July 11, 2025
July 11, 2025
Dear Maureen, I’m Pete Baklinski, and this is your Canadian Pro-Life News Bits – where I let you know what’s happening on our country’s pro-life and pro-family front.
Some of you may have heard by now that LifeSiteNews is undergoing some changes. You can find out more about that in the post below.
It’s almost hard to believe, but the peaceful and prayerful Life Chain demonstration has been running for 35 years in Canada. My colleague Josie Luetke has reached into our archives and pulled out some amazing photos of what Life Chain looked like in 1991. Make sure you mark your calendar for this year’s event on Oct. 5.
The City of Edmonton is considering censoring pro-life speech by requiring envelopes and warning labels to be affixed to pro-life postcards and flyers dropped in mailboxes. These bylaws are unconstitutional. Similar ones have already been overturned in some Ontario cities after the threat of legal action from pro-life groups. Canadian cities need to realize that pro-lifers have as much right to speak and convey their messages as everybody else.
There are two excellent stories from our summer interns. One is on the dismal state of Catholic schools in Ontario; the other tells the author’s journey into the pro-life movement. Both are well-deserving of your time.
There’s good news from the U.S. pro-life front. Under the Trump administration, the pro-life movement has achieved the long-sought goal of defunding Planned Parenthood. While the bill defunds the abortion giant for only one year, this nevertheless marks a momentous and historic victory for pro-life advocates. Make sure you check out coverage of this victory in The Catholic Register report, which features comments from our president, Jeff Gunnarson.
Don’t miss the must-see video of the week, in which an Alabama woman gave birth to her baby on a public sidewalk outside a birth centre—and was overcome by joy. She didn’t have time to make it in!
Don’t miss my reflection at the end about how legalizing euthanasia (MAiD) in Canada has opened up a Pandora's box, the horrors of which we are only starting to realize in the real-life stories of the victims.
LifeSiteNews: Announcement
"LifeSiteNews announces that John-Henry Westen is no longer CEO and Editor-in-Chief following a recent board vote. He is now on a well-earned sabbatical."
Campaign Life Coalition: 35 years of this pro-life witness in Canada
“In most locations, Life Chain will take place on Sunday, October 5—just under 3 months away. 2025 marks the 35th year of this pro-life witness in Canada.”
Catholic Register: U.S. abortion cuts give hope to Canadian pro-lifers
“Jeff Gunnarson, the national president of Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of the Canadian pro-life movement, applauded his U.S. counterparts for achieving a long-desired goal through the Trump administration.”
CBC: Edmonton to consider mandating envelopes, warnings for graphic anti-abortion flyers
“Paquette said he regularly receives complaints from residents coming across flyers in their mailboxes with pictures of aborted fetuses.”
Comment: If citizens don’t like seeing images of the reality of what abortion looks like, they should ban abortion, not the images. This is a classic case of shooting the messenger.
CLC Youth: My Pro-Life Journey to Campaign Life Coalition’s Summer Internship
“I remember when the idea of abortion first started circulating on my social media. I didn’t know much about it, but I was beginning to be influenced by their focus on empathy.”
LifeSite: Canada’s euthanasia regime is already killing the disabled. It’s about to get worse
“There is still time to stop this expansion, and we must doing everything we can to do so. The lives of people with disabilities depend on it.”
CLC Youth: A Reflection on Catholic Schools: Frighteningly Little Faith
“While, at the moment, our Catholic school system has slipped from being the great institution that it once was, I have hope that we can work to turn it around.”
LifeNews: President Donald Trump Signs Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood
“President Donald Trump signed a landmark bill on Thursday, July 4, 2025, that prohibits federal Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion companies.”
LifeNews: A Doctor Suggested Abortion Because I Might Have Down Syndrome, Thank God My Parents Refused
“The day my parents went in for my sonogram, their hearts were full of joy and excitement. They were eager to find out my gender and celebrate the new life they were bringing into the world, but they would leave that appointment distraught.”
Life Issues Institute: Life Is Winning: Major Pro-Life Victories Signal a Turning Tide
“America’s unborn babies and the pro-life movement have achieved amazing victories recently!”
LifeNews: Pro-Life Group Gives 400,000 Diapers to Churches, Families and Homeless Shelters
“Churches, homeless shelters, and families in Washington, D.C., were among the recipients of nearly 400,000 diapers collected and distributed last weekend by the Pro-Life Generation (PLG), which rallied June 28 on Capitol Hill to support life and urge Congress to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.”
Campaign Life Coalition
Lila Rose
Pro-life Canadian Man
“In a dramatic and unexpected turn of events, an Alabama woman gave birth to her third child on a sidewalk. After a 40-minute drive to a pregnancy center, Mercedes Bolden's water broke just as she arrived, leaving her no time to make it inside the hospital.”
Maureen, an elderly married couple has gone public in sharing how a Canadian doctor pushed MAiD on the ailing husband, behind the wife’s back. The wife, a woman named Barbara from Alberta, is now sounding the alarm.
Her husband, hospitalized for a treatable condition, was quietly offered MAiD—euthanasia death— by a doctor, without her knowledge.
He was shocked. She was horrified. This is how euthanasia is creeping into "care."
The husband, age 67, was admitted to the hospital with a pulmonary embolism. It’s a serious condition, but treatable.
Then, while alone, the doctor told him: “I’m embarrassed to ask you this… but I’m required to ask: Do you want to end this?”
The husband immediately replied, "No."
The scary part is that MAiD was offered not because he asked. It was offered because, the doctor said, the man was over the age of 65.
“I’m required by federal mandate to ask…,” the doctor allegedly told the man.
The doctor admitted it felt wrong to offer MAiD, but still posed the question. And, this happened while the husband was alone and groggy from morphine.
This is how vulnerable patients are being approached in Canadian hospitals.
The man’s wife, who is sharing this story, fears that this is happening far more often than people realize.
“The narrative has shifted—from patients requesting MAiD to doctors offering it preemptively,” she said.
How many others, groggy, scared, or alone, say "Yes," without fully understanding what they’re agreeing to?
Legalizing MAiD in Canada has opened a Pandora's box, turning healthcare providers into executioners and vulnerable patients into victims.
It never should have been permitted.
This is what happens when a culture loses sight of the inherent dignity of every human life.
It’s time for citizens to speak up: Canada’s sick and elderly deserve better.
Be bold and daring for life!
Pete Baklinski
Director of Communications
Campaign Life Coalition
Follow Pete on X: @petebaklinski