News

Blog post by Augustin Hamilton (Quebec Life Coalition) — Photo: Pixel-Shot/Adobe Stovk

Of the 900,000 calls to the Suicide Crisis Helpline (9-8-8) from individuals with suicidal thoughts, nearly 7% (or 70,000 calls) mentioned considering assisted suicide.

Dr. Allison Crawford, the helpline's medical director, presented these figures to the "Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying," adding that "when people mention MAID [euthanasia], they exhibit a significantly higher level of suicidal tendencies than those who call or text without mentioning MAID."

Are we really going to extend euthanasia to people suffering from mental illness alone? As pro-life advocates have said from the beginning, once euthanasia is legalized, the barriers will fall one by one.

Notably, 90 organizations supporting people with disabilities or mental illness have signed a letter urging Mark Carney’s Liberal government to repeal the extension of euthanasia to individuals with mental illness alone, which is set to take effect on March 17, 2027.

On Monday, I was in Toronto to attend the funeral of Jim Hughes, the renowned Canadian pro-life leader, president of Campaign Life Coalition for over 30 years and vice-president of the International Right to Life Federation. It was Jim Hughes who, in the late 1980s, asked Gilles Grondin, founding president of Quebec Life Coalition (Campagne Québec-Vie), to establish a Quebec pro-life movement.

Nearly 40 years later, I was attending the burial of this man of titanic stature, in a Toronto cemetery, alongside hundreds of pro-lifers who had come from across the country to bid him a final farewell.

Death has the power to make us cast a critical eye on the course of our life and the choices that have marked it. I find these moments precious, because we often need to look within ourselves to ask whether our path reflects the will of God rather than the fantasies of our pride.

This email marks the launch of an early-summer fundraising campaign with a goal of $20,000. Thanks to your support, we will be able to continue working in the spirit of the faithful pro-lifers who came before us. Please give today >>

Matt and Nicole Alexander.

Blog Post By Augustin Hamilton (Quebec Life Coalition) — Photo: Alexander Family

Matt and Nicole Alexander, teachers in Cobden, Ontario, were fired by their public school board in 2023 for failing to support LGBT ideology.

Matt, who had taught for 20 years with an impeccable record, was summoned by his principal, who informed him that he was suspended and under investigation following a complaint about his social media activity. The catch is that he didn’t even have a social media account at the time. No explanation was provided.

Nicole had been teaching kindergarten for three years and had consistently received excellent evaluations. One morning, she found an LGBT poster on her classroom door. The poster had been placed there without her knowledge, and none of the other classrooms had posters on their doors. Since she had not received instructions about it, she took it down and put it in a closet. Later that morning, she was summoned to the principal’s office and questioned about removing the poster. She was immediately suspended pending an investigation.

On October 26, 2023, Matt and Nicole Alexander were fired by the Renfrew County School Board for failing to "celebrate and affirm LGBTQ issues."

Following their dismissal, the Alexanders were unable to find work as teachers because they had been blacklisted. This resulted in significant financial loss, forcing them to sell their family home.

All things considered, this dismissal on trivial grounds—one of which was fabricated and the other seemingly a trap—occurred after their son, Josh Alexander, began publicly challenging his school’s policy allowing men who identify as women to use women-only facilities, such as restrooms and changing rooms. This policy was adopted by a different school board. For this courageous protest, Josh and his brother were expelled from school.
It seems that we are witnessing the persecution of an entire family because of one of its members' opinions against LGBT ideology.

To make matters worse, the Alexander parents’ union, the Ontario Elementary Teachers’ Federation, refused to defend them despite filing grievances on their behalf.

In a new development, the Legal Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has decided to represent Matt and Nicole Alexander before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, where a hearing was held earlier this month. The couple is suing the union that refused to defend them.

This is the first step in what promises to be a long legal battle.

Blog post by Augustin Hamilton (Quebec Life Coalition) — Photo: lightfield studios/Adobe Stock

In an open letter published in Le Quotidien, Georgia Vrakas, a psychologist and associate professor in the Department of Psychoeducation and Social Work at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, explains why the extension of euthanasia to people suffering solely from mental illness, which is due to come into force on March 17th, 2027, is a bad idea.

Having suffered from bipolar disorder herself, she describes the difficulties that people with mental illness face in accessing housing, employment and adequate care. She is surprised by the push to extend euthanasia to these people under the pretext of “equality”, given that so much work still needs to be done to reduce the discrimination they face in daily life. According to Le Quotidien:

"They are among the most stigmatised, discriminated against, and marginalised groups in society. This leads me to wonder: we go to great lengths to ensure that people living with mental illness are not discriminated against when facing death, but who goes to such lengths when we are discriminated against on a daily basis while still alive? Do we really want medical assistance in dying to become our default option?"

Praising the work of suicide prevention organisations, from which she has previously benefited, she expresses concern about the impact this extension will have on suicide prevention. She rightly points out that there is no real difference between ‘assisted suicide’ (or euthanasia) and suicide. She also questions whether there is a real difference in suffering between someone who takes their own life and someone who undergoes euthanasia:

"Let’s use the right words. In both cases, it involves intentionally ending suffering through death."

"The difference lies in who is taking the action. Is the suffering the same or different in each case? We do not know because, to date, there has been no validated tool to distinguish between the suffering of a person with a mental illness who wishes to die by suicide and that of a person with a mental illness who wishes to die with medical assistance."

"In my view, providing medical assistance in dying for people with mental illness issues runs directly counter to suicide prevention efforts. What will happen if the law changes? Will people who are suicidal turn to MAID instead of suicide prevention centres? I don’t know. Given our current knowledge and collective responsibility, we should not make medical assistance in dying the default option for people living with mental illness. In reality, it is not a choice."

It is with sadness that we announce the passing, on May 18th, of Jim Hughes, founder and first president of Campaign Life Coalition.

Jim Hughes (1943-2026).

Jim Hughes, who was involved in the creation of The Interim, LifeSiteNews, Real Women of Canada, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, and many others, played a key role in the founding and existence of Quebec Life Coalition. It was he who recruited former diplomat Gilles Grondin — the future founder and first president of QLC — to join CLC to work in Ottawa as a lobbyist with politicians.

In 1988, after the Supreme Court of Canada issued the Morgentaler decision decriminalizing abortion, Jim Hughes, seeing the substantial lack of pro-life organizations in Quebec, asked Gilles Grondin if he could establish such an organization in Quebec.

In 1989, it was done: QLC was officially founded. Subsequently, particularly in the early years, Jim Hughes helped CQV through difficult times, enabling QLC to remain present today. It should be noted that Gilles Grondin occasionally sought Jim Hughes’s advice on the management of his organization; this assistance was mutual. Mr. Grondin also played an important role in the CLC delegation to the UN in the 1990s.

This friendship between these two great men is the foundation of a fruitful collaboration between their organizations, which continues to this day.

Following in their footsteps, we are taking up the torch for the cause of the unborn and the vulnerable. As you can see, this fight to restore a culture of life is a long-term struggle. We strive to continue this monumental work through our presence on the ground — such as the National March for Life in Ottawa or the Life Chain — through gatherings like the Génération Vie congress, and through advocacy on social media.

This work cannot be done without your support, which is why I am appealing to your generosity to make a donation to our cause, which is also yours.

Make a donation.

For Life
Augustin Hamilton

This year's National March for Life in Ottawa was a resounding success, with thousands of Canadians marching to protect unborn children and vulnerable people.

Several speakers addressed the crowd during the march, including Aleš Primc from Slovenia, a member of the Movement for Children & Families, who has campaigned in his country against the legalization of euthanasia.

Rebecca Kiessling, who was conceived as a result of rape and is an abortion survivor, encouraged the marchers to be 100% pro-life and to also defend unborn children conceived as a result of rape, because these children are not guilty of their genitor’s crime and therefore do not deserve the death penalty.

Let me pause for a moment here and ask you: would you like us to organize a March for Life as beautiful as the one in Ottawa? Unfortunately, we had to cancel the Quebec City March for Life, which was scheduled for May 30th, due to a lack of resources for our small team — a team that, among other things, was heavily involved in the Ottawa march. To hold such a march next year, we need your financial support and your participation.

Make a donation

The fight to restore a culture of life in Quebec is a long-term endeavor that often requires certain adjustments. Unfortunately, we will not be able to hold the Quebec City March for Life on May 30th.

The many events we organize or participate in require a great deal of effort and resources, which this year have exceeded our team’s capacity, particularly with the launch of our new event, Génération Vie.

Génération Vie, which was conceived as one of our major events — closely followed by the Ottawa March for Life, in which we are heavily invested — was too close to the date we had planned for the Quebec City March for Life.

Does this mean we are abandoning Quebec City? No, but simply that there will be no conventional march in the city this year. In the future, to be able to organize all of these large-scale events, we need your participation and financial support.

Yes, Quebec Life Coalition has been operating for decades thanks to donations and the participation of people of good will.

Make a donation.

Blog post by Augustin Hamilton (Quebec Life Coalition) — Translated by QLC — Photo: zinkevych/Freepik

Rose, now 21, has had a difficult journey. During her childhood, she suffered several traumatic experiences and was bullied at school. She says that these struggles led her to want to dissociate herself from the person she was, to leave behind the Rose who was suffering so much. She even attempted suicide twice.

At one point, she discovered people online who identified as transgender and had undergone or were undergoing the transition process. After seeing numerous posts by these people and contacting them, she became convinced that transitioning was the solution to her problems. When she told her mother that she believed she was a boy, her mother didn’t think she was serious. Throughout her daughter’s transition, she feared that she was mistaken and would come to regret it.

Faced with her daughter’s determination to transition, Danielle, her mother, sought advice from the Meraki Clinic (which specialises in gender transition) to understand what her daughter was going through, fearing that her distress might lead her to attempt suicide again. After two visits, the clinic prescribed puberty blockers, convincing Danielle that this would give her daughter a ‘break’ to reflect — without mentioning any potential side effects.

Blog post by Augustin Hamilton (Quebec Life Coalition) — Translated by QLC — Photo: Freepik

A young woman who underwent a transition process between the ages of 13 and 17 laments that the healthcare system which supported her during the transition is now abandoning her as she seeks to detransition, according to Le Journal de Montréal:

“I was supported during my transition to become a boy when I was aged 13 to 17,” says Rose Guérin. “But now, suddenly, there are no more services for me.”

The young woman, now 21, underwent a double mastectomy at 16, but at 17, just before what the Le Journal de Montréal article refers to “the big operation” (presumably a hysterectomy), she changed her mind:

“I burst into tears and called my mum to tell her that I wasn’t a boy; I’d just always been a girl who felt very uncomfortable in her own skin.”

Fortunately, she, who dreams of having children, was able to regain her fertility after stopping her transition treatments. However, she will not be able to breastfeed:

“I have a flat chest with two large scars and I will never be able to breastfeed. However, by stopping the hormones, I have become fertile again.”

John Cleese.

Blog post by Augustin Hamilton (Quebec Life Coalition) — Translated by QLC — Photo: Paul Boxley/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons

The famous British Monty Python actor and comedian, John Cleese, has cancelled his visit to British Columbia, which was scheduled to take place as part of his Canadian tour in the autumn.

His reason? He is undoubtedly afraid of being sued for making jokes about gender ideology.

In response to the news of the British Columbia school board member convicted for criticising gender ideology, John Cleese wrote on X:

“What a pity !

I'm arranging a theatrical tour of Canada this Fall, and now I won't be able to risk doing any shows in British Columbia

I was really looking forward to coming.”

School board trustee Barry Neufeld was fined $750,000 by the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal for ‘hate speech’ targeting transgender people. The Tribunal found that at least 24 of Mr Neufeld’s posts on transgender issues were hateful and discriminatory. He was also found to have denied the reality of gender and incited hatred towards transgender people by denying that gender was a real thing.

In his role as a school board trustee, Mr Neufeld was striving to protect pupils from gender ideology, particularly as taught in the SOGI 123 programme.

The problem with this ruling is this: can we still criticise a group’s ideology if such criticism might expose its reprehensible aspects?

Meanwhile, Canada is not looking good when it comes to freedom of expression.