Liberal minister says she had to have an abortion at 18

Photo: Justin Tang La Presse canadienne La ministre fédérale du Tourisme, Soraya Martinez Ferrada

While a much smaller crowd than in previous years marched through the streets of Ottawa to demand a ban on abortion in Canada, Montreal Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada revealed in front of Parliament that she had interrupted an unwanted pregnancy in her youth. .

“At 18, when I returned to Chile, I realized that I was pregnant, without rights and without choices,” shared the Minister of Tourism in front of her colleagues in the House on Thursday.

It was the first time that she revealed so publicly that she had been “saved” by the freedom to choose which prevails in Canada. “The only way to combat this threat to women’s rights is to break the taboo and the silence. That’s why I did it,” she then explained to the Devoir.

As proof of this “threat,” she says, the Conservative Party of Canada tolerates proudly anti-choice MPs at home. Two of them were also present at the annual anti-abortion rally, called “March for Life”, on Thursday afternoon.

He acts of Western Canadian MPs Cathay Wagantall and Arnold Viersen. The first has three times tried to reopen the debate on abortion through bills, and the second submitted to Parliament on Tuesday a petition of 47 names which denounces “the approximately 100,000 unborn children who die each year since the Morgentaler decision”, the 1988 Supreme Court decision decriminalized abortion.

They both mentioned God in their speeches to a crowd of around 1,700 people, according to estimates by the Parliamentary Protective Service. The number of demonstrators has been plummeting in recent years, even though the event has already attracted tens of thousands of participants, and more conservative MPs.

The demonstrators present still gave louder applause to the leader of the Christian Heritage Party of Canada, Rod Taylor, than to the two elected officials who came to support them.

Few demonstrators

A few dozen counter-protesters tried to bury the official speeches with their slogans. Gabrielle Pelletier, coordinator at the Ottawa Sexual Assault Center, was participating for the eleventh time to show her commitment to free choice.

“We must always be vigilant for women's rights,” says the woman who says she has not really been reassured that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been pro-choice since his party's leadership race in 2022.

Anti-abortion protester Gilles Guibord, from Chénéville in Outaouais, believes that “the pro-life option does not have the right to appear in the media” , and is sorry that Justin Trudeau does not accept into his ranks people opposed to the right to abortion.

“[Pierre Poilievre] is the only one who allows express himself, but he is controlled by pro-abortionists, he claims. Who controls political parties ? Finance, very high finance. I think that in Canada there is no democratic party. »

His friend André Plamondon, from Saint-André-Avellin, proudly holds a sign bearing the image of the Blessed Virgin carrying the message “With Mary we say YES to life”. “The best thing is to continue to come here, to appear before Parliament, the more numerous we are going to be, maybe that can help,” he says, disappointed to see that his group is indeed fewer than the previous year.

Photo: Boris Proulx Anti-abortion protesters Gilles Guibord and André Plamondon, who reside in Outaouais, traveled to Ottawa on Thursday to participate in the “March for Life.”

Pierre Poilievre in the viewfinder

Despite the relatively modest enthusiasm for the “March for Life” this year, liberal elected officials, but also from the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois, were scandalized to see that some were calling into question the right to abortion.

Several Trudeau government ministers appeared before the media during an impromptu outing the day before the march, Wednesday, to accuse Pierre Poilievre of wanting to attack human rights women, or even use the notwithstanding provision of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to achieve this.

“You have the Leader of the Opposition bragging about using something that has never been used by the federal government [the notwithstanding clause], and you have a Conservative MP who… files a petition to limit women's right to choose”, chanted the Minister of Women, Gender Equality and Youth, Marci Ien.

“No one should believe the remarks by [Pierre] Poilievre. He showed his position against women's rights, against access to this choice,” said the leader of the New Democratic Party, Jagmeet Singh, as he went to shake hands with the counter-protesters, the pro- choice, in front of Parliament.

“Once again, the anti-choice circus is in town. The grotesque display of intimidation against women, elected officials and doctors is back. […] This world calls itself pro-life when they are simply anti-women,” railed Bloc Québécois MP Andréanne Larouche in front of Parliament.

The office of the leader of the official opposition confirmed that no instructions had been sent to the conservative troops to encourage or prohibit their presence at the “March for Life”. A compilation of Pierre Poilievre's positions over the last 20 years carried out by Le Devoir shows that the politician voted in favor of five texts criticized as being written to recognize rights to fetus. As leader, he promises not to pass anti-abortion laws, but to allow “free votes” on these issues.