Vancouver family physician Dr. Will Johnston is being honoured for his pro-life work by Canadian Physicians for Life.
Johnston has been named recipient of the organization’s 2024 Dr. Paul Adams Award, which recognizes “exceptional initiative, professionalism, and generosity within the pro-life medical community.” Dr. Paul Adams was a pro-life obstetrician and gynecologist who practised at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. (See below.)
In announcing the award, Physicians for Life called Dr. Will Johnston “an outstanding physician who exemplifies a life and profession of dedication and virtue.”
In addition to his Vancouver family practice, he teaches at the University of British Columbia.
John Hof, founder of the pro-life advocacy organization United for Life B.C., said Johnston has been “a stalwart defender of life since the early days of the abortion debate.”
He was instrumental in starting Physicians for Life, said Hof, and “has laid his career on the line and, on numerous occasions, convinced patients of the intrinsic value of their unborn children.”
Margaret Cottle, a Vancouver palliative care physician, called Johnston “Dr. Pro-Life” for his work protecting life from conception onward and for being “a leader in the campaign against medical termination.”
Cottle said he is “fearless and persistent” and with his excellent media presence “knows exactly what to say to illuminate both the truth and the heart of the issue.”
He has been a “wonderful friend” to crisis pregnancy centres in the Lower Mainland, Cottle said, “lovingly caring for many women referred by these charities, including those who have no means of paying for their care.”
She praised his tireless work as “a true star” in the pro-life physicians’ community, “saving and enriching many lives.” She added, “Not many physicians of his generation are still delivering babies!”
Johnston is also chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of BC and past president of Canadian Physicians for Life.
Johnston will receive the award on Oct. 26 at the Canadian Physicians for Life annual conference in Vancouver, at which he will be a speaker. The conference runs from Oct. 25 to 27. For more information visit learn.physiciansforlife.ca/courses/cpl-conference-2024.
Organizers are inviting people to share stories of how Johnston has impacted their lives by emailing nicole@physiciansforlife.ca.
Dr. Paul Adams: Pro-life has ‘a positive responsibility to support women’
Dr. Paul Adams was a pro-life obstetrician and gynecologist who practised in Winnipeg and died in 2019, five months short of his 100th birthday.
A Catholic, he was married for more than 60 years and had seven children. He was invested as a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great under Pope Francis in 2017.
Born in north London, he moved to Canada as an infant with his family. At 13, he became Catholic along with his family under his mother’s guidance. After completing his bachelor of arts in 1942, he enlisted in the Canadian Army and served in England and France as a member of the transport corps. He finished his army career as a captain in charge of logistics for the Canadian Army in Paris.
He earned his medical degree after the war and specialized in obstetrics and gynecology.
According to his obituary, he was the only Catholic obstetrician in Winnipeg in the 1960s. With his wife Louise, he established organizations for women who wanted to practise natural family planning and founded Manitoba Physicians for Life. “He believed that being pro-life imposed a positive responsibility to support women and helped Louise found Pregnancy Distress Service which continues to operate today as the Thrive Community Support Circle,” said his obituary.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he chaired a refugee committee that sponsored more than 40 Vietnamese refugee families.
In 1978, he was elected president of the medical staff of St. Boniface Hospital and practised medicine into his mid-70s. “He delivered countless babies in his career and long after he retired, he would often meet people who would tell him that he had attended at their births.”
After retiring, he was a hospice volunteer, wrote two volumes of memoirs for his family, and remained active in his community and church.
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