Sunday, September 04, 2005
Foetus fanatics at it again
Protesters jostle for position over abortion issue
Lana Haight, The StarPhoenix, September 3, 2005
Drivers heading along College Drive Friday afternoon were confronted with graphic images of aborted remains and people yelling pro-choice chants.
As the demonstration began, pro-life and pro-choice groups jostled for position along College near Preston Avenue. In the process, they inched their way from the shoulder of College to the outside driving lane.
When pro-choice protesters stepped in front of the large posters of the remains, Bill Whatcott, who organized the pro-life protest, moved in front of them. They blocked his signs again, prompting Whatcott to step farther onto the street. At one point, they stood blocking one lane. Finally, the pro-choice group moved away from pro-life group and set up its demonstration several metres away.
About 20 pro-choice supporters, many of them university students chanted, "Not the church. Not the state. Women will control their fate."
"Baby-killing's got to go," responded Whatcott, who calls himself a Christian truth activist.
While the pro-choice supporters carried signs that said, "My body, my choice," and "Against abortion? Don't have one," the half-dozen pro-life supporters held signs that showed aborted remains.
One of the posters that Whatcott displayed included a black and white photo of dead bodies with the caption "Hitler's holocaust" and a colour photo of remains with "Canada's holocaust" written above it. He defends the graphic depiction.
"The pictures are true and they tell the truth in a way that words can't," he said.
But Deanna Ogle, a second-year student at the University of Saskatchewan who organized Friday's pro-choice protest, is offended by the posters.
"Those pictures are very graphic and insulting to the groups he makes allegations with such as the Jewish community by comparing the Holocaust, which is a horrible atrocity, to a legal medical procedure," she said.
Friday's protest was the start of a weekend campaign by Whatcott, who used to live in Saskatchewan but now lives in Edmonton. He and his supporters will deliver to random Saskatoon neighbourhoods 6,500 flyers denouncing the pro-choice movement.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Lana Haight, The StarPhoenix, September 3, 2005
Drivers heading along College Drive Friday afternoon were confronted with graphic images of aborted remains and people yelling pro-choice chants.
As the demonstration began, pro-life and pro-choice groups jostled for position along College near Preston Avenue. In the process, they inched their way from the shoulder of College to the outside driving lane.
When pro-choice protesters stepped in front of the large posters of the remains, Bill Whatcott, who organized the pro-life protest, moved in front of them. They blocked his signs again, prompting Whatcott to step farther onto the street. At one point, they stood blocking one lane. Finally, the pro-choice group moved away from pro-life group and set up its demonstration several metres away.
About 20 pro-choice supporters, many of them university students chanted, "Not the church. Not the state. Women will control their fate."
"Baby-killing's got to go," responded Whatcott, who calls himself a Christian truth activist.
While the pro-choice supporters carried signs that said, "My body, my choice," and "Against abortion? Don't have one," the half-dozen pro-life supporters held signs that showed aborted remains.
One of the posters that Whatcott displayed included a black and white photo of dead bodies with the caption "Hitler's holocaust" and a colour photo of remains with "Canada's holocaust" written above it. He defends the graphic depiction.
"The pictures are true and they tell the truth in a way that words can't," he said.
But Deanna Ogle, a second-year student at the University of Saskatchewan who organized Friday's pro-choice protest, is offended by the posters.
"Those pictures are very graphic and insulting to the groups he makes allegations with such as the Jewish community by comparing the Holocaust, which is a horrible atrocity, to a legal medical procedure," she said.
Friday's protest was the start of a weekend campaign by Whatcott, who used to live in Saskatchewan but now lives in Edmonton. He and his supporters will deliver to random Saskatoon neighbourhoods 6,500 flyers denouncing the pro-choice movement.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
return to injusticebustersblog main page
