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Unprecedented Restrictions Placed on Religious, Political Clubs at Ontario's Lakehead University

December 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At their Friday, November 28, Board of Director’s meeting, Lakehead University Student Union (LUSU) voted to adopt an amendment to the student union constitution adding a broad range of restrictions applying only to religious and political clubs (New Policy 2B).
 
The new restrictions include but are not limited to:

- “Campaigns must be positive in nature and cannot slander the opposing stance of the campaign.”
- “All material for solicitation must be stamped and approved by LUSU before being distributed.”
- “No club shall have either ‘LUSU’ or ‘Lakehead University Student Union’ within their club name.”
- “All club publications shall not have content that may be deemed as offensive or in bad taste to any identifiable group as described in the Human Rights Code of Canada.”
- “Members of the club are not allowed to impose belief(s) or practice(s) of the club to anyone who does not give them consent to outside of the club’s meetings.”

“In short,” said a press release from the pro-life group, Lakehead Life Support, “LUSU is working to create a simple happy world, where expressing a single critical thought that may upset anyone is banned, and where LUSU will be the final arbiter of what is acceptable.”

“If the new rules were not bad enough” continues the release, “LUSU has blatantly violated their own procedures in passing this amendment.” As per section 26 of the LUSU constitution, notices to amend the constitution: “must be posted conspicuously about the campus of Lakehead University and published in the student newspaper once, at least two weeks prior to the meeting of the LUSU Board of Directors at which it is intended to hold a vote on the proposed amendment.”
 
However, none of the requirements were fulfilled in this case. Instead, Francisco Gomez, a student who has been repeatedly contacting LUSU for information, was only given a copy of the proposal on Wednesday November 26.
 
“Clearly LUSU wanted to pass this amendment as quickly as possible and has no interest in consulting with students,” said Gomez. “The student uproar is predictable and LUSU wanted to pass this before students even noticed that it was on the agenda.”

Gomez, who has been trying to have LUSU recognize Lakehead Life Support since September 2007, believes that this latest amendment to the club constitution is a direct response to his efforts to establish a pro-life student club at Lakehead.
 
“LUSU was running out of excuses not to give Life Support club status,” Renee Schmitz, Asst. Western Director of National Campus Life Network explains. “Now that they are on the verge of receiving club status, LUSU has decided that they will try to not only control and limit their activities, but those of all clubs and viewpoints that are contrary to the LUSU.”
 
Gomez will be calling on the university administration, impacted clubs, students, and members of the public to demand that LUSU reverse this outrageous decision.

Contact the LUSU:

955 Oliver Rd.
Thunder Bay, ON
P7B 5E1
e-mail:
phone: (807)343-8259

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