By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
CALGARY, Alberta, November 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - University of Calgary officials have not followed through on their threats to arrest Campus Pro-Life students for erecting the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) display on campus grounds this week.
This past Wednesday and Thursday pro-life students at the university had set up the GAP display, which includes graphic images of abortions and comparisons between abortion and past genocides. In the weeks leading up to the display, however, the university had threatened the students with arrest, suspension, expulsion, and other censures, if they did not agree either to turn the signs inwards, so that they could not be seen by passersby, or not to erect the display at all.
Leah Hallman, president of Campus Pro-Life, told LifeSiteNews.com that she sees the fact that the university backed away from its threats to arrest the students as only a partial victory. The university, she said, may still be planning on taking legal action against the students who were present at the GAP display site, who had their names recorded by campus security officers.
"What the university administration will do is not clear, but I hope the university will continue to allow us to express our pro-life message and will rescind the order to turn the signs inward, especially as we are determined to display the GAP signs in the Spring semester, as we have in previous years," Hallman said.
"The most important thing right now," Hallman said "is for people to write to the university to express their support for the right of freedom of expression at the U of C."
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," a statement on Campus Pro-Life's website begins, quoting the French philosopher Voltaire. "These words of Voltaire are being ignored by the University of Calgary and we, their own students and the victims of their oppression, wish to expose their censorship, intimidation, and bully-tactics.
"We implore our fellow Canadians-who may disapprove of what we say but who will defend our right to say it-to support our rights to free speech, to communicate their disagreement to U of C, and to withdraw support from the university until U of C upholds academic freedom."
Leah asks that everyone who writes to the university administration also send a copy of their correspondence to Campus Pro-Life.
U of C Campus Pro-Life contact info:
Campus Pro-Life
PO Box 84065
Calgary AB
T3A 5C4
Leah Hallman, President: 403-808-3412
Cameron Wilson, Vice President: 403-465-9164
Email: prolife@ucalgary.ca
Email: ucprolife@hotmail.com
Email: leahhallman@hotmail.com
Website: http://campusprolife.com:8080/cpl/index.jspx
University of Calgary contact info:
Dr. Harvey P. Weingarten, President
Administration Building, Room 100
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, AB T2N 1N4
Phone: (403) 220-5460
Fax: (403) 289-6800
Email: president@ucalgary.ca
