You may think I’m talking to others, but no, that’s my advice for myself to remain zen in face of horrible media coverage.
Today the Ottawa Citizen ran a pretty bad story, with a photo of a man wearing a hockey mask holding up a plastic doll–from Spain. I gather they had to use aggressive and unrepresentative photos from across the globe because they’ve never covered the Ottawa march before–no Canadian footage on file.
I also love how the media think they’ve hit on something new:
No longer are grey-haired grandparents wearing sandwich boards outside abortion clinics the only faces of the anti-abortion movement; youth are getting involved too, Golob said.
I don’t know how other pro-lifers feel, but so long as I’ve been involved (since 2008) there have always been youth involved. Better late than never, I suppose.
by 
I was very much involved in on-the-street activism, speaking, and writing when I was 18-21. That was 1989-1992. I was so involved, and so ground down by how much pro-lifers were hated, that I had to quit more or less cold turkey not to flunk out of university.
In 1989 I belonged to the Metro Toronto Students for Life and Ontario Students for Life. I also knew a lot of people in, and picketed with Teens Rescuing Unborn Tiny Humans (TRUTH). A year later I was also in University of Toronto Students for Life.
There were a LOT of committed teen pro-life activists in the 1980s and 1990s. Bubble-zones hadn’t been set up when I was a teen, so teen activists were a lot more visible back then. A lot of TRUTH members got hauled off to jail a lot. I knew one girl who was very often in minimum detention women’s prison just for praying outside Morgentaler’s on Harbord, and I knew one teenage guy who spent a stretch in the old Don Jail.
There was some media coverage of teen pro-life protest and teen pro-life arrest so whoever wrote this dumb article (or headline) didn’t do their homework in their archives.
Frankly, I doubt there is a period in Canada’s history since 1969 when young people were not seriously involved in the pro-life movement. The history of Toronto’s pro-life movement was well documented by Michael W. Cuneo in his badly-named “Catholics Against the Church.” Again, someone should do his/her homework.
was his motion defeated? I thought it wouldn’t come up for an actual vote for months?
Thanks, Seraphic, for this first hand account.
Monika: the Woodworth motion will be voted on in June or the fall.
I take Rescue Remedy to “remain zen”, it’s a recommendation from my Irish sister-in-law 😉
For the first time in many years, I believe that there is hope that the abortion status quo will change. The March for Life was extensively covered by the Ottawa media (including local CBC), and I heard many peolple talking about it. It is only a matter of time before Canadian society begins to question the validity of a woman’s “right to choose.”