“If I can slow the killing down, perhaps it will make life less barbaric.”

By Allen Macartney
Special to Spur Ottawa

For almost five years Cyril Winter has stood on the sidewalk, outside Ottawa’s Bank Street abortion clinic, with a provocative colour photograph of a just-aborted baby. Aside from all the angry words, spitting, and swearing leveled at him on a daily basis, nothing much happens.

But several weeks ago the mundane of his vigil was broken when a young woman walked up to his sign, looked at it for several long seconds, then slowly turned away and disappeared through the clinic’s doors. Fifteen minutes later the woman came out, with her boyfriend, crying. With her head down, she walked up to Winter.

“I didn’t do it,” she said with a trembling voice. “I didn’t do it.”

“It happened so fast,” Winter says, “it took me by surprise and then she was gone. All I could say as she disappeared into the crowd was ‘God bless you.’”

It’s only the second time Winter knows of, in five years, someone has turned away from their abortion because of his silent pictorial witness.

“I’m not allowed to speak–legally that’s harassment–unless someone comes up to me first,” he explains. “So I let the photograph speak for me. It’s provocative and clearly shows the violence and horror of abortion.”

The photograph makes some people very angry. Some tell him he has no right to be there. Others argue, “You’re a man, what do you know?” Others accuse him of being insane.

“People won’t listen at all if I try to respond when they’re so angry. So I listen and pray for them. I try to remain calm, respectful, and loving. That’s God’s way, despite their bitter tone and angry words.

“I think abortion hardens people’s hearts. It’s frightening what I hear on the street. If I say, ‘But it’s murder,’ some respond, ‘I don’t care! It’s my choice.’”

Once a month, or so, people get physically abusive.

“Some have thrown coffee at me, soft drink cans, and even hamburgers,” said the retired senior, shrugging. Others have shoved and punched him. Winter has even received death threats. One person told him, “If there weren’t so many people here I’d kill you right now!”

Although people want to avoid the responsibility and guilt, Winter’s bloody photograph confronts them with the truth. Abortion is hatred; nothing less, he says, and a little baby must pay for this hatred with his or her life.

“It’s the inconvenience of this child–that is what they hate,” he explains. “They hate the inconvenience an unborn child represents to their life. But the violence and murder of abortion is not a solution to life’s inconveniences.”

So why does Winter maintain his lonely vigil, five days a week, five hours a day, in the summer’s heat and winter’s sub-zero temperatures?

“This is God’s work,” he says. “It’s a way I can put my finger in the dike of this holocaust; this genocide. I’m not stopping it, but if I can slow the killing down, perhaps it will make life less barbaric.”

Winter might only see tangible, encouraging results once every two years, when someone turns away from the abortion clinic. But that’s enough. And what a legacy to give the world. The gift of a baby’s life.