Largest Canadian March for Life Ever - 8,000 Attend Massive Rally on Parliament Hill

By John Jalsevac

OTTAWA, ON, May 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A massive crowd of pro-life demonstrators, the majority of whom were youth, gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa today to issue a call to legislators and Canadians as a whole to put an end to abortion in Canada. An estimate given by a police officer to Campaign Life Coalition president Jim Hughes was that a record-breaking crowd of 8,000 people participated in this 11th annual March for Life. Several other crowd-counters came up with almost identical numbers, making the 2008 March the largest March in the history of the pro-life event.

The day's events began with a Protestant prayer service and a Catholic Mass, the latter of which was held at Notre Dame Basilica and celebrated by Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast. The Archbishop also later attended and walked in the March. The Basilica, which can hold a capacity crowd of 1200, was packed to the rafters, to the point where not only were all the seats filled, but even standing room gave out and people had to be turned away from the Church. the rest