with mental illness will be able to apply for "MAID" across Canada and changes to bill 38 that are scheduled to take place this year would possibly allow patients with Alzheimer to apply for "MAID" in advance in the province of Quebec. 

"In 2023, we will be living in the land of assisted suicide" reports Latraverse. 

Even though "The College of Physicians promises that it will be able to establish guidelines to avoid abuses" according to Le Journal de Québec, this "new normal" is not accepted by everyone in Quebec.

Physicians Against Euthanasia have been expressing their concerns to the College of Physicians in an open letter, but it has yet to receive a response according to the latest news announced in December 2022 on their blog. 

Another group of doctors demonstrated their resistance in Ontario:

"Physicians Together with Vulnerable Canadians is advocating in Ontario to improve patient protections and promote physicians' conscience rights," reports the Physicians' Collective Against Euthanasia newsletter. 

The Physicians against euthanasia says that requests for euthanasia are increasingly revealing reasons that previously would not qualify, such as poverty or lack of medical and social support.

As the New Year begins in earnest, I thought I would go over some of the things we are planning for 2023. 

1) The founding of a pro-life group for students in Montreal: Arpad Nagy, our director of political operations, took charge of this project. A Students for Life -- Montreal launch event will be held THIS SATURDAY on January 14, 2022 at 2065 Sherbrooke. Here's a part of Arpad's invitation:

"...on January 14th, we are launching Students for Life Montreal. 

We invite all pro-life students in CEGEP or university to attend. We will have talks, apologetics and networking. Come and meet other pro-life students from your school, come learn how to better defend life, come find way to get involved. Please RSVP to confirm your presence here. (If you live too far to attend but would be interested in a group like this in your area, please send me an email and we’ll see what we can do.)

Join us on January 14th, from 1 pm-5 pm—it’s open to all students or recent alumni.
We have guest speakers coming from Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) and Canadian Centre for a Bioethical Reform (CCBR), who will share about the successes of pro-life campus ministry."

2) The Quebec Life Coalition "micro-conferences". Myself and Arpad, along with other colleagues and guests, will tour the province, visiting several regions of Quebec. We will be presenting "micro-conferences", one or two presentations, giving plenty of time for discussion and networking. Don't hesitate to contact us if you would like to organize a conference in your area!

3) 40 Days for Life in Sherbrooke and Montreal, and Vigil 365. Brian Jenkins, our Vigil and Demonstration Host, will be in Montreal and Sherbrooke to once again organize 40 Days for Life, international prayer vigils for the end of abortion. Brian will also host, with his friends and helpers, Vigil 365, that is to say a presence of one hour each day outside a few abortion facilities near the corner of Berri-Sainte-Catherine in Montreal.

4) The March for Life in Ottawa, Thursday May 11, 2023, with an associated conference, in French. The National March for Life is an annual march to demand justice for the 100,000 children who are killed in their mother's womb each year across Canada. Abortion is funded entirely by taxpayers for any reason or no reason, up to the moment of birth.

5) QLC Pilgrimages. My colleague Brian Jenkins organizes several pro-life pilgrimages throughout the year, to various places. Stay tuned for dates and places, throughout the year.

6) Conference and Corn Roast at the QLC offices --- a moment of sharing where pro-lifers from all walks of life come together to eat delicious corn on the cob and listen to various presentations on faith, family and life , from conception to natural death.

7) Life Chain. This is an annual one-hour event, held on the first Sunday of October, in hundreds of locations simultaneously, across North America, combining prayer and peaceful protest.

8) Quebec Life Coalition convention, 2022. Our conventions are the high point of the year when pro-life and pro-family activists arrive from all over Quebec to listen to special guests and exchange views.

9) Our news service on the web and in social networks. If the mass media too often offers news on faith, family and life, which goes in the direction of death, Campagne Québec-Vie offers news from a Christian and pro-life perspective.

10) Our "Enceinte and Inquiète" (Pregnant and worried) service, for pregnant women in difficulty, will continue to help pregnant women in difficulty by referring them to material, medical, psychological and spiritual resources, for the good of the mother and child.

I hope you'll stand with us in 2023. We are counting on your participation and support!

For Life,

Georges Buscemi

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition— Photo : Unsplash.com

QUEBEC — Euthanasia is being expanded again for quebecers, this time for those suffering with Alzheimer’s disease. 

“Quebec's Minister of Health and Seniors, Sonia Bélanger, will table a new version of the bill that aims to expand medical assistance in dying (MAID)” in 2023, reported CTV News.

Bélanger is taking over the bill from Christian Dubé, Health Minister, who failed last year to pass Bill 38 that would allow people with Alzheimer's disease to make an early request for “MAID” should they want to apply for it before they are unable to. 

Patients with severe Alzheimer's are usually incapable of offering clear and informed consent and are therefore prohibited under law from accessing “MAID”.

Quebec's “MAID” law requires that patients give written consent to euthanasia within 90 days of the euthanasia procedure, this Bill would allow for them to apply earlier. 

The National Assembly of Quebec’s official pdf document from 2022 on the bill explains: 

“The purpose of this bill is mainly to amend the Act respecting end-of-life care as regards eligibility for medical aid in dying.

The bill makes eligible for such aid persons suffering from a serious and incurable neuromotor disability who meet the other criteria set out in that Act.

The bill also allows persons suffering from a serious and incurable illness leading to incapacity to give consent to care to make an advance request for medical aid in dying so that they can receive such aid once they have become incapable. The bill prescribes the applicable rules regarding the content and form of such advance requests and establishes the responsibilities of the various resources that participate in making or implementing such requests. Furthermore, it determines the criteria to be complied with in order for medical aid in dying to be administered to a person who has become incapable of giving consent to care, in particular the criteria regarding observation of the suffering the person is experiencing. The Commission sur les soins de fin de vie is also given the function of overseeing the application of the requirements specific to advance requests for medical aid in dying. (...)” 

Montreal Police officers near the COP15 conference gathered after a protest earlier that morning

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition— Photo : Joanne Of Arc

MONTREAL – The Quebec government prohibits police officers from wearing Catholic symbols on their uniforms.

CBC News (Radio-Canada) obtained information that confirms the Montreal police (SPVM) asked their officers to stop wearing St.Michael’s badge on their uniforms while on the job.

"After analysis, it was agreed that the crest of Saint Michael worn by SPVM (Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal) police officers on their uniform is a religious sign within the meaning of the law," the memo sent out to officers said, as reported by CBC News.

"Consequently, we ask you now to kindly remove from your uniforms any crest symbolizing or referring to the Archangel Saint Michael, in order to comply with the law." the memo included. 

It was while monitoring protests related to the COP15 international forum that Montreal police officers were seen wearing a St.Michael badge on their uniform that said “Saint Michael Protect Us”.