Yesterday, Thursday, May 11th, I went to the March for Life in Ottawa on Parliament Hill. I have to say that I came with my thirteen-month old baby in a stroller, and she's a hard one to push around and take care of, so that had an effect of my experience, especially in the pictures I took. It's not easy to try getting the shot you want when you have to wheel a baby around.
<----- David MacDonald, Christian Singer
We arrived at around ten minutes to noon. It was a pretty thin crowd at that point, and my heart sank. I met Paul Lauzon there (he works for Campaign Life) and he said that buses were still coming in. That must have been some influx, because before long, there were as many as I'd ever seen. David MacDonald was on the steps of Parliament Hill with his band, playing all the songs that we know him for, and just psyching up people for the event-- those who were listening.
A lot of the folks were lounging around the grassy area with their groups. I don't know if the youth were the marjority in the March, but it sure felt like it.
At noon, the carillonner began to play. Many of you may not know this, but in the Peace Tower, there is a guy who plays the carillon-- musical bells. It's very pretty. David had to stop playing, but it was all very peaceful, so I'm sure no one minded.
I walked around trying to find good subjects for photos. This is my first digital camera, so I'm still learning how it works. I try not to take too many high-res pictures, but some of the low-res ones were horrible. I was trying to keep some for later. In retrospect, I should have taken more.
I bought myself a March for Life t-shirt, and waited for the rally to start. A lot of the rally is just that. When it was time to start, we had a prayer from an Orthodox priest, and we sang O Canada is both languages-- which is cool because the French version is more overtly Christian.
It was a pretty thin crowd of politicians this time. I suspect that since the Conservatives are in government, a number of them are either too busy, or they fear voter backlash,or they were muzzled by the government. I note that Cheryl Gallant was missing. Really too bad.
The politicians were really not that inspiring. Now, I understand they fear the Cheryl Gallant effect-- that of saying something too brazen and then having it come back to haunt you. Now I wasn't listening that hard as I had to tend to my daughter, stop her from getting too bored, and feed her a bottle, but the politicians didn't say anything exciting enough to make me turn my head.
As the politicians spoke, I could see the youth be really blasé about the whole thing, showing a "yeah-yeah-yeah-whatever" attitude. I thinkt that the groups were too spread out. It didn't feel like a rally. The atmosphere wasn't very energetic in my section. When you hold a rally, the people in it are supposed to have a "rah-rah-rah!" attitude, but that wasn't the case. I think something should be done about that next year.
The thing that caught people's eye in my area was a group of about six pro-aborts, holding up the gay rainbow flag, as some kind of counter-protest. One of them was a young man holding up a sign that said "I Love Pro-Choice Boys". I heard at least two groups of teenagers deriding this group. I suspect it was the PP infiltration I had been talking about in an earlier blog. I thought it was the PP crowd, because I think I recognized the woman who wrote the email. I went to cegep with her in Quebec City, and sure enough, there was a woman in the group about the same height (fairly short), same hair colour, same body type, with a few added pounds-- as the girl I'd went to school with, so I'm pretty sure it was her. Anyhow, they forgot their coathanger signs, and they didn't have the guts to raise any kind of objection or ruckus. A rainbow flag and a pretty wimpy sign is not a strong message. Not to mention the lack of numbers. I'm not about to tell pro-aborts how to promote their ideas, but that was not the right way.
We couldn't wait to start when the March began. There's always a big bottleneck to get off the Hill at these things. The Police closed off parts of Wellington Street, Elgin, Laurier (I think) and Bank street (where the abortuary is).
<--Abortuary
The size of the crowd was quite impressive. We stretched over several city blocks. The youth started to chant, and a whole bunch of us adults joined them. It was quite impressive. One guy on the side of the street told us to "Shut the f*ck* up, but other than that, no overt negative reactions. I think the fact that were in the thousands made people less likely to say anything, for fear of provoking the crowd.
And of course, it wouldn't have been a pro-life protest without a rosary or two being said.
Not a whole lot went on during the March per se. We mostly just walked and chanted. It lacked a bit of oomph, especially for someone like me who was on her own. I suspect the kids had a great time due to their being together.
The students went up to the steps of Parliament Hill to sing with David MacDonald. It was so fabulous. They were dancing on the steps, like it was big concert. They were really into it.
I had to leave to get home to my other daughter who was coming home from school. So I couldn't stay for the Silent No More testimony. Also, I was thirsty and they ran out of water. I was kind of exhausted, pushing my kid since eleven o'clock in the morning. I had taken the bus because I didn't want to deal with parking, but next, if I bring her, I'm definitively driving. It was also really hard because I had to drag all this stuff with me to deal with the varying weather-- a sprayer for when the sun began to heat, a bigger jacket for when it became overcast and windy. I had bought a National March for Life t-shirt, and put it over the one I was wearing.
Overall, I do think it was worth it, because even if it wasn't the snazziest rally, the general public and politicians do pay attention when people gather in those kinds of numbers in the name of a cause.
