Saying Good-bye
By Joanne Byfield

It’s tough to say farewell to someone with whom you’ve worked closely for almost four years. The difficulty is compounded when you are separated by 2200 miles, most of your contact is by phone or email and your likelihood of meeting face-to-face again is small.
           
That’s the situation I find myself in at the moment. LifeCanada’s executive director, Carroll Rees, is leaving the organization after three and a half intense years. Carroll has been at the helm during difficult financial times in which we have struggled to stay afloat and pay our bills. She spearheaded our Ontario Press Council complaint against the Globe and Mail following a vicious attack by former columnist Heather Mallick which resulted in the loss of our affinity MasterCard agreement with the Bank of Montreal. She spent time and energy writing to and speaking with representatives of breast cancer organizations trying to establish a dialogue over the research on the link between breast cancer and abortion.
           
During her time with us she oversaw three national polls with Environics Research. She implemented the national billboard campaign on the ABC (abortion-breast cancer) link and wrote most of the copy for the outstanding website that accompanied the campaign, www.AbortionBreastCancer.ca. The site has been praised by Dr. Angela Lanfranchi of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute as the best source of information on the topic and has been adopted by Australian pro-life groups as their official ABC site. When our finances restricted us from replacing our newsletter editor, Carroll took on the job. She is also the contact person, along with our office manager Karen Young, who most often responds to queries from our members, the media and others seeking information or direction. She is always professional, gracious and knowledgeable.
           
Carroll told us late last month that she is moving on to new challenges. She has worked in the pro-life movement for 26 years (She was executive director at Action Life Ottawa before joining us) and would like a change before she retires. We wish her well in whatever she takes on and we know that our loss is definitely a gain for her new employer.
           
That leaves us searching for a replacement. On page 10, you will see our ad for a new executive director. We’re looking for someone with pro-life experience who is bilingual and can help us increase our profile both within and outside pro-life circles. We need someone who has experience in development and fundraising and he or she needs to live in the Ottawa area.
           
As the national education pro-life group, our goal is to help provincial and local groups with educational projects and to ensure that our work reaches not just pro-life Canadians but also the general population who may never join a group or attend a pro-life meeting or conference but can be touched by statistics, billboards and other advertising campaigns or the stories we have to tell as educational groups.

It is a challenging task but I believe Carroll is leaving us in a healthy situation. Our 2007 billboard campaign is in the works, we’ve got a good start on a January 2008 campaign to mark the 20th anniversary of the Morgentaler Supreme Court decision that removed any legal restrictions on abortion up to the moment of birth. Our fee increase has so far been well-received by our members and we hope that will stabilize our financial base.
           
On behalf of the board of LifeCanada I want to thank Carroll Rees for all of her efforts on our behalf. We have been blessed by your presence. On a personal note, I will miss her sense of humour, her grace under pressure and those early morning telephone calls. Carroll, wherever you end up, do call occasionally just to keep in touch. Godspeed.

Joanne Byfield is the President  of LifeCanada.