VICTORIA, B.C. (CCN) — Hundreds of pro-life witnesses gathered in Victoria for the annual March for Life in the provincial capital, marching through downtown streets carrying pro-life signs and banners before rallying at the legislature to hear speakers, including Vancouver Archbishop Richard Smith.
The Victoria event drew families, clergy, students, and supporters from across British Columbia for speeches, prayer, and music focused on the protection of unborn life and care for vulnerable people. Organizers also highlighted concerns surrounding euthanasia and assisted suicide.
In a change from the custom of the Vancouver Archbishop having a pre-march Mass in his own diocese, Archbishop Smith celebrated at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Victoria.
In his homily, Archbishop Smith acknowledged that many pro-life advocates can feel discouraged by what he described as “a powerful juggernaut moving forward and expanding in a manner that appears irresistible,” pointing to abortion and the expansion of euthanasia in Canada.
But he urged participants not to lose hope, saying, “God is at work, God is on the move, and God is an unstoppable force. His saving will simply cannot be thwarted by human iniquity.”
“This is why we march,” he said. “It is incumbent upon all of us to look for any and every opportunity to witness to the truth of God’s own love for life.”
Speaking later in front of the legislature, Archbishop Smith said the annual March for Life was part of a broader effort to build “a culture of life” through speaking, celebrating, and serving.
“Our march is a very peaceful event, and a great occasion for us to witness to the beauty of all life,” he said, quoting Pope Benedict, that every human being is “willed, loved and necessary.”
He also said society needs “radically transformed human relationships, defined no longer by an extreme individualism and a false notion of freedom, but by a self-giving love that welcomes the other as gift.”
Meanwhile in Ottawa, it took almost 25 minutes for a crowd organizers said numbered in the thousands to inch its way from Parliament Hill down Wellington Street to Elgin Street during the National March for Life .
At a rally before the march, organizer Debbie Duval told the crowd, “We march on a Thursday, in Ottawa, because that’s when our legislators are sitting in the House of Commons. We want them to hear us. We want them to know we’re here.”
Matthew Wojciechoski of Campaign Life Coalition said participants were calling on Parliament to enact legal protections “for all human beings from conception up to natural death.”
The march marked the anniversary of the 1969 omnibus bill that decriminalized abortion in Canada and adopted the theme “Follow me.”
Campaign Life Coalition president Jeff Gunnarson asked participants to pray for founder Jim Hughes, who is hospitalized with pneumonia. “Many of us are standing here today because of sacrifices he made long before we arrived,” Gunnarson said.
Featured speaker Aleš Primc, a Slovenian pro-life leader whose movement helped overturn that country’s assisted suicide law in a referendum, told marchers that “saying hello is the start of recognizing our shared humanity.”
American lawyer Rebecca Kiessling, conceived in rape and now a pro-life advocate, said she survived because abortion laws at the time protected unborn children. “The law matters,” she said.
Several other March for Life events are still scheduled across Canada later this month and into June. The Toronto March for Life will take place May 23 at Queen’s Park North, followed by marches in Halifax on May 30 and Charlottetown on June 6.
With files from Canadian Catholic News
