The de facto position of Thomas Mulcair and Stephen Harper is, in principle, no different. When questioned directly by Trudeau last Friday, Harper said the same as he has been saying for years, “My position for 10 years has been I don’t intend to re-open this debate.”

As yet, all three leaders have a realistic shot at making 24 Sussex their home after the October 19 election. And all three continue to treat pre-born children as a political liability.

Messrs. Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau are without excuse. If elected, it is their duty to enact laws for the benefit of all Canadians. Their complete disregard for the human rights of any children in the womb effectually means that they are complicit in the deaths of 100,000 members of the human family every year.

In effect Stephen Harper, Thomas Mulcair and Justin Trudeau all support sex-selective abortion. They care less about the fact that girls are targeted for abortion much more frequently than boys. Their refusal to act is a sign that they endorse this misogynistic practice in Canada.

All three leaders also support late-term abortion. They show no regard for the reality that every year thousands of babies lose their lives by being aborted in the latter stages of pregnancy, after the stage when children of the same age are born, survive outside of the womb, and live productive lives as Canadian citizens.

Canada is the envy of millions of people around the world precisely because of our high standard of human rights and equal rights for everyone. Yet, when it comes to the treatment of pre-born children, we are in the company of only North Korea and China – two countries with less than stellar human rights records.

This complete absence of any legal protection for pre-born humans is both the fault of our judicial and legislative branches of government. The Supreme Court of Canada is partially to blame as it struck down all existing abortion regulations in the infamous R. v. Morgentaler decision in 1988. To their credit though, they did toss the ball back to Parliament, instructing the legislative body to enact provisions that would “protect fetal rights at some point.”

Canada’s lack of protections for children in the womb at any stage of pregnancy puts us in an extreme position by any international standard. It’s time our political leaders recognized that their cowardice towards the smallest members of the human family is having real life consequences.

Legislation that would ban sex-selective and late-term abortion would bring us a little closer in line with every civilized country in the world. It would also allow our courts to make rulings that are legitimately reflective of what we know about the science of embryology, as well as a proper understanding of human rights.

It’s unknown who will form government after October 19th. What we do know is that Canada’s next Prime Minister intends to continue supporting, and even celebrating, the legal void which allows for the horrific practices of sex-selective abortion and late-term abortion to continue.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an anti-Nazi dissident who was sent to jail and eventually killed for his work in fighting the Holocaust once said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

The injustices of slavery and the Holocaust continued unchecked until people like Abraham Lincoln, William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer fought back. So also the injustice of sex-selective and late-term abortion will continue until Canadians rise up and demand action from our political leaders. We are not accountable for their inaction, but God help us if we decide to join them in continuing to trample the human rights of our pre-born neighbours.

With over twenty events from Halifax to Vancouver, lifeTOUR seeks to ensure that Canada’s leaders face the injustice committed against 100,000 Canadians every single year.

Michelle Lemire, a pro-choice spokesperson for the Molly Matters campaign spoke at a press conference with LifeTOUR this morning in Ottawa. Her best friend, Cassandra Kaake, was seven months pregnant with her daughter Molly when she was brutally murdered in Windsor Ontario, last December.

“On December 11th, 2014 my life changed forever. I received a phone call informing me that my best friend of 26 years, Cassie Kaake, had died. I was paralyzed with emotion,” said Ms. Lemire.

“Windsor and the surrounding area have been deeply affected by this tragedy. A permanent scar has been left on her place of work, community and her family and friends,” continued Lemire.

This is not the first time there have been calls for a pre-born victims of crime law. In 2007 Edmonton MP Ken Epp introduced Bill C-484. The bill was called the Unborn Victims of Crime Act. Mr. Epp’s bill passed Second Reading in Parliament but it failed to become law because an election was called in the fall of 2008.

Lemire concluded her remarks by saying, “Allow me to be very clear. Abortion is legal in Canada throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy for any reason. A pre-born victim’s law does nothing to change this. A pre-born victim’s bill modeled after Bill C-484 would not criminalize abortion and could not be interpreted as Parliament restricting a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion.”

Mike Schouten of WeNeedaLAW.ca also spoke at the press conference. “Canada desperately needs a late-term abortion law which would prohibit abortion in the latter stages of pregnancy, and after the point in which the pre-born child can survive outside of the womb,” Schouten said.

The issue of sex-selective abortion is also being raised at each lifeTOUR presentation.

“The reality that Canada is one of only a handful of countries that allows such violent discrimination against pre-born females – simply because they are girls – is deplorable,” Schouten said. “A new government needs to take immediate steps to address this serious injustice.”

While the Liberal leader’s pro-choice stance is principally the same as all the party leaders, he clearly went farther than any other with his ‘no choice but pro-choice’ declaration; he has essentially bound the consciences of all Liberal members on a moral issue. What is not surprising is that, in taking this seemingly dictatorial stance, Trudeau has not lost support. In other words, his edict was not a bozo eruption.

The Liberal leader and his advisors have built political capital by taking a traditionally divisive issue and turning it from a losing one into a winning one. A number of tactical decisions have led to this and one of them is the consistent use of the term ‘reproductive choice’. Even though reproductive choice cannot possibly include abortion – a procedure which terminates an already reproduced human being – using the term allows Trudeau to avoid the use of the ‘a’ word. It is a slight-of-hand that has, for the most part, gone unchallenged. Misinformed supporters listen to Trudeau’s declarations as if somehow a woman’s right to equality is founded solely on her ability to terminate the life of her pre-born child. On the other hand, a large component of the Conservative party base grow increasingly frustrated by a Prime Minister who is too afraid to counter the mistruths Trudeau promulgates.

The result is that we remain a country with an immense legal void when it comes to the protection of rights of children at any stage before birth. This legal void continues to result in real life tragedies for Canadian families.

Consider the story of Cassandra Kaake. Cassie was found bludgeoned to death in a burned out Windsor, Ontario residence on December 11^th last year. Her murder is a tragedy, but she wasn’t the only one who lost a life that night. Cassie was 30 weeks pregnant; her baby girl – she had already named her Molly – was killed in the attack too. Yet her daughter, though recognized as a child, is not recognized as a “human being” under Canadian criminal law because she had not yet exited her mother’s womb. And because of that legal deficiency, no murder charge will ever be laid against the person who took Molly’s life. The “reproductive choice” Cassandra made when she decided to carry Molly to term was brutally stolen from her and her family. Where is the justice for Molly? Where is the politician speaking out for Cassie’s choice?

The Kaake family is campaigning for the re-introduction of the Unborn Victims of Crime Act. This piece of legislation, Bill C-484, was introduced in 2007 by MP Ken Epp. It passed Second Reading in Parliament but failed to become law because an election was called in the fall of 2008. However, Epp’s bill had cross-party support and there is still majority support for it today. Even Prime Minister Harper voted in favour of it!

If the hastened debate on Bill C-51 is any indication, the government could certainly pass a pre-born victims law before the current Parliamentary session is over. In doing what is right the Prime Minister could expose the extremist views of both the NDP and the Liberals. In fact, Windsor West MP Brian Masse (NDP) has already indicated that while he is sympathetic to the Kaake family’s loss he would not vote in favour of any legislative change. “There is real concern about that process and the constitutionality of it,” he said when asked by a local reporter. In other words, he’s not interested in justice for Molly.

The reality is a pre-born victims of crime law has nothing to do with abortion. Abortion is legal in Canada throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy for any reason. A pre-born victims law does nothing to change this. A pre-born victims bill modeled after Bill C-484 would not criminalize abortion and could not be interpreted as Parliament restricting a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. Currently, when a pregnant woman is attacked and her assailant causes harm or kills her pre-born child, no charge can be laid in the death of the woman’s child, even if the sole purpose of the attacker was to kill her child. The Kaake family, together with the vast majority of Canadians, wants this injustice corrected by creating an offence in law for causing harm to the pre-born child during the perpetration of a violent crime against the child’s mother.

It’s clear that Justin Trudeau is willing to discuss reproductive choice.  He is resolute in his belief that a woman has a right to her own reproductive choices. The question for Trudeau and his supporters is whether they will stand with those who have chosen to carry to term. The Prime Minister should consider engaging Trudeau by introducing a pre-born victims of crime bill. In doing so he would be shown to be the compassionate, reasonable leader who is standing up for women and children and victims of crime. As for Trudeau – he will be forced to show Canadians if he really does believe what he says.

As leader of the NDP Thomas Mulcair has essentially taken the same position as Justin Trudeau — he has promised to whip any vote affecting the legality of abortion — only he isn’t so outspokenly arrogant about it. The Prime Minister meanwhile is not innocent of taking a dictatorial approach to abortion either. Sure, he has not gone to the same lengths as Trudeau and Mulcair, but one only needs to ask Mark Warawa what happens when a member of parliament makes even a benign attempt at generating a discussion on pre-born human rights in the House of Common.

These three party leaders, indeed all our elected law makers, need to rethink abortion. Canada is only one of three countries in the world that does not afford any protections to children before birth. The reality that abortion can legally be committed for any reason (even the “systemic elimination of female fetuses” as the Post editors point out) makes it an injustice that is inexcusable for any party leader to ignore.