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By Robert Kuhn
YOUTH Protecting Youth (YPY), a University of Victoria (UVic) student group,
filed a petition in the BC Supreme Court May 3, against the UVic Students’ Society (UVSS).
YPY is the UVic pro-life student group, which tries to increase awareness of
human life issues, such as abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.
The lawsuit claims UVSS acted unlawfully, denying YPY many of the same rights
and privileges afforded to other student clubs on the university campus.
YPY alleges UVSS denied their funding for the last two years; also, that UVSS
refused to ratify YPY as an official student club.
The UVSS takes a mandatory fee of nearly $70 from every student on campus, in
order to fund – among other things – the various student clubs on campus. These clubs range from religious (Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Zen Buddhist, etc.)
to political (Persian Students, the Young Liberals, etc.) to recreational
(knitting, ballroom dancing, hula hoops).
There is also the Hempology 101 Club, which supports the promotion of marijuana
and is rumoured to use their student funding for provision of ‘supplies.’
Yet despite the diversity of clubs receiving funding for sometimes controversial
activities, UVSS has been targeting YPY for years.
In 1999, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered UVSS to reinstate YPY back into
the society.
In 2008, UVSS decided to withdraw funding to YPY on the basis that placing some
non-graphic posters on campus constituted harassment.
While this funding was recently reinstated, YPY"wants a formal apology.
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This is not the first clash between a pro-life group and the university
administration.
For example, at the University of Calgary, the Pro-Life club has reported they
have been threatened with suspension, expulsion or arrest if they do not stop
displaying their anti-abortion signs outwards.
Legal counsel for the university has advised them that, as the land is privately
owned, the university is not subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms – and that if the group disobeys, they will be prosecuted for trespassing.
YPY’s posters, which allegedly caused harassment, displayed a toddler and the words,
“I am not the enemy.”
Another campaign featured a man in a wheelchair questioning whether he should
have been aborted because of his disability. They were neither graphic nor
inherently offensive, yet UVSS claims they promote an environment of “ambient violence.”
A YPY press release stated: “The students involved with the YPY are members of the university community,
which is the very place where controversial topics should be discussed.”
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association agrees with this sentiment, and has sided
with the pro-life group.
On their website, director John Dixon is quoted as saying: “When the university forgets its core identity by preferring censorship over
debate, it undermines the legitimacy of its claim to independence – and to that extent, its immunity from Charter scrutiny.”
Universities are supposed to be centres for free-thinking debate and analysis.
In a university where the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Club and the
Israel on Campus Club can coexist, it will be interesting to see if a place can
be found for YPY.
Robert Kuhn is an Abbotsford lawyer
June 2010
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