TORONTO, ON, June 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The campus group at York University, Students for Bioethical Awareness (SBA), has launched a formal complaint under the York University Student Code of Conduct. Members of the group allege that their rights have been violated due to a number of incidences, including the last minute cancellation of a February 28 abortion debate organized by the SBA.
The complaint also addresses the recent motion passed by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), which promises support for any member union that denies resources or space to pro-life student groups. The York Federation of Students (YFS) has been the first to act on this support, by passing a motion to deny resources, space, recognition or funding to pro-life student groups.
Theresa Matters, Executive Director of National Campus Life Network (NCLN) commented, “The CFS is encouraging its member unions to ban pro-life students from participating in campus life. There is an obvious trend: first a debate is cancelled, next CFS moves to support student unions that prohibit pro-life students groups, and now the YFS is acting on this official CFS support.”
She continued, “These actions also come shortly after a successful human rights complaint from the pro-life club at Capilano College against their student union, a CFS member, that banned them.”
By virtue of an automatic student fee, the CFS is funded by over one half million students, with 45,000 of those at York alone, who were never individually asked if they wished to pay the CFS membership fee. At York University, every fulltime student is required to pay $7.20 per year directly to the CFS.
Matters noted, “In an era of high tuition fees, CFS is collecting millions of dollars per year from students across Canada and using this money in part to silence students who disagree with them.”
While the York administration has publicly stated that they do not support this type of discriminatory behaviour, the collection of the mandatory levy to the CFS continues. NCLN is thus formally calling on the York administration to allow students the choice of whether or not to pay before they are charged.
Matters concluded, “If the YFS and CFS want to ban so-called ‘anti-choice’ activity, York administration should in turn eliminate the ‘anti-choice’ practice of automatically collecting CFS membership fees from every student.”
NCLN said it is time that York’s administration recognized the negative impact of the decisions by the YFS and CFS and acted accordingly.
To express concern contact:
Hamid Osman, President of the York Federation of Students
Phone Number: 416-736-2100 ext 33627
Phone Number: 647-448-2823
Email Address: [email protected]
Mamdouh Shoukri, President and Vice-Chancellor of York University
Email Address: [email protected]