Joanne of Arc's blog

National President of Campaign Life Coalition, Jeff Gunnarson adressing Trudeau in front of the Supreme Court of Canada — Photo : Joanne Of Arc

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition 

OTTAWA – Quebec Life Coalition jointly held a conference with Campaign Life Coalition two days prior to the commemoration of “Morgentaler’s Decision Day” which took place 35 years ago.

On January 26th 2023, Quebec Life Coaltion’s president Georges Buscemi, Director of Political Operations, Arpad Nagy and myself attended a press conference held in front of the Supreme Court of Canada by Campaign Life Coalition's pro-life leader, Jeff Gunnarson. The event’s objective was to protest “Morgentaler’s Decision day” which took place on January 28th 1988 and to call out Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau on the matter. The National President of CLC read publicly a letter he addressed to Trudeau. 

The press conference lasted about an hour and was held during heavy snow fall. The featured speakers were the National President of Campaign Life Coalition, Jeff Gunnarson, CLC’s Director of Political Operations, Jack Fonseca, CLC’s Director of Education and Advocacy, Josie Luetke, and the President of Quebec Life Coalition, Georges Buscemi.

Jeff Gunnarson read publicly a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of Canada, for the first time in front of a group of supporters for the pro-life cause. His letter noted the betrayals on the part of Canada’s leaders who when asked by the Supreme Court to legislate abortion, failed to take responsability in 1988. This in turn “allowed mothers to kill their pre-born children at any stage during the pregnancy, for any reason at all which ultimately resulted in millions of Canadian mothers choosing to destroy the new human lives growing and developing inside of them” said Gunnarson. Following the reading of the letter, Jeff Gunnarson hand delivered his letter to the parliamentary office. You can read a copy of his letter here. 

The above mentioned letter was also sent to other leaders of political parties including Pierre Poilievre (leader of the Conservative Party of Canada), Jagmeet Singh (leader of the New Democratic Party), Yves‐François Blanchet (leader of the Bloc Québécois) and Elizabeth May (leader of the Green Party of Canada). 

A photo of the letter being dropped off in the mail by Matthew Wojciechowski, Campaign Life Coalition's VP

Jack Fonseca, Director of Political Operations for CLC, adressed what can be expected on the 35th anniversary of the Morgentaler decision from the Prime Minister based on his prior proclamations on the matter. Fonseca said that in the past, Canada has heard that “abortion is a ‘right’ protected by the Charter ” and “that it would be ‘unconstitutional’ to restrict at any point before birth”. Fonseca made it clear that the “right to kill” unborn children pushed by our Canadian politicians is not supported by facts, but rather gossip. 

“If you read the actual Morgentaler ruling, what you discover is that they never found a “right” to abortion. Rather, there was unanimous agreement amongst the seven judges that the state has a legitimate interest in protecting unborn human life” said Fonseca. 

Jack Fonseca, Director of Political Operations for CLC— Photo : Joanne Of Arc

Fonseca explained how in the previous abortion law, all five judges agreed, unambiguously, that the state had a legitimate interest in protecting preborn children. Amongst them he pointed out that Madame Justice Bertha Wilson admitted that the state had an interest in protecting the foetus in court. Fonseca also quoted Chief Justice Robert George Dickson who said “I agree that protection of foetal interests by Parliament is also a valid governmental objective.”

Josie Luetke, Director of Education and Advocacy, explained further how justice and legislators failed to extend human rights to all human beings despite promoting “human rights for all”. In her speech, she said that “We can neither selectively apply human rights to only some humans, nor misorder them.” She also addressed the parliament’s responsibility and said : “Parliament, too, must move to end abortion by recognizing personhood as beginning at fertilization. That is when a new human organism is created. Let’s not make old mistakes by pretending there’s such thing as humans who aren’t persons. We demand such legal recognition for every zygote, embryo, and fetus, without compromise and without exception. To draw a line anywhere else, be it age, development, ability, would be arbitrary, and the arbitrary denial of human rights to human beings, as we’re seeing today, is a recipe for disaster. “ 

Josie Luetke, Director of Education and Advocacy for CLC— Photo : Joanne Of Arc

Georges Buscemi, President for Quebec Life Coalition summarized the event in French and added a few points to consider. He asked “Why do we refuse to recognize the rights of a child who grows up in a place we call the “womb”. Buscemi reminded Trudeau that he too is a father of a family, and that he still has the possibility to do what should have happened a long time ago: save the unborn children of Canada. He concluded with the words of the gospel Matthew 25:40 “ Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Georges Buscemi, President for Quebec Life Coalition— Photo : Joanne Of Arc

Due to the weather conditions, a group of supporters could not attend the press conference in person, but cheered on virtually as the event was live-streamed on Facebook and Instagram by CLC's Youth Coordinator, Maeve Roche. For those who did make it to the event, they admitted "making an extra effort for an important cause". One supporter said "I woke up at 6:00 am just to be here". 

The event was well attended by female supporters of diversified age groups who were comfortable having their photos taken with signs for the pro-life cause. They were there to demand the Supreme Court to pay attention to them as they asked for justice to be delivered for the unborn. 

Women attending the pro-life rally/press conference held in Ottawa January 26th 2023— Photo : Joanne Of Arc