The Current Situation in Canada Regarding Life Issues Is Dismal.
Canada’s March for Life is held every year on the Thursday on or before May 14th, which is a Day of Infamy for Canadian pro-lifers. On that day in 1969, the government led by Pierre Elliot Trudeau passed a law decriminalizing abortion. Less than 55 years later, Justin Trudeau, Pierre’s son and one of the most pro-abortion politicians in the world, governs Canada. Justin, like his father, calls himself a Catholic, but actively promotes policies and laws on abortion and other issues that are contrary to Catholic teaching. Today, approximately 100,000 Canadian babies are killed in their mothers’ wombs annually by abortion.
Abortion
Following the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs, 43 US states now prohibit abortion after a specified point in the pregnancy. By contrast, Canada has no laws restricting abortion. Abortion is legal in Canada from conception right up to birth.
Worse yet, sizeable majorities of Canadians support this state of affairs. Sixty-one percent do not want to re-open the debate about abortion and 56% believe abortion should be permitted whenever a woman decides she wants one. Even the leader of Canada’s main “conservative” party is adamant that his party will not re-open the abortion debate if elected.
Euthanasia
The situation in Canada is only marginally better when it comes to the issue of medically assisted suicide. In 2016, for the first time, Canada permitted someone diagnosed as terminally ill to obtain ‘medical assistance’ in ending his or her life. In March 2021, the Canadian Parliament passed a law allowing those who simply suffer from a mental illness to obtain medical assistance in ending their lives.
In 2021, over 10,000 Canadians ended their lives with state-funded medical assistance, accounting for 3.3% of all deaths in Canada. In a recent poll, more than a quarter of Canadians agreed that medically assisted suicide should be available for those suffering from homelessness or poverty. Thankfully, there has been a pushback from conservative politicians and others on this issue and the Trudeau government has delayed implementation of medically assisted suicide for the mentally ill to March 2024 at the earliest.
The Catholic Church teaches that abortion and suicide are grave evils, which cannot be condoned by the State. Thirty percent of Canadians identify themselves as Catholic but very few Canadians subscribe to the Church’s teaching on these issues.
What’s to Be Done?
How can Canada be saved when a majority of its citizens hold views contrary to God’s law?
Canada needs Our Lady of Fatima. The fulfillment of the Fatima Message is the only solution to the problems that bedevil Canada and all the countries of the world.
2023 March for Life
That was the message The Fatima Center brought to the 2023 March for Life, held on May 11th in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa. Once again this year, the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Canada – The Fatima Center’s greatest treasure – was carried in procession during the March.
When Fatima Center staff and volunteers arrived with the Statue on the street in front of Parliament Hill, we were denied entry into the grassy area in front of the Parliament buildings where a large rally was getting started. Police said we needed a permit to bring the Statue into the rally. So we put the Statue on its platform on the sidewalk and started handing out Fatima in Brief pamphlets, Brown Scapulars (with a small flyer explaining the devotion), and rosaries to March for Life participants. Many who saw the Statue touched it, knelt before it or took a photograph of it.
The March for Life through the streets of Ottawa started around 1:30 p.m. The Pilgrim Virgin statue was carried in the March by the boys from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy, a boarding school located near Kitchener, Ontario and run by the Society of St. Pius X. The boys were up that morning at 4:30 a.m. for Mass and breakfast before boarding their school bus for the five-hour drive to Ottawa.
The sight of the schoolboys in their blazers and ties, walking in procession and holding aloft the Pilgrim Virgin Statue, while two traditional priests in cassocks led the Rosary and the singing of hymns captured the attention of all who saw it and caused many to join our group on the March.
Along the way were protestors, though fewer than in years past. It was sad to see a small group of high school girls holding pro-abortion signs but heartening to see them deep in conversation with a March for Life participant who had stopped to engage them. The biggest group of protestors gathered near the end of the March across the street from Parliament. When they saw the Pilgrim Virgin Statue, their obscene chants rose in volume but they were drowned out by the hymn being led by the priests and sung by our group: “Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!” (Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ rules!)
When we returned to Parliament Hill, the police let us onto the grassy area in front of the Parliament buildings, where all in our group knelt before the statue to complete the Rosary. After Father gave his blessing, there was time to hand out more pamphlets and sacramentals and to speak with some of the marchers who had joined our group. Many asked about the Statue, The Fatima Center, and the boys’ school. Two older ladies told us how they had travelled up from Toronto that morning for the March and were so happy to be a part of it and to walk with our group.
“Sometimes, we feel so alone in this fight,” one said, “it’s so wonderful to know we’re not alone and to meet some of our allies!”
Our Lady and Her Son Reign
Justin Trudeau leads Canada from the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, where he promotes his anti-life, anti-family, and anti-Catholic agenda. Each year in May, thousands of Canadians come to Ottawa to proclaim their opposition to that agenda. Each year, in the midst of those people, raised high for all to see, is a statue of a Woman, Whose Immaculate Heart will soon triumph over Trudeau’s agenda and the agendas of all who oppose Her Son. Deus vult!