Joanne of Arc's blog

The launch of Coeurage & Laura Albo at her conference at St.Ignatius of Loyola Parish -- Photos :Joanne Of Arc

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition

''Coeurage'' is a lay "reproductive loss grief care" and support program for those who have lost a young child to abortion, miscarriage or death, which was launched by Laura Albo on Nov. 24 at St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish.

“I went through reproductive losses, abortion & miscarriages. I was once feeling hopeless & not in the best state of my life. I think that I didn’t grieve as I should have grieved, and this messed with my way of life and relationships. I think that every woman who is out there and who may be feeling this kind of hopelessness or who is in that state, they should know that there is a chance to recover from that. So that is why I am here” said Laura when asked by QLC about her motivation for starting her ministry.

When speaking about the name of her ministry Laura explained “Coeurage is not misspelled. I believe you are never too old to bring your heart back together” [In French, the name Coeurage is a word play for heart & courage].

Laura Albo is the coordinator of ''BRAVE'', the Grief and Loss support programs offered at Options pregnancy center. Amongst these Coeurage is her own program, which she has been working on since, before the pandemic, when she was a volunteer at QLC along with the president of the organization, Georges Buscemi.

Prior to her current occupation, Laura was a teacher and has been teaching for 11 years in Mexico. She has taught at every level from daycare to university. Furthermore, as presented on her webpage, she has a Masters degree in Special Education, Psychopedagogical Intervention in Educational Contexts and Intervention in Learning Disabilities, as well as a Masters degree in Neuropsychology and Education.

Laura has been working for a long time with people who lost one or more children prior to launching Coeurage and this cause has been close to her heart because she personally had an abortion and two miscarriages. This post-abortion program has been years in the making (since 2018). Today, her goal is to make sure women or anyone who went through an abortion experience have a safe space to talk about and heal through their grief to find hope again after this great loss.

Young African influencers would be encouraged to reduce their own population at the International Conference for Family Planning  —Photo : Pexels.com 

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition

The International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) was a 4-day event which happened in Thailand this year.

The ICFP took place between November 14 and November 17 in Pattaya City, Thailand at the Pathaway Exhibition and Convention Hall (PEACH). It is said to be the “largest scientific conference on family planning” in the world. The conference was organized by John Hopkins University on behalf of its Bloomberg School of Public Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health Institute. 

 Although minors could not attend in person, it was available for anyone who would like to participate virtually as there was no age restriction for online attendance if a parent or guardian would sign a waiver. Their website advertised the event as more than a conference, but a “platform, movement & community”. According to their site, more than 125 countries participated and their community counts over 40 000 active members. 

Amongst the ICFP’s main sponsors we could find the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization(WHO), IPPF, Pathfinder, Women Deliver, United Nations and the government of Canada. 

Their opening ceremony started with a dance show depicting demons, quite literally. The host for the ICFP 2022 opening session was Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. She explained that this “incredible performance” was “an episode from the play on the epic of Ramekin. It depicts the  royal battle between Rama and Laksman on the one side and the Tosca & the demon of king Lanka on the other.” She explained a short story about the battle and concluded “Tosca retreats into Lanka with his army of demons.” and proposed a round of applause for this play. 

 This performance was followed by a promotional video that promoted the coming of “another world” where “women and men can choose whether & when to have children”, “adolescents and youth have access to contraceptives”, “childbirth is safer for women & babies” and “everybody deserves access to family planning services & products”, in other words abortion and contraception. The belief that was reinforced throughout their promotional video of the opening ceremony and the entire conference was that “without family planning there is no universal healthcare” as their theme for this year was uniting family planning and universal health coverage as “human rights”.

                  Conference on euthanasia at St-Simon Catholic Church --Photo: Facebook/Brigade Verte 

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition

A conference on euthanasia was organized in a Catholic church in Rimouski on November 6th, 2022, a Sunday afternoon. 

A conference on "MAID" or "Medical Aid In Dying" was organized at St-Simon's church in Rimouski with the neurosurgeon and president of the Quebec Association for the Right to Die in Dignity (AQDMD)Dr. Georges l'Espérance. The conference was organized by La Brigade Verte de Saint-Simon which is a secular organization that describes itself as a "beautification project for the municipality of Saint-Simon-de-Rimouski", according to their Facebook page. 

Dr. Georges l'Espérance in conference on "MAID" --Photo: Facebook/Brigade Verte

La Brigade Verte works on the embellishment of the exterior of the St-Simon church for example by planting roses around the cemetery. When asked about the group's participation in the organization of a conference on euthanasia in a Catholic church, one of the leaders, Ms. Chantale, explained: "We facilitated contacts between Mr. Beaudoin, the person in charge of the church, and Dr. l'Espérance, who is part of the brigade. It was to help the church so that there would be a little money coming in, as you know the churches in Quebec are struggling financially... all the contributions that people gave were for the church. This information was later confirmed in conversation with the head of the church and president of the Fabrique, Beaudoin Gagnon.

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

The CHSLD (long term care centers) and the government are being sued by the families of the abandoned seniors for $15M.

Finally, after two years and more of this drama that took place in the CHSLD due to the tyrannical sanitary measures imposed by the government, those responsible will have to answer in court. Groups such as Les Macarons de la dignité and our organization Quebec Life Campaign are working hard to reveal the truth about the hecatomb of 6700 victims who were abandoned during the pandemic between spring 2020 and 2021.

Yves Poirier of TVA nouvelles reports that "The lawsuit was filed in court last September, but it has now increased from $9M to $15M as two new families are claiming punitive damages."

A documentary was also produced on this subject by Sylvain Laforest which is titled "CHSLD - Je me souviens". It has been circulating on social networks since the end of September 2022. Could it have inspired more families to claim compensation? Would it have given the families of the victims the courage to honor their lives? The time has come for someone to be held accountable for all those neglected, abused and possibly euthanized lives.

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

Have we euthanized our seniors in long term care center (CHSLD) between the spring of 2020 and 2021?

The "CHSLD - Je me souviens" documentary ["Long term care centers - I remember"], about the hecatomb of nearly 6700 seniors in those residencies, has been circulating on social networks since September 30th, 2022.

The french group called "Macarons de la Dignité" organized a private screening of the film in September, which I attended and where I met the documentary director, Sylvain Laforest. We had a first interview during that evening.

Sylvain Laforest during the private screening of his documentary « CHSLD - Je me souviens »

Sylvain has directed more than a hundred documentaries for major broadcasting networks, then worked as a journalist for the news channel RT-France as well as in video journalism for Nous-TV St-Hyacinthe. Currently, he lives from the sale of his books and dedicates his time to projects that are close to his heart, such as the making of this documentary on abandoned seniors in Quebec's long term care centers.

The following is our second interview, which goes into more detail about the drama that occurred in Quebec's long term care residencies. Before our interview, Mr. Laforest insisted that I be on first-name terms with him.

Joanna: At what point did you realize that something was wrong with the long term care centers (CHSLD)?

Sylvain Laforest: As early as March 2020. By the way, I wrote a book in 2015 called « La déprogrammation » ["The Deprogramming"] in which I already talked about a pandemic, so when it started, I knew it was the operation they were launching. However, I didn't think it would last as long as it did. When I saw the hecatomb that was being caused in the senior residencies, I began to ask around to find out what was going on and I saw that it was the government that was putting in place measures that were absolutely grotesque and that were certain to make victims, because they were talking about a lack of care from the start.

When a government encourages panic rather than problem solving, you see, already that it is in a mode of system destruction.

Joanna: How did you find the people for the testimonies of the documentary "CHSLD - Je me souviens"?

S.L: It was the Macarons de la Dignité gang that approached me. At first, it was to promote them. Then they proposed to interview people about what happened and to build a promotional campaign from that. So, I said to them "If I can get these people to come and do interviews, I can do long interviews and make a documentary", so I suggested some names. I approached Robert Béliveau and Lucie Mandeville. Alain Roy was proposed to me and Claude Laferrière, he is a well-known lawyer who was already denouncing a lot. The anonymous nurse came forward when I made the call for the general public to come and witness through their personal stories. 

I wanted to touch on several areas. With Lucie Mandeville, I had the psychological aspect, with Dr. Béliveau, I had the medical aspect, and so on. I have made 115 documentaries so far and I'm very used to structuring those. The other documentaries I have done were for the mainstream media.

Joanna: Can we conclude today that the surge in deaths that have been called "coronavirus-related" that are counted up to date in long term care centers in Quebec is completely false?

S.L: What they have done with their measures is that they have accelerated the deaths of people who would have survived another year or two. People go to long term care residencies at the end of life, they are already very fragile. In order for the pandemic (which is ultimately the flu) to look like a pandemic, they had to cause some sort of mortality peak. False cases, false emergencies, you can create them statistically, but deaths, you can't. Either people die, or people don't die. When people die, you inflate the statistics.

If you look at the statistics, the deaths that occurred in the spring of 2020, it's how the first wave was created. But if you compare the spring of 2020, with the year 2021 and 2022, it balances out. So these are people for whom we have accelerated their death. We can observe the same stratagy everywhere, in Italy, France, the State of New York, etc.

This first false wave was created with a lack of care.

The documentary makes us realize that simply denying access to these people’s natural family caregivers is the end for them. What's the point of going on living if you can't even see the people you love anymore? The people who are your last link to life...

You can't just lie about the statistics and hope to create a wave from the common flu.

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition — Photo : Unsplash: Parade/Wikipedia: Barbada

A transvestite will be present as the ''Star Fairy'' at this year's Montreal Santa Claus Parade.

After two years of cancellation due to the pandemic, Barbada, a transvestite, will be present at the Santa Claus Parade on St-Catherine Street in the Quartier des spectacles, on November 19th, starting at 11 am. The event is organized by Montréal Centre-Ville, a non-profit organization with nearly 5,000 member businesses.

This year marks the 70th edition of the Santa Claus Parade, but it is the first time that a transvestite will participate in it. According to the Montreal Downtown website, this is an annual tradition for more than 400,000 spectators, and the event will also be aired on the TVA network on Sunday, November 20th at 4 p.m. According to organizers, this is the largest holiday event in Quebec.

"The Santa Claus Parade is a great family tradition that has been going on for 70 years in downtown Montreal. It inaugurates the winter season, which we hope will be just as exceptional as the summer we just had. Whether it's to welcome Santa Claus, spend a holiday with family, gather with colleagues or start holiday shopping, downtown is still the place to be for all Quebecers," said Glenn Castanheira, Executive Director of Montréal Centre-Ville.

Since the announcement of drag queen Barbada's participation in the Montreal Santa Claus parade on November 19th downtown, the outrage was evident on social networks and is spreading, according to Frédérique de Simone of the Journal de Montréal.

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

A nurse at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal informed Quebec Life Coalition that late-term abortions, i.e. at 21 weeks gestation or more, are performed on a "weekly" basis at this famous Montreal hospital. 

According to the hospital's website, the hospital was founded in 1934 and is considered a teaching hospital that is one of the largest and busiest acute care hospitals in the province. 

A nurse at the hospital, who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted us after realizing that an abortion had taken place in her workplace at 24 weeks of pregnancy for the eugenic reason of having Down syndrome.  

"I work at the Jewish General Hospital as a nurse. Last week, I discovered that there was a woman 24 weeks pregnant with a child with Down syndrome who was in the case room for a "therapeutic abortion". I was devastated to see such a late-term abortion take place at my workplace. Because I was so upset, I asked Brian [Vice President of Quebec Life Coalition - ed.] to pray for this child and his mother. Unfortunately, the abortion took place and I still pray that the woman will realize the atrocity that happened and seek healing through God's mercy" shares the nurse.  

"I saw another "therapeutic abortion" on the schedule this week at 33 weeks, it happened again, I never realized before how often they take place" - Photo: Unsplash

She adds, "I had heard before that abortions take place at the hospital where I work, obviously, but for the most part I was under the impression that they take place at a less advanced stage, at less weeks, not to say it's better, but the procedure is much less complicated at less weeks. I thought the hospital did them up to 8 weeks, but I learned through a colleague that late-stage abortions also take place in the case room and that we have to respect that..." 

She also sadly added, "I saw another therapeutic abortion on the schedule this week at 33 weeks, it happened again, I never realized previously how often they happen." 

After our interview, the nurse reported to me that according to her co-worker, these "procedures" occur on a weekly basis.  

She concluded, "What I find frightening is that this child was aborted at 24 weeks at the hospital where I work while we have an excellent intensive care unit and we have so many babies at 24 or 27 weeks who are living because of this intensive care that we provide! So it's stupefying. If the patient wants to keep the baby, we do everything we can to keep the baby alive. We put it in an incubator, we give it oxygen and even a tube to feed it. We do so many interventions because the mother wants to keep the child. But, if the mother suddenly decides she wants an abortion (at 21 weeks or more), that's what we end up doing. "

Samuel David at 9 months old with the 3 other children and his family

By Joanne of Arc (Quebec Life Coalition) - Photo: Catherina David

Catherina David is a stay at home mom of four kids who contacted us to share the beautiful testimony of her youngest child, Samuel David. She reached out to us at first for prayer and support on her pregnancy journey. Today, she wants to share with us, in detail, how her story unveiled. She discovered she was pregnant at almost 9 weeks into her pregnancy while she was moving from Quebec to Ontario.

She was very excited and happy about her new pregnancy initially. Her doctor asked her to do an additional test when she was 5 months pregnant, through which she learned that her baby had trisomy 21 (Down syndrome).

After having delivered three perfectly healthy children, it was certainly a big shock to her. She admits that she was devastated and didn't know how to react. She cried the whole day when she found out the news, and then the whole week after it.

When she met with her doctor after learning the news, he said to her “I leave it up to you whether you want to keep the baby, if you want to continue the pregnancy or if you want to terminate it we will make it as easy as possible for you, but you will have to go to the hospital and have a regular childbirth delivery”.

She went to the Jewish General hospital for the abortion, before she decided to change her mind and keep the baby. Catherina, was guided by her faith and a dream she believes was from God that helped her resist the temptation to end the life of her child.

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition - Photo: Joanne of Arc

This fall, hundreds of communities across North America and several Canadian cities simultaneously organized a 40 Days for Life campaign from September 28 to November 6, 2022.

The 40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life effort that consists of:

• 40 days of prayer and fasting to end abortion
• 40 days of peaceful vigil
• 40 days of community awareness

I was present in Sherbrooke on the 31st day to report on this event. Brian Jenkins, who is the leader of the team, was on place to give me a warm welcome. This man spends 12 hours a day outside, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. during the 40 days, as an advocate for life. He takes a break at noon, during which Mr. Gerard replaces him, for the entire length of the 40-day vigil. The vigil participants vary from day to day, but Brian and Gerard are present daily.

By law, Brian and the other participants must not be within 50 meters of a facility where abortions take place, in this case the CLSC Belvédère (Local Community Services Center). So far, there have been no counter-demonstrators, whereas last year a pro-choice group of 100 people gathered against 3-4 people who were doing the vigil. Gerard shares with me that the Sherbrooke police supported the vigil participants last year, and since then they have been supported by the Sherbrooke authorities. Brian has a working relationship with the police of Sherbrooke and can count on them for their help to maintain their safety.

CLSC Belvédère in Sherbrooke - Photo: Joanne of Arc

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition - Photo: Lise Dufour/Josée Poulin

Lise Dufour is the author of the book: J'ai avorté... par peur. Avec Lui, espérer encore! [I aborted...out of fear. With Him...still hoping!]. This woman does not consider herself a researcher or an expert on the subject, but she is a seeker of God. She has a deep respect for Life since she came from darkness to light in a journey of grief centered on the unborn child. As she says, "Life is God's most precious gift and it is eternal."

She therefore "dreams of a society that respects Life and is not turned toward death," quite simply.

Lise Dufour at the launch of her book in Quebec City - Photo: Josée Poulin

Lise just launched her book in Quebec City on October 10, 2022. Brian Jenkins, Vice-President of QLC, was there. He reports that there was a good number of women supporting her and a warm atmosphere. At the end of her talk, she shared her testimony, and Brian called it a "cathartic" (liberating) moment. Several other women then decided to pay tribute to Mrs Dufour’s courage and shared their testimonies.

The author agreed to answer my questions after I read her book. Her book is a testament to her journey after undergoing the abortion of her daughter at the age of 30.

Joanne for QLC: Can you share with me how long you have you been testifying about your story of aborting your daughter Elizabeth?

Lise Dufour: I have been talking about it more openly since the unborn child-centered grief journey with Benedetta Foà (an Italian post-abortion psychologist) in September 2013, more than 25 years after the abortion.

I have testified on a few occasions, but it was through more personal exchanges with women that allow them to open up a bit about their own experience.

Joanne for QLC: Recently, you launched your book J'ai avorté... par peur/Avec Lui espérer encore (I had an abortion... out of fear... with Him... still hoping) in Quebec City in which you testify about your own abortion. I think that your testimony can open the door for other women to give themselves permission to express themselves. Is it common for women to shut themselves off after an abortion and suffer in solitude?

Lise Dufour: I can't answer for all women, but the ones I've met have often told me that it was the first time they've talked about it. I believe that a woman who has had an abortion quickly closes the door on this experience so as not to suffer too much from it. Does she suffer in solitude? No doubt... That is why I wrote this book. I don't know if it will have the desired effect on women who have undergone an abortion, that is, to open their secret garden. I hope with all my heart that it will, so that they can free themselves from a huge burden. Revisiting this experience by naming the feelings experienced can do them a lot of good and all the healing journeys I have participated in demonstrate this. I see women and men straighten up, get back on their feet and become radiant. They come back to Life!