Pro-Life Free Speech was Suppressed -May 21, 2009

March for Life 2009

Pro-life free speech was suppressed Ottawa Citizen

May 21, 2009

Re: Thousands hit Hill to protest against abortion, May 15.

I attended this year's pro-life rally on Parliament Hill for the first time. I saw thousands of people, but I sure didn't see much media presence.

In the Citizen's news story, the statement that there has been "snickering" at the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus' "secretive" reputation in the mainstream media is really kind of silly.

Every year the pro-life caucus holds a press conference at the same time as the rally. A media advisory and a press release went out to the Ottawa Press Gallery before the conference.

Perhaps if some members of the media could have taken a few minutes out from the laborious duties of their round-the-clock coverage of Larry O'Brien's trial or Brian Mulroney's inquiry, they would have had a few minutes left over to cover the Pro-Life Caucus's press conference and rally.

They would have learned something, like who some of the Pro-Life Caucus members are, as many of them attended at the press conference.

Publishing the names of members of a caucus is not normal caucus protocol -- it's up to members to self-identify if they wish.

It's ironic that the subject for this year's press conference was "pro-life free speech suppressed in Canada."

Now that's an understatement.

With the press's little to no coverage of the pro-life rally or caucus press conference, this all seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Patricia Maloney,

Ottawa