The total allocation of $4.2 million in federal funding will go toward the University of British Columbia’s Contraception and Abortion Research Team (CART) and the “Access for All Expansion” project being conducted by the organization Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, which describes itself as “Planned Parenthood Canada.”
Over $3.8 million of the funding will go toward CART, while Action Canada will receive around $428,000.
The annual May rally typically attracts thousands of protesters.
Wagantall commented to reporters about the overlap between her press conference and Ien’s, insinuating that the scheduling choice may have been deliberate and also imploring the Liberal government not to use abortion as a wedge issue.
“It seems interesting, every time I plan a press conference we end up with some competition,” Wagantall said, adding that “we can certainly at any time sit down and discuss and have debate and talk about any issue, that’s our responsibility, but to simply use it as a wedge, Canadians are done with that.”
Wagantall also said Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre supports Bill C-311, while adding that the party will not whip the vote for its members.
“When the leader supports something, that’s significant,” she said. “But it was really important to me that we still make it very clear that this is a vote of conscience.”