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May 13, 2026
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Canadian National March for Life guest speaker Aleš Primc arrived all the way from Slovenia with tidings of hope and perhaps a blueprint for effectuating a culture of life renewal.
Primc, the leader and co-founder of the Voice for Children and Families political party, will deliver a Parliament Hill rally address on May 14, and co-headline the Rose Dinner Gala at the Ottawa Conference & Events Centre later in the day alongside Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC).
Basking in the afterglow of guiding a successful binding national referendum that overturned a lethal medication-assisted dying law, Primc previewed his message during a May 13 press conference. This annual event, held a day before the demonstration and organized by Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of the Canadian pro-life movement, was staged in the Parliamentary press conference room.
“We won the referendum preventing the poisoning of sick and elderly people from death,” said Primc, who worked in close collaboration with the Slovenian Catholic community. “It is very important because we won against this anti-culture of death. This victory is significant also for Canada because (it shows) it is possible. We can win, and we will win.
“We don’t fight this fight for (symbolism) or ideology,” he further proclaimed. “We fight this fight for concrete human beings — for concrete elderly and sick people who don’t need poison. They need compassion, help and relationships — they need us.”
This victory last November came 17 months after the Assisted Voluntary End of Life Act had originally passed on June 9, 2024, in a 54.9 (378,917 votes) to 45.1 per cent (311,429) non-binding referendum vote. The Slovenian Parliament then passed the bill the following month. The vote reversing that decision had a 53.4 (370,802) to 46.6 per cent (323,047) breakdown. In March, the Slovenian Supreme Court upheld the outcome.
As for victories closer to home, Campaign Life’s Director of Political Operations Jack Fonseca applauded the Alberta provincial government for passing Bill 18.
The Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act prohibits euthanasia for minors and individuals solely living with mental illness, forbids advanced requests, reinstates the natural foreseeable death guardrail and reaffirms respecting the conscience rights of faith-driven practitioners and establishments.
“Premier Danielle Smith has shown all provinces the way,” said Fonseca. “Now they all need to introduce similar legislation as a first step. What’s next after that? It’s for all provinces to reject euthanasia entirely by using their constitutional power to regulate, license and determine what procedures count as genuine health care.”
Multiple conference speakers, including Campaign Life’s Director of Communications Pete Baklinski and Director of Education and Advocacy Josie Luetke, mentioned in their remarks how May 14, 1969, forever looms large as a “day of infamy.” On that date, 57 years ago, the “floodgates were opened,” said Luetke, as the C-150 omnibus bill passed and decriminalized abortion as long as approval was received by three or more doctors.
Fonseca was asked about the April 8 decision made by MP Marilyn Gladu, who once spoke out against abortion at the 2017 National March for Life, to cross the aisle from the Conservatives to the governing Liberals, which expects Gladu to vote along pro-choice party lines.
“She spoke on the steps of Parliament in solidarity to demand legal protection for children in the womb, and now, for whatever political power play, she crossed the floor to become a pro-death Liberal. Of course, that’s disappointing,” he said.
Fonseca also critiqued Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre as “pro-abortion” and “not onside,” but acknowledged how there are a “great number of pro-life members of Parliament in the Conservative caucus, and we want to grow those numbers.”
Georges Buscemi, the president of Campagne Québec-Vie (Quebec Life Coalition), and Brandon Tran, Campaign Life’s director of public affairs and outreach, also spoke during the press conference.
Watch the entire event by visiting YouTube.
(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)
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Photo courtesy Holy Family Parish, Whitby
