OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Editor’s note: The following is a speech made by Campaign Life’s Director of Political Operations Jack Fonseca at a press conference yesterday, May 8, 2024 during the run-up to today’s National March for Life in Ottawa.

Over the past few years, Canadians have witnessed a dramatic spike in state censorship laws which target so-called “unacceptable views,” to quote Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is becoming known internationally as a totalitarian ruler.

These censorship laws are springing up provincially – and even municipally – and have the effect of erasing the constitutional right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly for Canadians who believe in the right-to-ife.

The millions of us who believe that abortion is a form of child murder are being systematically stripped of the ability to advocate for the right-to-life of babies in the womb.

We contend that Justin Trudeau, as the most pro-abortion PM in Canadian history, through his non-stop decade and longer of falsely promoting “abortion access” as some kind of “right,” is largely responsible for the sudden surge in pro-death municipal and provincial laws. Trudeau deliberately created an atmosphere amongst leftist politicians to allow them to be unashamed in their promotion of child murder, and indeed to proudly champion it as a right. Trudeau opened the door, so to speak, and these lower level politicians walked through it.

For example, in Manitoba, the socialist NDP government has moved Bill 8 to criminalize peaceful pro-life expression – and even silent prayer – on all taxpayer owned public sidewalks within a radius of 50 metres around every abortion facility. Let’s call it a “No Free Speech Bubble Zone law.” And with its passage, the right to protest will disappear, in a dramatic violation of Canada’s constitution.

Imagine the following scenario. A little old Catholic grandma is praying the rosary, silently, on a public sidewalk outside an abortuary, without uttering a single word. Keep in mind, as a taxpayer, she has the right to be on public property. But, along come the police, arrest her and little old grandma goes to prison. For what? Quietly praying without speaking a single word, nor even holding a sign? Without any action that could be remotely considered violent or threatening? Is this justice? Is this a free country?

No. It is not.

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Manitoba is following Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and Nova Scotia who all passed similar “No free speech zone” legislation between 2016 to 2020. Do you notice that these tyrannical laws were all passed during the Prime Ministership of Justin Trudeau?

Even cities are getting in on the tyrannical censorship action. The Cities of London and St. Catharines in Ontario recently passed a bylaw to criminalize the delivery of pro-life flyers to homes. The City of Guelph just banned a pro-life bus ad. All of these cruel and dictatorial censorship laws have the same goal: to silence Canadians who are trying to defend the human rights of preborn children.

The theme of tomorrow’s 27th annual National March for Life is, “I will never forget you,” a passage from Chapter 49 of the Prophet Isaiah, in which God promises He will never forget any human being He has created, specifically mentioning those whom He formed in the womb and called by name. The establishment of No Free Speech Zones and the restriction of right-to-life flyer distribution by provincial and municipal governments seek to make society “forget” the child in the womb.

But they won’t succeed. As a pro-life movement which is millions strong, we repeat the scripture to every Canadian child in his or her mother’s womb, “I will never forget you!”

We will not forget you. You may be voiceless, but we won’t be silenced. We will never stop until you are safe.

And there are signs that these totalitarian attempts at strangling the voices of pro-lifers will not succeed. The City of St. Catharine’s has been sued in court by a pro-life group over its pro-life flyer restriction. Even legal staff for the City of Toronto recently submitted to City Council a recommendation to abandon a municipal censorship law similar to that passed by London and St. Catharine’s.

We are human rights defenders and we’ll continue being a voice for the voiceless, in spite of this Trudeau-inspired climate of censorship.

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