A quiet march

Michael Coren on today’s March for Life in Ottawa.

Today, the 12th annual March for Life will take place in Ottawa. Up to 10,000 people, half of them under the age of 25, will walk, sing and pray for an end to abortion in Canada. If past patterns are repeated, there will be hardly any mention of the event in the media — a contrast with the numerous protests a fraction of the size that tend to receive full and fulsome coverage. There has never been any abusive or violent behaviour from the participants — though there are occasionally obscene and provocative gestures from opponents –and numerous MPs and religious and ethnic leaders will attend. The march is also intensely reflective of the authentic Canada, unlike most other demonstrations: Conservative and Liberal, able-bodied and handicapped, black and white, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, from every region and background.

One would think this diversity would make it almost worthy of a heritage moment on the CBC or a government grant. Instead it makes the shapers of establishment opinion extraordinarily uncomfortable. As does, of course, any mention of the abortion issue. What one regularly hears from the marchers is best described as an informed incredulity. Why, they ask, is someone automatically excluded from the public square and considered extreme if they merely embrace the scientific proof that life begins at conception?

I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for the CBC to do a heritage moment about it. OK, so the mainstream media is ignoring the issue. Fine. Nobody said our job would be easy (heck, even the weather seems against us today – it’s cold in windy and quite grey in Ottawa this morning). But so what? See you there!

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Véronique adds: Actually, the march was mentioned on CBC radio’s 4 pm newscast. It wasn’t last year.

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