Expulsion may await campus pro-lifers
In Canada, eight students at the University of Calgary are facing the possibility of expulsion for a pro-life display they set up on campus.
Earlier this month the club, Campus Pro-Life, set up a "Genocide Awareness Project" display on the Canadian school campus, an action the group claims they have done without incident eight times since 2006. But club president Leah Hallman says it was different this time around.
"Campus security came around and asked us to turn our signs inwards, and...we replied 'no' because that would be censoring us," she explains. "Then they asked us to leave and we again replied 'no,' knowing that we have the right to be on campus."
Hallman calls it "viewpoint discrimination" because other groups on campus are given the right to protest -- even groups that have displays as equally graphic as their displays. But even at that, she thought the dispute was over.
"And we thought that this was kind of a closed issue because the university had charged us with trespassing in the past," she points out. "And that was taken to court and the charges were stayed by the Crown -- meaning that it was kicked out, effectively that we won; but apparently we were wrong."
Hallman says members of her group will continue to fight for the right to show their pro-life display. "We choose saving lives over our own school careers," she says.
Each student charged will have their own separate hearing with the university next week.
Contact: Bill Bumpas
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: April 22, 2010
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Illinois Federation for Right to Life
2600 State Street, Ste E
Alton, IL 62002
Phone: 618.466.4122
Web: www.ifrl.org
E-mail: mail@ifrl.org
