Statement on the 2021 National March for Life

May 5, 2021

The National March for Life, at its core, is a protest against the greatest human rights injustice of our age. Because of the urgency and importance of life issues like abortion and euthanasia, we have a duty to hold our legislators to account.

Due to the ongoing pandemic and lockdown in Ontario, the 2021 National March for Life in Ottawa will look different. Recognizing the risks that COVID-19 presents, the National March for Life organizing committee has prepared a week-long line-up of virtual events, including: Life on Film, a series of free movie screenings, an online Candlelight Vigil, Rose Dinner, and youth conference, and several online Masses and prayer services. More details can be found on marchforlife.ca.

In addition to our online program, a group of organizers, and local grassroots intent on marching, will be present on Parliament Hill on May 13 to demonstrate safely and prudentially in a scaled-down event, as is our constitutional right.

We encourage the thousands of Canadians who would normally attend the pro-life rally and March for Life in Ottawa and in provincial capitals across the country to devote the week to raising awareness in their families and communities. Put up signs in your house and car windows, flood the airwaves and online platforms with pro-life messaging, wear pro-life T-shirts, do pro-life sidewalk chalking, and share the message of this year’s theme—You Are Not Alone—with those who need to hear it.

Through all of thes­­­e efforts, we hope to communicate the need for legal protection for every human being from conception until natural death. The law must protect life, not sanction its termination.

Each year, a culture of fear, loneliness and abandonment is resulting in the death of thousands of Canadians through abortion or lethal injection. Each day, almost 300 Canadian women undergo an abortion, in which a baby’s body is torn from the womb through surgical or chemical means. That same day, more than 15 vulnerable Canadians will be killed by a doctor through euthanasia. Our government believes these insidious acts are being carried out in the name of “choice”. The real reason is fear, despair, and a lack of support.

It is our duty as a pro-life movement to proclaim You Are Not Alone. Where there is fear, we must offer courage. Where there is despair, hope, and where there is a lack of support, we must offer care and compassion.

COVID-19 has not diminished the criticality of our message, but heightened it.

Let us not forget that even during the ongoing pandemic…

  • children in the womb continue to be killed, as abortion has been deemed an “essential service;”
  • the federal government continues to increase funding of abortion overseas, now hundreds of millions of dollars annually;
  • a majority of parliamentarians recently voted to expand euthanasia and assisted suicide, despite exposed cracks in our health care system and a worsening mental health crisis.

We must speak up!

We remind all those standing for life to be aware of the risks and the health measures you should follow to reduce those risks: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/zones-and-restrictions. Please check marchforlife.ca regularly leading up to May 13 for the latest updates.

For life,

Debbie Duval
National Capital Organizer
Campaign Life Coalition
On behalf of the National March for Life Organizing Committee