Ground-breaking documentary premieres on Parliament Hill

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

Renowned pro-life and pro-family activist Obianuju Ekeocha (Uju) held the world premiere of her new documentary “Strings Attached”, on Parliament Hill, April 18. The film highlights the dark side of Western aid to African countries—the coercive, anti-family agenda that often comes too.

“We wanted our elected officials to hear from an African person who knows what the situation is on the ground in regards to foreign aid,” says Matthew Wojciechowski, a spokesperson for Campaign Life Coalition (CLC). “Uju’s documentary really ties in organizations from the Western world who are going into these developing countries offering them aid, but with strings attached.”

Uju spoke at a Parliamentary breakfast last November about the issue of “ideological neo-colonization”; the idea that Western governments are still trying to subvert African culture and practices, but through ideologically-based aid rather than military force. After the breakfast, MPs Harold Albrecht and David Anderson partnered with CLC to arrange the premiere of “Strings Attached” as a parliamentary event.

“When one of our cabinet ministers says reproductive rights and abortion are at the core of our foreign policy, that is a very problematic statement to make.”

“There is something very wrong with a country going into another country and using a lot of money to change the legal framework and the culture of that recipient nation,” Wojciechowski states. “It is very significant that Uju decided to premier her documentary in Canada.”

Uju is a Nigerian, living in the U.K., but has been very critical of the Canadian government’s decision to commit $650 million to advancing their abortion agenda in the developing world. That is more than five times the amount of aid Canada is sending to the three major famines currently ravaging Africa—where most of the abortion funding is being sent.

Of particular concern is the government’s stated goal of “removing judicial and legal barriers to [abortion]”. Plainly put, much of the “aid funding” is being used to lobby African governments to change their laws.

“Our intent is simply to give [Uju] an opportunity to make Parliamentarians aware of the fact that this Liberal government is imposing its reproductive-rights ideology on African countries,” says Anderson.

“I think Uju did a great job, as an African woman, being able to find the facts and speak about them to a Western audience.”

“When one of our cabinet ministers says reproductive rights and abortion are at the core of our foreign policy, that is a very problematic statement to make,” Wojciechowski says. “We are hoping this documentary encourages some of our elected officials to question why this money is being spent on certain things and not others.”

One of Uju’s key points is that humanitarian aid is good, but to bring a sustainable change the people on the receiving end need to be able to decide what is best for their countries. Repeated polls have shown that the overwhelming majority of Africans (in many areas over 80 percent) see abortion as immoral and culturally unacceptable.

“I think Uju did a great job, as an African woman, going back to the ground and being able to find the facts and speak about them, to a Western audience, from a perspective that is more African,” says Joseph Kiirya, who attended the screening.

Kiirya is an immigrant from Uganda and the pastor of River Jordan Ministries, an African congregation in Ottawa. He was impacted by how the film connected with the people on the receiving end of Western aid and shared how they were really affected.

“[It gives] a more accurate perspective on whether these abortions are impacting Africans positively or negatively. Her movie showed that the abortions administered in Africa have a devastating effect on Africans,” says Kiirya.

“I think Africans need to be consulted for any intervention designed to be a help or support to Africans. For Uju to come and challenge what seems to be an established system, she ought to be commended for that and for standing for the voiceless: in this particular case, women affected by abortions funded by Western governments.”