Calgary Student Union Revokes Anti-Abortion Group’s Club Status
GAOC weeek 2, Canada 2/11/09
The University of Calgary is a broad research university, ranked one of the Canada’s top seven research universities. It also, on its website, tells about a close nit community with plenty of things to do.
A student union at the University of Calgary has stripped a notorious anti-abortion group titled Pro-Life of its club status.
There was a short, hearing like discussion in front of the student’s union club committee on Tuesday afternoon, and Pro-Life lost its status as a sanctioned club. At the University of Calgary, clubs get funding and a place to meet, if they are sanctioned and abide by the administrators and higher ups wishes.
Apparently, Pro-Life went against these wishes. They first ran afoul of the university administrators in November. In short, it was for displaying posters of aborted fetuses. The posters also compared abortion to the Ku Klux Klan, the genocide in Rwanda, and the Holocaust. All of these are earth shaking things from the past, which could arise some if not definitely sparking tempers and past issues.
When the university administrators requested that the posters be turned inward as to not be seen during the display on campus, the group ignored the wish, along with a letter threatening legal action. Several of Pro-Life’s group members have since been charged with trespassing on campus. The legal letter was also communicated with all the stakeholders in this interaction as well as the group’s members, the University of Calgary itself, and the union where completely aware of the policy.
Even after the letter, the vice-president of Campus Pro-Life claimed the union is on shaky group- by the reason that the university and students union have omitted from telling them exactly what specific policy they are not following, so in the vice-president’s eyes, it is an invalid claim.
Contradicting this, the university had a lawyer look at the situation. The lawyer made it clear that the protesters were and are on the university’s private property and have refused to follow the instructions from the university. Because they won’t and wouldn’t co-operate, they had to give notice to the protesters that they will become illegal protesters.
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