After some of the 40 or so protesters at our "We Need A Law" event on Saturday began tromping on our flags and pulling them out of the ground, the Powell River Pro-Life president approached a woman and her son to say we didn't want the flags pulled up yet [“City responds to anti-abortion event at Willingdon Beach,” June 22.
The woman stopped what she was doing and moved on. Shortly thereafter, she returned to say she had been pro-choice, but based solely on the demeanour and reasonableness of our group, she wanted copies of the pamphlets we were handing out and said she was re-evaluating her beliefs.
A number of the protesters were clearly agitated and became increasingly so as time went on. Around noon, some of them began pulling our flags out of the ground.
The RCMP was called and one man was arrested and taken away by the police, at which point we ended the display.
Our position is quite simple and certainly not extreme. We believe Canada needs to bring its laws into line with accepted international standards when it comes to abortion policy. Most countries in the European Union, for example, do not allow abortion after the first trimester except under certain circumstances, such as risk to a woman's life or health.
Canada is the only democracy in the world with no abortion law. Abortions in Canada can be done at any time and for any reason or for no reason at all.
But this entire event begs a few questions. Why such violent emotion from the protesters? Why such fear? What were the protesters afraid Powell River residents might learn? What did they want to hide?
J. Fraser Field
Powell River Pro-Life secretary
