Philippe, the young founder of Action Vitale, a pro-life student organization in Montreal. --Photo : Joanne Of Arc

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition 

Philippe, an 18-year-old student from Cégep du Vieux Montréal who is studying social science, founded a pro-life group called "Action Vitale". Philippe and his group meet weekly near a popular metro station in Montreal to engage with college and university students on the topic of abortion. They hand out black and white flyers that they designed themselves and initiate conversations with by-passers who are open to doing so. They are not paid for their time nor their efforts, they simply do this willingly. 

I had the pleasure of attending one of their sessions earlier this year and watching these courageous young men testify about their pro-life stance. To my surprise, several conversations took place and people showed a clear interest in having a dialogue. Among the interactions I observed, one man complimented them on their politeness. These are not aggressive activists, but young, educated men who want to make a difference in Quebec for the pro-life cause.

Philippe agreed to speak with Quebec Life Coalition about his group in an interview. Here's what he shared with us.

Joanne for QLC : What inspired you to start your group “Action Vitale”?

Philippe : It's been a little over two years since I converted to the pro-life position. I have always had this desire to share or talk to people about it. I like to propose activities to others, and I have noticed that this activity has been very fruitful. If there was one specific moment that inspired me to found Vital Action, it was when I saw people in the metro who were socialists and were handing out flyers promoting their position. At that moment, I asked myself: "Why are they doing it and I'm not? I have as much conviction as they do". So that's how Action Vitale was born.

Joanne for QLC : I really like the name "Action Vitale", can you tell us a bit about how you came to choose this name to represent your organization?

Philippe: We were looking for a name for a while and it was dragging on, finally I proposed it to the other team members and it was accepted. I wanted the name to start with the word "Action", as many political organizations start with the same word. Then I was looking for a predicate for the name that would be related to life.

Kim Headley at our Students for Life event in January 2023  — Photo: Joanne Of Arc

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition 

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

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

Amongst the different speakers that were present at the event, we have invited Kim Headley from Campaign Life Coalition who is their Assistant Youth Coordinator to speak about her involvement in the culture of life.

Kim has agreed to speak with us after the event, so that you could get to know her better as well as learn more about why you should get involved in Students for life in Montreal. 

Quebec Life Coalition: Can you please present yourself, your age and your current job position?

Kim Headley from CLC: My name is Kim Headley. I'm 27 years old from Aurora, Ontario. I studied business at Seneca College in Toronto and accounting at Ensign College in Salt Lake City, Utah. I am now working as an Assistant Youth Coordinator and Administrative Assistant at Campaign Life Coalition. Some of my responsibilities are planning activities for youth such as pro-life movies nights, game nights, virtual pro-life club activities, planning the annual trip to Washington DC for their March for Life, as well as planning the national youth summit and banquet here in Canada. I also help to make social media content for our Instagram and TikTok and do a few different administrative and clerical tasks to help our accounting team.  

Quebec Life Coalition: How long have you been working for CLC? 

Kim Headley from CLC: Nine months! I started as an intern in May 2022 and was hired full time in September 2022.  

Quebec Life Coalition: What does a day to day look like for you?  

Kim Headley from CLC: It depends! Sometimes I am sending emails all day to different schools, sometimes I am in our accounting system keeping the books up to date, and sometimes I can be planning out next youth event. Every day I do a bit of both youth outreach and administrative tasks.   

Quebec Life Coalition: What is the most important aspect of your job?  

Kim Headley from CLC: The Biggest project CLC has every year is the March for Life. The most important part of my job is to help plan all of the youth activities such as the Candlelight vigil for the victims of abortion, the youth banquet, as well as the youth summit. 

Quebec Life Coalition: In January, we had the pleasure to host a Students for Life conference during which you shared your testimony about how you became pro-life. For those who didn’t have the chance to attend this event, can you share your journey in a nutshell?

Kim Headley from CLC: Growing up, I was pro-choice. It wasn’t until my first semester at College in my English class when everything changed, and it happened in a way I never would have expected. My teacher had everyone make a video about anything they wanted to. A girl in my class did her assignment on human rights violations. She started by showing pictures of victims from different injustices, saying they were horrible and evil to do, while still being completely legal at the time. Then she showed a picture of an aborted fetus… 

I still can’t forget that image. That was the first time I had ever seen abortion victim photography. My classmate said this was also horrible and evil, even though it’s currently allowed in Canada. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing – this was actually what an abortion looked like. Before that moment, I thought the preborn child was just a “clump of cells.” That’s the lie we’re all told, right? Well, that photograph forced me to start re-evaluating my opinion on abortion, but I didn’t become pro-life overnight.

For months, that picture kept creeping into my mind. I couldn’t forget it. That’s when I started looking into it more for myself, and doing my own research, which is how I slowly came around to becoming more and more pro-life. At some point later on, I saw a video of a first trimester abortion, and that was it. I was done being pro-choice. I was pro-life, right then and there, without exception, but if I was going to be “pro-life” now, how could I sit by and not do anything about it? It wasn’t enough for me to just be pro-life. I couldn’t just have this opinion and not do anything about these babies being killed.

I needed to be more involved in the pro-life movement, so I googled pro-life organizations in Toronto and found Toronto Right to Life where I was given apologetics training on how to have effective conversations about abortion and then I started doing “Choice? Chain" with Toronto against abortion, a project between Toronto Right to Life and CCBR. After a while of doing occasional activism, I decided that I still needed to do more for the movement. I wanted to do something more productive with my time. So, I decided to do a pro-life summer internship.

This past summer I had the privilege of interning for Campaign Life Coalition and was hired full time in September. Now I get to work full time in the pro-life movement, getting to use what I went to school for, as well as doing something I am passionate about. 

Kim Headley sharing her testimony at our Students for life event in January — Photo: Joanne Of Arc