(LifeSiteNews) – Canada’s leading pro-family and pro-life group Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) is calling out the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN), which targets pro-life and pro-family organizations, for a “smear piece” it published that CLC says is an attempt to force its youth event at the annual March for Life to be “canceled.”
In a statement sent to LifeSiteNews, CLC director of communications Pete Baklinski said that CAHN is not happy well-known black preacher Calvin Robinson will speak at its youth event on May 9 at the Ottawa Conference and Events Centre after Canada’s annual March for Life on May 8.
CLC alleges that CAHN, in a recent article it published titled “Anti-Abortion Lobby Bringing Priest Who Gave Nazi Salute To Canada For Youth Conference,” has “falsely accused” the preacher in its headline of “giving a ‘nazi salute’ even though the article makes it clear that Robinson made a ‘mocking’ gesture meant to “mimic the gesture made by Elon Musk.”
“It seems that CAHN wants to get CLC canceled by spreading lies about Robinson,” Baklinski noted.
“CAHN is clearly not a good actor here. It published this piece even after admitting to us in emails that they ‘certainly understand that Fr. Robinson is not a secret National Socialist.’ The headline is a complete lie. Robinson did not give such a salute.”
CLC said that it has been “made aware” that CAHN has “already contacted the location where we are hosting our event,” the Ottawa Conference and Events Centre, in what it says is an attempt to pressure “them with the information they know to be false about the meaning of Robinson’s allegedly gesture.”
Robinson is a minister formerly with the Anglican Catholic Church. During the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, D.C., on January 25, he concluded a speech with a gesture that sparked significant controversy.
The video footage of the incident shows Robinson saying “My heart goes out to you,” while he thumped his chest and the same time extended his right arm forward, with his palm down, a gesture similar to Elon Musk’s motion during a speech at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The Anglican Catholic Church on January 29 revoked Robinson’s priestly license over the controversy, saying he ended his speech “with a gesture that many have interpreted as a pro-Nazi salute.”
As for Robinson, he defended himself on social media, saying his gesture was nothing more than “a joke” with the goal being to mock “hysterical liberals” who had labeled Musk a Nazi “for quite clearly showing the audience his heart was with them.”
CAHN has ‘past’ of going after CLC with ‘misinformation,’ says Baklinski
CLC said that CAHN has a “past of spreading misinformation about CLC” reported by LifeSiteNews that it has “had to retract.”
“CAHN would like to see nothing better than for the pro-life movement to be shut out of the public square and shut down permanently,” Baklinski said.
In February 2024, CAHN issued a retraction after falsely claiming CLC was behind a poll showing most Albertans favor parental consent for minors to obtain an abortion.
Baklinski emphasized that, “to be clear,” CLC is a “national pro-life organization which works at all levels of government to secure full legal protection for the preborn from the first moment of their existence.”
“We defend the sanctity of human life against threats posed by abortion and euthanasia. We champion Biblical marriage, the family, and parental rights,” he said.
“We work for a Canada that adheres to the historical fact, as stated in the preamble to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, that Canada is ‘founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God.’ Our constant prayer, as we sing in our National Anthem is that ‘God keep our land, glorious and free.’”
Last year, LifeSiteNews reported that the Liberal government under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave $440,000 to CAHN as a grant.
Baklinski has noted that CAHN considers a Canadian who opposes the pro-abortion and LGBT narrative as a “hater.”
