EDMONTON - On a grey day with the chill of fall in the air, dozens of supporters of dying with dignity marched in downtown Edmonton on Wednesday, joining advocates in eight other cities across the country.

Carrying signs, members of a support group walked quiet circles around Churchill Square, sharing the venue with respectful right-to-life activists also gathered there on the day the Supreme Court began re-examining assisted suicide.

Despite philosophical differences, there was little engagement between opposing sides; at one point, they posed together for pictures on the steps at City Hall.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” Barb Gibson-Clifford, 68, said.

Having had 11 surgeries while battling cancer for nine years, the Sherwood Park grandmother had a discussion on Tuesday with her doctor about future choices.

“I live life in three-month segments,” said Gibson-Clifford, who has Stage 4 uterine leiomyosarcoma, a cousin to the disease with which Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is afflicted. “In the next year, I’ve got to have other options.

“I am delighted to be here today and support something I believe in wholeheartedly.”

Despite recent polls that show 91 per cent of Canadians and 78 per cent of Albertans agree that persons should not be compelled to endure drawn-out suffering, debate over the thorny issue generates considerable emotion.

Defying the federal government, Quebec has moved ahead with legislation to allow assisted suicide, and a private member’s bill has been tabled by a Conservative MP in Manitoba seeking to allow it.

“I came today to let people know that it’s wrong to kill babies, old people and the infirm,” Mike Kilbride said as he stood holding a sign bearing the words, Do Not Harm. “God is the one who makes those choices, not us.”

A father of five and grandfather to 10, Kilbride joined pro-life supporters in Edmonton, even though his wife, Laura, 58, died from cancer last year.

“We kept her at home until the last week, and prayed with her until the time she went,” Kilbride, 66, said quietly. “She went through a lot of pain, but offered it up to God.

“She is my hero.”

A mountain climber who specializes in ascending peaks 8,000 metres and higher, Al Hancock was so distraught by the suffering his 77-year-old mother endured while dying of bowel cancer last year’s that he joined Dying With Dignity Canada and has since become one of its spokesmen.

“I watched the horrors of my mother’s death and it still haunts me,” said Hancock, who lives in Edmonton and spoke at the gathering in Churchill Square. “She wasn’t just my mom, she was my best friend and anchor in the world and to a degree I have been adrift since then.

“The end of life doesn’t have to be terrible, it can be beautiful if you are given that choice. My mother would have been horrified to see the way she died.

“It’s just morally wrong.”

mklinkenberg@edmontonjournal.com

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