How Many Attended Canada March for Life?

As per usual, Buckets brings the science.  His estimate: 8,000, a bit above CBC's but way below the march organizers.  As per usual, a post that is both educational and entertaining.  Read it and derive a recipe for estimating crowd sizes from aerial photos. 

And when you have absorbed it thoroughly, you'll understand why Stephen Harper doesn't want to reopen the abortion debate.

Or, for an alternative reading, though, go here.

The American Left Will Be In Power For A Long Time

...if the American Right gets up to nonsense like this.

Also, I share Steve M's view of street protests:

Demos and marches may have had a real effect on American politics a couple of generations ago (while also generating a nasty backlash), but now they influence no one and barely make the papers.

A facebook page with a couple dozen signatures gets as much coverage as a march with several thousand bodies in it. Nobody freezes or gets rained on, and you can control the wing-nuts simply by employing the delete key.

h/t VF.

Weed Beats God!

Global Marijuana March sees 20,000 hardcore puffers at the 2008 Toronto event, up 66% over last year's figure of 12,000 attendees.

Meanwhile the March For Life in Ottawa remains stalled at "approximately 7,000 protesters", the same figure as last year.

I see one way to fix this: the Catholic Church should make Bob Marley a Saint.

Still In Favour Of Proportional Representation

...after you read this from Family Coalition Party leader Giuseppe Gori?

The probability of pro-family, pro-life views to be heard in Ontario has become much higher yesterday, as a report from the Citizens Assembly, an independent group of citizens, has recommended a new electoral system for Ontario.

[...]

The Family Coalition Party ran 76 candidates and achieved over five percent of the popular vote in 1990, when people were hopeful that a party based on Christian moral principles could elect representatives, but its hopes were greatly reduced after that election, when people realized that with the current electoral system it would be very difficult to elect even one representative in Parliament.

Actually, I still am in favour, mostly because it gives these guys a chance at representation, but its important to understand that PR has the potential to make the Ontario Legislature more "diverse" in all sorts of unexpected ways.

h/t to Her Who Must Be Obeyed!

Meanwhile SoCon bloggers are still flogging their youtube videos as proof the crowd at this year's March For Life exceeded the paltry few dozen reported in the mainstream press. News to the SoCons: doesn't matter if you video the same fat guy nine times from different angles, they still only count as one person.

PS. Am off to Ottawa for the long weekend, so there probably won't be much in the way of writing. Does anyone know what the exchange rate is, and do they speak English in Ottawa?

PPS. And good used bookstores. Are there any in Ottawa?

March For Life Scandal Erupts; Campaign Life Organizers Respond

But not to the major newspapers, at least as far as I can tell, because the folks at the Edmonton Sun say:

Rally organizers, the Campaign Life Coalition, could not be reached for comment.

Instead, my favorite SoCon Suzanne at Big Blue Wave (whose Youttube video of the march launched the whole controversy) pulls the scoop from 570 News:

However, Jim Hughes, head of Campaign Life Coalition, said the annual protest against abortion has never received federal funding and that the government was in no way involved in this year's event.

Hughes couldn't say how the Canada logo made its way onto the banner, likely created by a volunteer. But he said the banner has been used for the past five years without a problem.

...which last statement causes Suzanne to write:

Only now, with a Conservative government in power, did someone notice. What a coinkedink.

That last word is not a typo. I am assuming it is some kind of SoCon approved foul-language substitute. In any case, Suzanne, the fact that problems arose now is probably more a result of the fact that march attendees were encouraged to post youtube videos of their experience. Also, five years seems a long time for organizers to remain ignorant of what seems a pretty basic feature of Canadian copyright law.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hughes seems to have been partaking of the holy vodka bottle, because his estimates of the crowd size at last Thursday's March For Life are about double those of anyone else at the event. While Mr. Hughes produced a figure of 7,000, one police officer put the number at about half that, and CBC National News estimated a crowd of 1,500.

1,500? That means March for Life drew fewer souls than the "Save the Slime-Mold" protest I once attended, or the "Hop of the One-Legged Lesbians".

March For Life Not Sponsored By Harper Tories

From the Free Dominion site, a completely unofficial list of MPs attending last Thursday's March for Life:

Conservatives
Bev Shipley (ON)
Cheryl Gallant (ON)
David Anderson (SK)
Dean Del Mastro (ON)
Harold Albrecht (ON)
James Lunney (BC)
Jeff Watson (ON)
Mark Warawa (BC)
Maurice Vellacott (SK)
Myron Thompson (AB)
Pierre Lemieux (ON)
Rod Bruinooge (MB)

Liberals
Paul Steckle (ON)
Paul Szabo (ON)

NDP
None

Bloc Quebecois
None

Tom Wappel (ON) and Andrew Scheer (SK) were stuck in Parliament at the time and intended to go.

Any others there? One interesting thing is no MP east of Ontario was there...

Also, there has been some controversy over the Canada word-mark that appears in the youtube video below. Is it evidence of official Canadian government support?




Suzanne of Big Blue Wave says no (and I believe her):

...the government did not give one cent to the March for Life. How do I know? Because I attend Campaign Life meetings, and never is there any mention in financial reports of any government money. All efforts are paid for by the donations and fundraising activities of pro-life supporters.

[...]

All it is was someone made a banner and overlooked any copyright or trademark rules-- as many people are wont to do-- and put a Canada wordmark on the banner, probably for reasons of patriotism.

Is patriotism still legal? I thought we'd banished that in Canada. Anyway, as I wrote about here, a week previous the Global Marijuana March drew crowds double the size of the March For Life, and they were all out there protesting for the right to blow ganja in public.

Anti-Abortion Militants Vs. Warriers For Weed

The Lifesite:

OTTAWA, May 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This year's March for Life, the 10th annual march organized yearly by Campaign Life Coalition drew a record 7,000 participants and was populated mainly with youth, estimated at around 75% of the crowd.

VS.

CityNews:

Adding to the frustration of trying to get around town this weekend with the DVP closed until Monday, more than 12,000 people took part in the ninth annual Global Marijuana March on Saturday.

Not even close, and I'd wager the stoners were alot better behaved! Certainly, they were listening to better music.

Gawd I love this country!

Pro-Life Groups Fall Banished To YouTube

From The Lifesite, a story on how the Natty Post alone among Canadian newspapers is willing to pander to the last fading embers of the Pro-Life movement. In the face of this massive indifference, pro-lifers are going to try their hand at amateur film-making:

...pro-life blogger, John Pacheco is suggesting a by-pass on the mainstream media by "youtube-ing" the March for Life. "Bring your video cameras and video everything and anything about the March. Record the speakers. Record the crowd . . . get a good shot of the crowd. Interview the marchers. Have some questions prepared. Interview the media people there. Swarm the reporters and ask them why they refuse to cover abortion in Canada," suggests Pacheco.

More information on the March for Life can be found here.

My prediction: these are going to suck worse than Cherniak! And some advice to pro-lifers: you want anyone to watch these things? Leave Creed off the sound-track!