LifeCanada: Standing on Guard for Life
By Peter Ryan

You may be asking, what is LifeCanada? If your first thought was, sounds like a life insurance company, you're not completely wrong. For our purpose is to insure that Canada respects all human life. (No, I have not misspelled "ensure," see your dictionary!)

We are a new, Canada-wide, pro-life organization, a successor to the (national) Alliance for Life. True to our moniker, we believe in two things: life and Canada! And our contribution to this vast country we Canadians call home is precisely to promote respect for human life from conception until natural death. That is how we "stand on guard." And stand on guard, for both life and Canada, we must. For a country that fails to respect human life- all human life-is no civilized country at all.

Social scientists sometimes characterize the Canadian identity by referring to our historical desire for "peace, order, and good government." But for Canada to be true to its identity as a land that cherishes "peace, order, and good government," it must be rock solid-like the Canadian Shield, like Newfoundland, like the Rockies-in respecting human life.

Our Prime Minister has said we have "social peace" on the issue of abortion. Yet what kind of peace can there be in a land where prenatal child-killing is the number one cause of death? What kind of order can there be when respect for life is so sorely lacking? As Mother Teresa said, if a mother can kill her own child what is to stop us all from killing one another?

And how can we have good government when the last things politicians want to consider are issues like abortion and euthanasia? "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government," said Thomas Jefferson. The recent terrorist attacks seem to have shocked some politicians into realizing the truth of Jefferson's words.

"Okay," someone may protest. "Canada needs pro-life. But we have pro-life groups now. Why do we need LifeCanada?"

Because, firstly, groups differ in scope . While most are local or provincial, Life Canada is national.

Secondly, groups differ in membership . For example, the members of Physicians for Life are physicians. But LifeCanada is for everyone who respects life.

Thirdly, groups differ in field of operation . There are three key fields of pro-life operation: social service, political lobbying, and education / culture.

Social service delivers direct help to people in crisis situations. Like the Crisis Pregnancy Centre network and Birthright. I call this the field of love.

Political lobbying aims at laws that protect all life. This is what Campaign Life Coalition does. I call this the field of justice.

The field of education/culture, the bailiwick of LifeCanada, focuses on public understanding of life issues and the way people express pro-life values in the world around them. I call this the field of truth.

You notice I say our field is both education and culture. "Education" denotes the interest we have in shaping minds and hearts and includes things like school programs, resource materials, the media, and the Internet. As a country-wide education body, LifeCanada strives to be a clearinghouse and coordinator of all manner of educational initiatives on life issues like abortion, euthanasia, and genetic / reproductive technologies. We work together with our member education groups at the provincial and local levels. But our field extends to "culture" as well. We not only want people to understand the truth about life issues internally , but to express this truth externally in word and deed, the building blocks of any culture or way of life. Thus LifeCanada is trying to build up a "culture of life" in our land, to use Pope John Paul II's beautiful phrase. We will do this in a variety of ways, including this newsletter in your hands and a presence in the national media.

LifeCanada's field-education and culture-is not only extremely important in itself, but also central to the other two pro-life fields I mentioned. When the truth about life is respected throughout society, individuals more readily make personal choices for life (social service), and governments more readily protect life (political lobbying).

I am sure I speak for the Board and members of LifeCanada when I say our prayer is that all pro-lifers will join in praying and working for every human being to be welcomed in life, respected in society, and protected in law. Only when such a dream is realized will our country truly be "strong and free." Meanwhile, there is a vital role for every pro-life individual and group.

May LifeCanada be a fruitful instrument in the service of life and country.