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Wednesday 26 August 2015

An apology to Canada's Pro-Life Activists

Last week I posted about the Canadian election and a perceived failure by pro-life activists to move the issue forward politically. I opined that the movement has suffered because of a lack of political action within the mainstream parties only to end up with splintered votes. I also opined that an "all or nothing" approach has been taken and therefore, no progress has been made on any legislation to gradually scale-back abortion to the point where it can eventually be eliminated.

My words were offensive to two people, at least and probably more and probably many, many more; I offended two people for whom I have the utmost respect. Their work in the past and present and what they will do in the years to come is immeasurable and at times, heroic. When I was living as a Catholic-in-name-only, they were fighting the battle. I did nothing to further the cause. I have offended them. It was out of ignorance, not out of malice and my opinion was ill-informed and I was wrong. 


The whole gang at LifeSiteNews deserve our credit. While this was intended as a slight against LifeSiteNews or anyone there, certainly the good people there took offense, and rightly so; no doubt so have people at Campaign Life Coalition. I have been duly corrected and I am sorry for the offense which I caused.


It seems from the comments that I was not alone in ignorance of the history, particularly the betrayal by Canada's bishops. 


With the permission of Steve Jalsevac, I am reprinting his emailed letter to me. It served as a wake-up call for me and for any in Canada that shared the same opinion, I hope it does for you too. Perhaps, as a few commenters indicated, Steve should write a book to document this pathetic history:


David, your evaluation of past pro-life efforts is distressingly uninformed. The view from the inside of Campaign Life Coalition and other groups is vastly different than the brutally harmful, inaccurate history that you present. The claim that the movement "has taken an "all or nothing" approach" generates a fury within me because some may actually believe that falsehood (I don't say it is intentional). 
Unless you were right there with us you cannot understand all that was attempted and the devastating repeat betrayals, and destructive Catholic and other opposition and extreme disappointments that were experienced by the pro-life movement in this nation. 
The situation in Canada is dramatically different politically, legally, religiously and culturally from the United States. So don't look to the US and say, if they did it there it should also have worked here. Some things did, but many did not simply because it was Canada. We have tried just about every US strategy and also developed our own unique approaches. As well, the US successes have been exaggerated. Sure they elected many pro-lifers and were thankfully able to pass a large amount of incremental legislation, but abortion is still very common in the US. Abortion stats are still huge every year. The culture of death is far from being ended, We are, however, much encouraged by the recent video exposes of Planned Parenthood and the strong pro-life calibre of many of the Republican leadership candidates. 


Just try to get a Canadian pro-lifer nominated in Canada. The nomination wars are dirtier in Canada with the parties being tyrannical and blind to nomination rules when they have certain candidates that they want to be the nominee, which have never been pro-life. The Canadian political system is more amenable to tyrants than the US system with its stronger democratic traditions and checks and balances. However, freedom has deteriorated in the US under the Obama administration.

To state that incremental measures were not attempted betrays profound lack of awareness of what actually did take place. I myself was in a leadership position during attempts to gain some of the incremental advances (conscience legislation, defunding, parental rights) introduced. Exhausting work was put into consulting with MPs and MPPs and experts, preparing documents and legislative proposals and more, but with the mostly consistent result of the power elites ruthlessly shutting us down before we barely got to stage one or past the first vote. And of course you must be aware of Stephen Harper’s constant blocking of any chance of success of even the most reasonable incremental measures that the public overwhelmingly would support.

As you well know, there has been no religious leadership anywhere in Canada comparable to that in some quarters in the United States. In fact, terribly damaging, behind the scenes and also deliberate undermining of our efforts by Canadian bishops and the CCCB are one of the great scandals in the Church in Canada. The Catholic Church has far more influence in Canada than in the United States because Catholicism is the dominant Christian religion here.

As the result of a massive (that is no exaggeration), united effort by all the major pro-life organizations in Canada, we were extremely close to winning  protection for the unborn in the Charter of rights. However, this was suddenly lost at the last minute because of Cardinal Carter's betrayal via a secret agreement with Pierre Trudeau that ensured public funding for Ontario Catholic Schools. We were devastated by Carter's betrayal. Grown leaders were in tears.

The omnibus bill that legalized abortion, divorce and more in Canada was quietly given approval to John Turner in a private meeting with the CCCB  executive before the vote while the pro-life movement across the nation was vigorously opposing the bill. It was years before we learned of this betrayal. 

The CCCB seriously undermined the huge, united effort of the entire Canadian pro-life movement to pass the motion proposed by MP Gus Mitges to amend the Charter to include the unborn, which had a good chance of succeeding. 

The CCCB also actively undermined the efforts of the pro-life movement to defeat the Reproductive Issues Bill C-13 because of serious flaws in the bill. 

It took several years for more than one retired bishop to come to the March for Life in Ottawa. Distributing flyers simply noting the positions of the various local candidates on the life and family issues is almost universally forbidden by bishops in Canada, whereas such distribution is very common and encouraged in many dioceses in the United States. So a crippling handicap that the Canadian pro-life movement has had all along has been roadblocks put in our way to prevent the most natural pro-life voting base from becoming well informed at election or even nomination times. Worse, most of the bishops have been strong Liberal Party or NDP supporters, no matter what the position of the candidate on the life issues. 

It was Catholics who supported and elected lesbian Kathleen Wynne as an MPP. Friar Rick of St. Bonaventure's parish took her around door to door to homes in his riding promoting her election. 

The Canadian media, political and religious culture is far more ideologically uniform than in the US which encourages a greater diversity of views. In Canada, rocking the boat of the established consensus is greatly frowned upon. Lukewarmness is considered a virtue that must be enforced.

Opposition to aborted baby photos is stronger in Canada. The United States has nothing like the enormous, negative influence of Quebec on religion and politics on the entire nation. The majority of PMs since the 60s have been Quebecers - a province of mostly faithless, rebellious, former Catholics who despise Christian morality. Thankfully, there were a good number of wonderful bishop appointments in the province under Benedict. But change will take a long time.

There was a pro-life caucus in the Harris government, but it was essentially shut down by the premier and his thugs. What was done to MPP Jim Brown who worked closely with us on a proposed conscience protection bill, and more, was like something out of a Mafia movie. That very good man was crucified by the party leadership simply for acting according to his conscience and they made him a nervous wreck who forever left politics. Harris welcomed gay activist Jaime Watt into his inner circle and from then on all pro-life, pro-family efforts were toast. A gay activist was appointed to head the Human Rights Commission and the Harris government, more than any other in the nation, led the way to eventual federal passage of same-sex "marriage;.

We worked very closely with the PC Family Issues Caucus and Ontario MPP Frank Klees to pass his parental rights on health care Bill 91 which would simply have required that parents be advised of health care treatments planned for their children. The bill was supported by 34 Tory backbenchers from the PC “family issues caucus". But Mike Harris and his cabinet thugs betrayed their own caucus members and joined with the opposition to vote against and defeat the bill. See my report card on the Harris government. http://www.theinterim.com/issues/abortion/ontario-tories-have-dismal-record-on-life-issues/

I have shown you only a tiny snapshot of all that was attempted over many years. Your readers deserve more than your personal opinion, limited by your own experiences within the political system and all the whispers and lies that occur in that environment, in order to accurately make their own evaluations of what took place in the past and what should be done now.

Sorry to be so intense about this, but your comments were so far from the truth (I don't doubt the goodwill in them) and potentially damaging to the good reputations of some of the most dedicated and selfless people I have known in my life, that I felt I had no choice but to respond. These kinds of comments have been going around for years from one person to another and I can tell you that they serve no good purpose at all, other than to cause more harmful division and confusion.

Steve Jalsevac

LifeSiteNews

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems like you should have just written a blog post blaming the fairysees of the VC2 sext for the demonic baby murder in Canada. I for one would like to see LifeSite News publish a documented report of what is stated here re: CCCB and Canadian bishops re: abortion.

I realized a couple years ago that abortion would be illegal in the states and all across Europe but for the support of the blood sucking murderous perverts living fat off the blood of babies.

*Cardinal Cushing in league w/planned parenthood in the 1960s
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/catholics-and-contraception-boston-1965/?_r=0

*'catholic' Sarge Shriver VP to the 'amnesty abortion & acid' candidate in 1972 - and then abortion legalized jan 22 1973
http://www.sargentshriver.org/letters/j-bryan-hehir
http://throwthebumsoutin2010.blogspot.com/2009/03/bryan-hehir-on-caritas-abortion.html
*'catholic' ted kennedy sponsoring the FACE act which made it a felony to block the entrance of an abortion clinic and also a church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Access_to_Clinic_Entrances_Act
*catholics biden and kennedy teaming up to 'bork' prolife judges and sexually harrass clarence thomas (both teddy & jfk have women who state they paid for abortions)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNaasFvvFlE
*Theo Hesburgh (and Fairy McCarrick) workin hard w/JD Rockefeller for population control
http://rsvpamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/John-D.-Rockefeller-3rd-Theodore-M.-Hesburgh-and-the-Contraceptive-Revolution-How-the-Churchs-Teaching-Almost-Got-Changed_E.-Michael-Jones_Nov.-1993_Fidelity.pdf
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20069147,00.html
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mariocuomoreligiousbelief.htm

"t was all for him, a celebration of 96 years of a life well-lived, 70 of them as a Catholic priest from Notre Dame, Indiana.

The personal invitation from U.S. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. The applause as he entered the wood-paneled Rayburn Room on the House side of the U.S. Capitol. The intimate invocation from Theodore Cardinal McCarrick. The surprise appearance of Vice President Joe Biden....Father Hesburgh’s day trip to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday (May 22) began with a 20-minute visit in the White House with President Barack Obama."
http://news.nd.edu/news/40195-father-hesburgh-honored-in-u-s-capitol/
*Carol Keehan and the proabort & euthanasia 'nuns'
http://www.lifenews.com/2013/07/22/time-for-the-pro-abortion-catholic-health-association-to-drop-catholic/
http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/obama-credits-sr.-carol-keehan-with-passage-of-obamacare
http://catholic-citizen.com/secularfront/the-sixteen-million-dollar-nunoops-religious-sister/

Pope Francis has yet to say one word on the abortion parts for sale scandal - don't think he'll mention it in Che Square either. President of Philly World Meeting of Families meeting in Philly has just been revealed to be a pro abort and pro-gay political supporter.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/world-meeting-of-families-president-supported-pro-abortion-gay-marriage-can

It's not only in Canada but in the U.S. too that the fairysees stab the babies and those who try to save them in the back at every turn. They have the blood of 60 million babies on their hands. Woe to them.

Maureen said...

Thank you Steve for this most candid and informative piece.

If only the ordinary person was aware of what is happening--but we are often completely in the dark and we don't realize just how much work you and CLC do ---

Bless you and may you see the fruits of your labors very soon....

Maureen

Unknown said...

I would like to see someone publish a book by a reputable publisher, about the following:

"In fact, terribly damaging, behind the scenes and also deliberate undermining of our efforts by Canadian bishops and the CCCB are one of the great scandals in the Church in Canada."

It would make for a very interesting research project.

bvs said...

I would ask Steve Jalsevac to do us Catholic Canadians a great service and author, co author, co-edit or edit a book detailing the catalogue of betrayals by the CCCB, Canadian bishops and collusion between pro abort politicians and high profile priests and religious: ie the Wynn and Friar Rick campaigning.

I am deeply shaken by his letter.I had no idea that the leadership of the Church have do consistently and continuously worked to support the slaughter of un born children in Canada. I am truly sickened and close to tears.

Well I am certainly being brought down with a bang.





TLM said...

'The Smoke of Satan Has Indeed Entered the Sanctuary'.........this has been a 'Universal Catholic Apostasy' that has infiltrated every corner of the world. The realization of the betrayal to Christ and His Church by His 'Sons' crushes the very soul. It's truly paralyzing to even begin to comprehend how the Lord God, and I might add the faithful have been betrayed, in every corner of the world. I cannot imagine how things will get any worse, but Catholic eschatologists say that indeed, they will. It's hard to look at the EVIL even NOW and come away unscathed. The Blessed Mother relayed to us in several of her highly notarized and approved messages that this would happen. But.........it is one thing to read her words, and quite another to have to LIVE THEM OUT. Lord Jesus, give us the courage and strength and grace to persevere until the end.....AMEN!

Anonymous said...

I think, when you really drill down to the heart of the matter, it is the separation of the sexual function from its reproductive nature by society as a whole.

As soon as sex becomes recreation for everyone there is an inevitable wish to push boundaries. It starts in 1930 with protestants tossing out to restriction on birth control. It follows with our bishops ignoring the Holy Father with the Winnepeg Conference and now we have abortion and "equal marriage". Humanae Vitae was prophetic.

You cannot argue against abortion and gay mirage without going back to the nature of sexual function and saying contraception is wrong. Why should married couples get all the genital friction they like without the responsibility and sacrifice and joy of children.

The Winnipeg Conference and the Quiet revolution killed Canada and Quebec. But it is like a terminal cancer, although the death sentence has been received, we have to watch the body wither and die.

Maudie N Mandeville said...

While this was (not) intended as a slight

Ambiance Paintings said...

Thanks for sharing this letter. I wrote a blog post on it here: http://www.culturewitness.com/2015/09/catholic-bishops-complicit-in.html