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The title page of the new ROE Canada Catholic study and discussion guide.
Image courtesy DunnMedia
February 21, 2025
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Photo courtesy Irene Perfetti Debono
One day after the 28th National March for Life on May 8 in Ottawa, the first-ever “Save the Babies Leaders Summit” will conclude a week of life-cherishing festivities in Canada’s capital city.
Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of the Canadian pro-life movement, will look to assemble grassroots activists and, if all goes to plan, Members of Parliament from the major parties for a forum to discuss how to safeguard life through political, legal and cultural change.
This event at the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre will feature a special presentation of award-winning Canadian Catholic filmmaker Kevin Dunn’s documentary ROE Canada: The True North in a Post-Roe World.
Since debuting in December 2023, this documentary exploring what it would take for the Canadian pro-life movement to achieve a victory akin to the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States has attracted attention from parishes and pro-life supporters across the country.
“I called it a love letter to the pro-life movement,” said Dunn. “It's really a love letter to the Catholic Church saying, ‘let's not give up hope.’ ”
This screening comes at a time when the film is already garnering renewed momentum. Since the beginning of this creative endeavour Dunn sought to eventually create an educational version of ROE Canada. He pitched his vision to Teresa Hartnett, the Diocese of Hamilton's director of Family Ministry.
“I called my friend Teresa and said, ‘I’d like to put a study guide together,’ ” said Dunn. “Maybe add some more pro-life apologetics, use the narrative of the film to keep young people engaged, but maybe include more pro-life 101 material because the discussion about pro-life issues seems to be a real void in our school system.”
With the support of the diocese, and various educational, religious, life and family consultants, a two-part classroom video series and four stand-alone lesson plans (history, law, political science, religion) have been produced.
Josie Luetke, Campaign Life’s director of education and advocacy, produced the written materials for the study guide. Luetke served as co-principal investigator in the documentary alongside Ruth Robert, Campaign Life’s Atlantic Region coordinator. Dunn appreciates Luetke’s meticulousness in ensuring the resource is in alignment with Ontario curriculum directives.
The study guide has already been sent off to the Catholic school system in Hamilton and it is Dunn’s hope it ultimately receives interest from other Catholic boards in Ontario and across Canada.
Dunn will be very busy during the National March for Life week in Ottawa as he is producing Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN)’s broadcast coverage.
(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)
A version of this story appeared in the February 23, 2025, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "Pro-life study guide launched for schools".
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