Happy New Year friends! 2016 was quite the year, and although there were ups and downs, this blog is about the ups. Specifically the top 10 pro-life “ups” in Canada showing the movement is going strong and the victories are just beginning!

1. Scott’s Abortion Clinic Closed



In January 2016, it was announced on their website that the Scott’s Abortion Clinic in downtown Toronto was closing its doors after 29 years. Abortionist Robert Scott ran the clinic with his wife Maria Corsillo after getting arrested with notorious abortionist Henry Morgentaler in the 1980’s. In 1994 NDP Premier Bob Rae brought in a “temporary injunction” which existed until the clinic’s closure. Prisoner of conscience Linda Gibbons had been arrested there over 10 times by breaking the injunction to offer abortion-minded women information about alternative, life-giving options. To read more about my thoughts on the closing of the clinic click here.

2. Sam Oosterhoff & Glen Motz were elected

Anyone who reads my blog or follows RightNow knows that the only way we’ll start passing pro-life legislation both provincially and federally in Canada is if we start actively nominating and electing pro-life candidates across the country who will vote in favour of it. Despite 2016 being in between election cycles, we were still able to elect two more strong, pro-life politicians in Ontario and Alberta through by-elections in Niagara West-Glanbrook and Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner. The election of 19-year old Sam Oosterhoff was especially momentous given his “underdog” status and age. Over in Medicine Hat, the candidates in the election were not silenced when it came to abortion, but rather fought about who was more pro-life. To read more on newly elected MPP Sam Oosterhoff’s victory click here. To read more about pro-life MP Glen Motz’s victory, click here.



3. Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette was outspoken against physician-assisted suicide

Winnipeg Centre Member of Parliament Liberal Robert-Falcon Ouellette made headlines on multiple occasions throughout the debate surrounding Bill C-14 by raising awareness about the harmful effects physician-assisted suicide has on aboriginal communities and even voting against his own party when they tried to stop debate from continuing in the House of Commons. In a CBC article he said, “‘We must fight the spirit of suicide. We must work each and every day to defeat it.” In an impassioned speech given in the House of Commons in May, he said, “From an indigenous perspective, I look at this bill and I cannot support it, because it leads to a place where I do not believe we are looking out for the interests of all people within our society. It is not allowing us to fully comprehend the needs of everyone who makes up Canadian societies, but really, it is taking us down a path that is very dangerous, and we do not know where it ends.” To read the full speech, click here.



4. Hush documentary was released



Pro-information documentary HUSH, directed by Punam Kumar Gill was released on July 1st, 2016 across the country which created an iron-clad case outlying the negative long-term physical and mental health effects of abortion. Gill, a Canadian filmmaker who identifies as pro-choice, said she wanted to find out the truth about abortion risks and whether they are real, after she learned that her own late-term miscarriage may have affected her risk of breast cancer. The documentary featured people on all sides of the abortion debate including abortionists, media pundits and healthcare professionals, making the medical evidence irrefutable that abortion harms women. To learn more about HUSH and how to bring it to your community click here.



5. CPC leadership race brought aboard 4 candidates with perfect pro-life voting records

Leadership contenders across the country launched their bid for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race in 2016, including four candidates with perfect pro-life voting records, Erin O’Toole, Andrew Scheer, Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux. Two of those candidates, Trost and Lemieux, have raised the abortion issue during their bid already. Many have been outspoke on life issues as Members of Parliament, including Scheer, Trost and Lemieux. Be sure to sign-up on RightNow’s website here to see how each leadership candidate is rated after the entry cut-off in February!

6. Jason Kenney announced bid for leadership of the Progressive Conservative party of Alberta and promises to “unite the right”

Former Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney resigned as Member of Parliament for Calgary Midnapore to run for leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. Kenney is arguably one of the most high-profile pro-life politicians in Canada, and has been quite successful in his bid so far. In his first week in the race, Kenney alone out-fundraised the entire PC party during the three months of the second quarter of 2016. Not only that, but he’s also won the majority of all of the delegates in 2016 for the convention in March (where they will vote for a new leader). Notorious abortion supporter Sandra Jansen, who was also running for leadership of the party, crossed the floor to join Alberta’s NDP prior to Christmas saying the PC’s were no longer “progressive” enough. To read more about Kenney’s leadership bid, click here.



7. Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen’s Bill C-243 passed 2nd reading

Liberal backbencher Mark Gerretsen put forward Bill C-243 after a welder from Kingston was temporarily left without income because the hazards of her job forced her to stop working early into her pregnancy. She was forced to eventually move out of her home and stay with friends until she was able to work again. The bill was put forward to allow women to shift their maternity leave to protect their health and pregnancy. Despite the fact that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau voted against the bill, and whipped the entire cabinet to do the same, it was because the NDP and Conservatives voted in favour of it that it had enough support to pass. To read more, click here.



8. Hospitals banned physician-assisted suicide

After Bill C-14 was passed in the House of Commons and in the Senate this past summer legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Canada, various hospitals across the country including Concordia in Winnipeg and Bruyère in Ottawa said they will not offer the “service” to patients. Bruyère made national headlines given it is currently the biggest source of palliative care in Ottawa, stuck by it’s decision.

9. Bill C-225 (Cassie & Molly’s Law) was tabled in Parliament, renewed discussion on unborn victims of crime

In February, MP Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton–Melville) tabled her first private member’s bill, Bill C-225, “The Protection of Pregnant Women and Their Preborn Children Act”, otherwise known as Cassie and Molly’s Law. The bill would have amended the Criminal Code to create a new offence for violent criminals who knowingly injure or cause the death of a preborn child while committing a criminal offence against a pregnant woman. The bill was created after 31-year old Cassandra Kaake was brutally killed in her home in Windsor, Ontario while 7 months pregnant with her daughter Molly. Her killer was only charged with one count of murder despite the fact that two people were killed in this senseless crime. Although the bill was defeated in the House of Commons, it renewed discussion around unborn victims of crime throughout the country, was backed by a variety of “pro-choice” organizations, including the Native Women’s Association of Canada and even got the votes of almost every CPC Member of Parliament.



10. Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov was appointed to the Senate

Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov, an internationally recognized expert in palliative care was appointed to the Senate in October. He has been outspoken against allowing physician-assisted suicide for those with mental illness as well as Canada’s failure in providing palliative care. He is a distinguished professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and director of the Manitoba Palliative Care Research Unit at CancerCare Manitoba, and he holds the Canada Research Chair in Palliative Care, among other roles. He was named an officer of the Order of Canada last year.

If you think the pro-life movement is losing, these victories only show us that Canadians are refusing to participate in life-ending procedures, pro-life politicians across Canada are serious contenders for leadership positions, irrefutable pro-life information is being uniquely dispersed through the new media changing the hearts and minds of people across the country about abortion, and more and more pro-life politicians are getting elected. If you want to see these victories only continue to grow in 2017, join us today. The beginning of the end of abortion in Canada starts RightNow.