“Gendercide is the systematic elimination of girls just because they are girls,” Conservative MP Mark Warawa told the crowd organizers said exceeded 20,000.
“There are 200 million missing girls in the world right now, which is creating a huge problem for society,” said Warawa, whose Motion-408 to condemn female gendercide was deemed non-votable earlier this year. The political debate engendered by the motion gave rise to the March’s theme: “End Female Gendercide: It’s girl should not be a death sentence.”
“Ninety-two per cent of Canadians say that’s wrong,” Warawa said. “I say that’s wrong. You say that’s wrong. So together we will keep up the fight and we will win.”
Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson told the crowd: “The March for Life is growing every year. This year the media will not be able to ignore it. Soon the government will not be able to ignore it.”
Canadians and Americans are proud to come from nations that promote human rights, said Anderson, who is based in New Haven, Conn. “But abortion does not promote human rights; abortion is contrary to human rights.
“Only a culture of life can build a true culture of human rights,” Anderson said. “Death can never be a solution, whether it’s abortion, euthanasia or assisted suicide.”
A number of Catholic bishops took part in the march.
“We want to care for life from conception to natural death,” said Quebec Archbishop Gerald Cyprien Lacroix, primate of Canada. “We come here today to tell the whole of Canada and our people here we have elected to serve the great people of Canada: we want life to be respected, we want life to be celebrated and we want to protect life every day of the year.”
Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins also briefly addressed the crowd, encouraging them in their support for life at all stages, while Valleyfield Bishop Noel Simard spoke about the importance of life as a human rights issue, and invited those present to attend the May 18 Springtime March against euthanasia in Quebec City.
“There is no good reason to be aborting Canadian babies,” said Conservative MP David Anderson. “And there are 100,000 good reasons why we should stand with mothers and fathers who are faced with a difficult choice each year.”
Conservative MP James Lunney referred to the Scripture passages etched on the Peace Tower, noting one of them says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
“A lot of Canadians have perished since the law was struck down (in 1988), nearly three million Canadians in the most vulnerable state,” he said.
“This is the most unjust form of discrimination facing our nation today,” said Campaign Life Coalition youth organizer Alissa Golob. “A woman’s right to choose is resulting in there being no more women.”
Faytene Kryskow-Grasseschi, who, with 24 other women, took part in a 200-km walk from Montreal to Ottawa to mark the 25 years Canada has had no law restricting abortion, told the crowd women were being “bullied into abortion” and “in the name of choice so many women feel they were pulled into an abortion decision they never really wanted.”
About 20 pro-life MPs and Senators stood on the steps of Parliament Hill.
“These men and women who are pro-life MPs of whatever party are under tremendous pressure to keep quiet, to toe the line, to not stand up for life,” said former Liberal MP Pat O’Brien, who introduced the MPs. “They defy that pressure and they join with you."
Conservative MP Rob Anders urged the marchers to take their enthusiasm to the riding level and to “seriously consider getting 10 of your friends to support this cause when nominations come up in 2015.”
“These men (and women) behind me have taken strong stands and they have made enemies for doing so,” Anders said.
Conservative MP Kevin Sorenson shared how he had walked his adopted daughter down the aisle last year, and present at her wedding were her biological mother and father.
“At the wedding they realized they made the right choice.”
“Abortion kills more people in the black community than all other causes of death combined,” said Radiance Foundation co-founder Ryan Bomberger, who was the keynote speaker for the Youth Banquet following the march.
“We’ve seen the horrors of human history when governments decide who is human and who isn’t,” he said, noting the genocide of indigenous peoples, the slave trade, Pol Pot’s killing fields in Cambodia, the Nazi Holocaust as examples.
Bomberger said he represents “the one per cent that is used to justify all abortions” — his biological mother was raped. She had the courage to give birth to him, he said.
Radiance Foundation is a pro-life educational foundation that has taken on the “institution of abortion” in the form of Planned Parenthood and a number of other organizations.
“You know what happens when you’re unafraid to speak the truth?” he asked. “All hell breaks loose. And when all hell breaks loose, chains fall off and people are set free.”