News

"Let's Stop the Pretense" is a new website begun in support of Motion 312, the private member bill posited by Parliament's representative for Kitchener Centre, Mr. Stephen Woodworth, this past Winter, 2012.

Its home page contrasts the facts of fetal development with the pretense, the lie within Canada's Criminal Code. The rest of the site develops this point under four headings.

First, the context of this motion is clarified. "Motion 312 was presented by MP Stephen Woodworth on February 6, 2012. It proposes that a committee of the House review medical evidence, to determine whether or not a child is a human being before birth, and to address the potential impact on Canada's Criminal Code. The motion received its first hour of debate in the House of Commons on April 26, 2012, and will be debated again on September 21st (subject to change)." The full motion can be read here.

Next there is a section on fetal development, presenting a timeline of the child's growth from conception through to the 28th week. Also, you will find a 6-minute video and a couple of links for additonal information about fetal development.

Another tab is pro-active. "Contact Your MP" presents two ways for you to act so as to have you member of Parliament know your view - by phone and/or snail-mail form letters.

The final tab, "Blog", presents an argumentative essay criticizing Section 223 of Canada's Criminal Code, labelling as a lie, a pretense. It also invites readers to post a response.

Quebecers will be heading to the polls this September 4th.

In a previous blog, Quebec Life Coalition President, Mr. Georges Buscemi, outlined four key questions that electors should ask their local candidates to help them decide for whom to vote.

In an effort to help you identify your local candidates, I have brought the following resources together.

1. The Director General of the Elections (DGEQ)  A good starting point is the website of the Director General of the Elections. This will allow you to identify your riding, by simply inputing your postal code.

Second, knowing your riding, you can then access a handy table, click here, to learn more about your riding including who the candidates are.

If you wish to contact the DGEQ, their toll-free number is 1-888-353-2846.

2. Go for a Walk.  A second way to learn who the local candidates are is to go for a walk. This past Saturday, while doing errands, I noticed that the Liberal Party of Quebec had already hoisted several campaign signs containing the picture and name of their local candidate.

3. Contact the Parties: Finally, as political parties and candidates have until August 18th to submit their candidature, a third way to learn who your local candidates are is to contact the parties directly. Here are the contacts for the major parties:

1. Liberal Party of Quebec:1-800-361-1047;
2. Parti Québecois: 1-800-363-9531;
3. Québec solidaire: 1-866-278-9014;
4. Coalition Avenir du Québec: 1-866-416-2960;
5. Conservative Party of Quebec: (514) 433-0500;
6. Unité Nationale Party: (819) 731-3296; and
7. Objectif Vie Québec Party: (remains unlisted)

Case Study: Riding of St. Laurent

As electoral boundaries are prone to shifting, it may be prudent to check with the DGEQ. Here, on entering my postal code, I was immediately told what I expected; that my riding is St-Laurent.

While on with this site, I then sought out to learn who my candidates were. Unfortunately, I came away no wiser. None of the parties had yet registered.

I then decided to contact individually the various parties. Above noted above, I had seen electoral signs for the local liberal candidate - Mr. Jean-Marc Fournier.

As for the Parti Québecois, the Québec solidaire, and CAQ candidates, I phoned and emailed these to find answers.

• PQ: Mr. Roger Gagnon;
• QS: Ms. Marie-Josèphe Pigeon - (514) 743-8343;
• CAQ: Mr. Georges Manolikakis

The remaining two parties have yet to nominate a candidate.

Next week, I will report on what success I have had in contacting the individual candidates and what response they have given regarding the four pivotal questions.

This September, the Quebec Life Coalition will be hosting its eighth "Forty 40 for Life" prayer vigil. This is a forty consecutive days of praying and fasting for the end of abortion. We will be joined by several hundred other vigils, worldwide. Over the previous campaigns, some astonishing records have resulted worldwide. The following is a synopsis of some of these figures. Stay tuned to our website to learn how you can be involved. The vigil begins Wednesday, September 26, 2012.

Summary of Results – 2007-2012

There have now been ten coordinated 40 Days for Life campaigns since 2007, mobilizing people of faith and conscience in 440 cities across the United States and Canada, plus cities in Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belize, Denmark, England, Georgia, Germany, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Puerto Rico and Spain.

During these unified efforts, participants witnessed countless blessings from God:

• 1,894 individual campaigns have taken place in 440 cities in 14 countries
• More than 525,000 have joined together in a historic display of unity to pray and fast for an end to abortion
• More than 15,000 church congregations have participated in a 40 Days for Life campaign
• Reports document 5,928 lives that have been spared from abortion – and those are just the ones we know about
• 69 abortion workers have quit their jobs and walked away from the abortion industry
• 23 abortion facilities completely shut down following local 40 Days for Life campaigns
• Hundreds of women and men have been spared from the tragic effects of abortion, including a lifetime of regrets
• More than 2,100 news stories have been featured in newspapers, magazines, radio shows and TV programs from coast to coast… and overseas
• Many people with past abortion experiences have stepped forward to begin postabortion healing and recovery

After so many years of legalized abortion, many people of faith are experiencing a renewed sense of HOPE!

All are invited to our

Annual Corn Roast

Saturday, August 18, 2012

beginning at 12h00

at the rear of Saint-Emile Church

(3330, Rivier street, Montréal, H1W 3Z9).

Rain or shine.

(We hope to be outdoors,

but in the case of rain we can move indoors).

The charge is 10$ for adults, free for children 12 and under.

Our menu will be:

• Corn on the Cob – all you can eat;
• Coleslaw;
• Coffee and Juice;
• Sponge cake garnished with small fruits.

If you are thinking of coming,

please let us know by calling us at (514) 344-2686.

I hope to see many of you.

To date this year, Campagne Québec-Vie has posted nearly 20 000 bulletins and distributed more than 3000 letters to houses and churches in Québec. Below, we see, in the first photo piled our conference table nearly 2000 envelopes ready for distribution, door-to-door by a team of young volunteers (2nd photo) lead by Brian Jenkins (1st on the left), one of our employees.

Over the past month, I have heard much discussion about gestational laws. A couple of articles have come my way that I have found interesting on this issue. I hope you do also. Here they are.

In the first article, we find the testimony of a former advocate of gestational laws who regrets his earlier involvement. In the second we read abut the Catholic Church's position on it. Enjoy.

Dear friends of life,

As you read this newsletter, Premier Jean Charest has most likely called an election, an election to be held in early September, 2012 : so, we find ourselves in election mode!

Under such circumstances, the question arises: what is our role - either at the Quebec Life Coalition or individually, at this time ?

Your role is to inform us as to the positions taken by your local candidates on the issues that matter to us, and then pass this information on to us - (514) 344-2686, so that we may then disseminate these views as widely as possible, thereby informing the largest number of persons of what the candidates are saying.

What should we be asking our candidates? Here are the four main questions.

1. Are you in favour of or apposed to the public funding of abortion in Québec ? We support every candidate who opposes such financing . (Currently in Quebec, abortion may be procurred at any moment during the pregnancy and for any reason or no reason at all, fully payable by our tax dollars – a travesty to say the least !)
2. Are you in favour of or or opposed to the legalization of euthanasia in Québec ? (The Quebec attorney general is currently searching for ways to circumvent the Canadian Criminel Code in order to permit euthanasia in Québec. We support every candidate who defends those citizens vulnerable to this euthanasia legislation, who are opposed to the legalization of murder "with compassion".
3. Do you believe that it is the right and duty of the parents - and not the state - to provide moral and spiritual education to their children and that the parents have the right to delegate this responsibility to a school whose orientation matches their own ? (Once this right is recognized, gone is the obligation to follow the ECR course and dubious sex education courses.)
4. Do you believe that parents should be able to care for their children at home, that is to say, to directly receive the funds currently allocated by the government for placing children in public daycare?

Thank you for asking these questions to the candidates within your riding and then relaying their answers to us so that we may inform all of our members and our thousand of Internet readers - i.e., Facebook and on our website.

Finally, your last duty is to vote for the candidate who follows closely your pro-life and pro-family convictions. If and only if your evaluation of the candidates is inconclusive, then you should choose the best party (contact us for more info on this). Let's all set aside partisan affiliation, and focus on the most pressing issues, those noted above, that transcend the usual divisions. Wishing one and all the best election!

Georges Buscemi, President

(Translated by Brian Jenkins)

Reading Mario Roy in last Friday's Lapresse one would think so.

His commentary focusses upon the diminishing trend in crime not only in Canada but also across North America. In so doing, he quotes from the American study by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner entitled Freakonomics (2005).

He writes:

According to the authors (i.e., Levitt and Dubner) it is the decision in Roe v Wade (The US spereme Court ruling) legalising abortion in 1973 that, fifteen years later, largely contributed to the freefall in crime. And this, in diminishing (there are 1.5 million abortions per year in the United States) the number of undesirable children, often in dysfuncitonal families, and thus fated to a shady future. It is an shocking analysis, yet may not be void of some truth.

Selon les auteurs, c'est l'arrêt Roe v. Wade ayant légalisé l'avortement en 1973 qui, 15 ans plus tard, a largement fait chuter la criminalité. Et ce, en diminuant (1,5 million d'avortements par année aux États-Unis) le nombre d'enfants non désirés, souvent dans des familles dysfonctionnelles, et donc promis à un sombre avenir. C'est une analyse d'une froideur choquante, mais peut-être pas dénuée de vérité.

A couple of things I wish to point out that undersocere this limited analysis of Mr. Levitt and Dubner, and in turn Mr. Roy.

Blogger Bryan Kemper - StandTruedotcom, was widely critized for comparing the tragic event in a Colorado theater last week to the on-going tragedy of abortion. The following is his response to these critics.

July 24, 2012 (StandTrue.com) - To answer this question one must first answer the question: what is abortion?

Abortion is simply a word used to describe the action of killing a human person in one of the early stages of that human person’s development, just as shooting is simply a word to describe how the human persons in that Colorado theatre were killed. Both words describe a different method used to end the life of human persons who are all in different stages of their life and development.

In the same way, when I compare the Nazi Holocaust and the Abortion Holocaust, I am showing that they are both horrific events that have claimed the lives of millions of innocent human persons. One took place 70 years ago and one is taking place right now.

I could easily show comparisons to many other events in history such as Columbine, slavery, earthquakes and many more tragic events that have claimed so many innocent lives.

Many people think that I am making these comparisons to show the similarities of the events in question and abortion, but that is not really the case. I am not merely trying to show them as the same thing, I am trying show the horrifying fact that we don’t see them as the same thing.

When I make these comparisons it is because, while I am grieving for the loss of those innocent lives lost in Colorado at that theatre, I am also in pain for the other thousands of innocent human person killed on the same day that so few people are crying for. I am trying to shake this world and make us realize that there are thousands of innocent human persons being murdered in buildings every day around the nation and the media are not there to tell their story.

The Planned Parenthoods and abortion clinics have successfully lulled America into silence about the bloodshed behind their doors. They have convinced so many that this is nothing more that a choice being carried out to help women. They have declared war on women and innocent children in the womb and have disguised it as liberation and freedom.

In carrying out this war on women, the abortion industry has been able to silence the outrage that should be shown towards this abortion massacre. They have been able to mask a horrific and violent action as a healthcare right that needs to be funded by our government.

I will be totally honest here: I do not simply believe I have the right to make these comparisons; I believe I am compelled to make these comparisons. I believe that the blood of 55,000,000 of my fellow Americans who have been massacred by abortionists must be cried for.

(Ed.: Here in Canada, figuring 100,000 deaths per year since the legalization of abortion in 1969, some 43 years ago means 4.3 million Canadians have perished. As for Quebec, where 30% of all abortions are performed, the figure is 1.3 million.)

In my most recent comparison I created a graphic showing the Colorado theatre where the shooting took place alongside a picture of a Planned Parenthood. I said that when 12 people are killed at this theatre it is called a massacre and when 12 people are killed at the Planned Parenthood it is called Choice.

I was not shocked by the responses I got from non-Christians or from pro-abortion people; I was shocked by some of the comments I got from Christians and people who identify themselves as pro-life.

I was told that calling abortion murder is judgmental and as Christians we are not called to judge. I have to ask these people if they are calling what the shooter in the theatre did can be called murder, or is that being judgmental as well?

I was told that it is just too soon to compare things like these because those people just died three days ago. While I am so very saddened by their deaths, I am also saddened that in the four days since that attack in Colorado, almost 16,000 innocent human persons have been killed in abortion clinics. Since January 22 of 1973 over 55,000,000 innocent humans beings have been killed by surgical abortion in America alone. It is not too soon; it is actually long overdue.

I am being told that I am just opportunistic. Yes, I am. I am using this opportunity to bring to the light the senseless and brutal murder of millions of innocent children who deserve to have their deaths mourned. I am using this opportunity to show the hypocrisy of a nation who defends, protects and funds the murder of her own citizens in the name of choice.

This graphic comparison was meant to do many things, and one of those things was to create a buzz and get abortion talked about. It worked. When abortion is being talked about and the truth is being exposed, lives are saved. One of my goals as an abortion abolitionist is to never allow abortion to fade away as a non-topic. My goal is to make it so prevalent and so front and center that this nation and the world are forced to open their eyes and see it for what it truly is. Abortion is an act of homicide and I will take every opportunity to expose this until we see the abolition of the abortion massacre.

The following is the latest entry by the Canadian Crossroads walkers, a pro-life hike begun in May in British Columbia and continuing through the second week of August. In it, writer and walker Patrick Wilson shares some interesting observations. First there is his chance encounter and unusual exchange with a young man who had been adopted as an infant. Next, Patrick shares his reflections about apathy among Canadians regarding this all-important issue. (The Crossroads walkers will be making their Montreal stopover the first weekend of August, visiting four parishes and praying at local abortion mills; I hope you can join me in welcoming them to Montreal.)

Monday, July 16, 2012

Ontario

Hello all,

Well, we've made it to Ontario, which means we have covered 4 provinces, and have 2 to go. Who would have thought that nearly half the trip would be spent in these last two provinces, and primarily Ontario?

This is not to complain, however - I think many of our Ontarian team members are excited and happy to be back in our home province, myself included. We are happy to have lakes, trees and rocky hills surrounding every turn in the road, and for those of us who are or have attended Our Lady Seat of Wisdom in Barry's Bay, ON, it feels like home. It is incredible how fast and dramatically the landscape changes as soon as one crosses the border into northwestern Ontario from Manitoba. Manitoba has trees, certainly, but the Ontario border dramatically brings the Canadian Shield with it. Unfortunately, it has also brought a plethora of mosquitos and black flies with it as well. Something else for us to offer up…though the sheer number of them does make for a good laugh when one looks at the interior roof of our minivan after a night shift, where our swatting walkers create a suspended graveyard for the mosquitos. The front grille on our white Dodge minivan doesn't fare much better…makes for a good laugh from onlookers when we pull into a gas station after night shift! Some of them have actually congratulated us for getting so many of the bloodsuckers.

This trip has not been without its interesting run-ins, and many of them have been very inspirational. One of the most memorable occurred in Winnipeg, when I was driving with two other teammates to our host family. We were sitting at a red light when a pristine '68 Impala convertible pulled up beside us. I had my window down, so I commented to the dude that he had a nice ride. I wasn’t expecting much conversation to happen after that, but he asked what we had written on the other side of our van (Walk Across Canada) so I told him we were doing a pro-life walk. "Pro-life?" He asks in a slightly elevated tone. The light had since turned green, but he kept pace with our van. "As in not pro-choice?!," he continued. Great, I thought. Here comes a verbal tirade. Turns out to be quite the opposite. "I'm adopted," he says, "and if it wasn't for people like you, I might not be around today." We carried on a conversation between our cars for about a kilometre down a busy Winnipeg street. Once again, it's these experiences that help boost our morale when it seems like most are against us.

Another thing that is encouarging,(sic) and reminds us of just how great of an undertaking this trip is, has been talking with those who don't agree with our cause. This might sound strange, but some of the most inspiring encounters have been with those who vehemently oppose our cause, but deeply and truly respect us for standing up for the pro-life cause. First of all, I actually prefer it when people take a confrontational stance when we tell them we are walking for the pro-life cause. It is annoying to tell people our cause, and, when you can tell that they are pro-choice, they still just ignore the issue and half-heartedly wish us luck on our journey. None of that! I know that I am probably guilty of the same crime with standing up for my faith, but you can tell that these people just do not care, which, as I have discussed previously, is typical Canadian apathy and is slowly rotting this country away. On the other hand, I have gotten into some heated discussions with pro-choicers I have met along the way, and at the end of each of those conversations, they still congratulate us on our mission to walk across the country. And the difference here is that they truly mean it, and you can tell. I have been thinking that this is where this walk can truly make a change in the hearts of Canadians. If we can get people to respect us for what we are doing, then they are much more likely to consider our cause or mission with at least a more positive eye than beforehand. And if we can do that in the hearts of enough people, then who knows how many hearts can be changed on this walk?

We are currently in Marathon, ON, and heading towards Sault Ste. Marie. Though we spent this past weekend in "The Soo", the distance between the northwestern Ontario border with Manitoba and Sault Ste. Marie is definitely the longest and most isolated stretch of this walk. It is beautiful country, but we need to make it to more populated southern/central Ontario in order to be in cities large enough to host our weekend visits. Though this stretch is isolated, we have still managed to receive great support! In the span of a couple of days last week, we met two different individuals who were members of the Thunder Bay Right to Life group, who were both previously unaware of our walk, but we very impressed to see us and our mission. Another man, Doug, was driving home to Mission, BC from his holidays in Cape Breton, and happened to know a couple of my close friends and had walked with last year's Crossroads team for a few days. Small world! It is hard to believe we only have 4 weeks left before we finish off, but I'm sure our witnesses and interesting experiences will only increase as we get closer to the final and most populated stretch of our walk.

Thanks for reading, and we'll try to keep you posted!

Pat Wilson