Politics
Tuesday October 21, 2008
University of Guelph Student Association Pulls the Plug on Pro-Life Student Group
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Kathleen Gilbert
GUELPH, Ontario, October 21, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Central Student Association (CSA) of the University of Guelph decided unanimously to pull accreditation from a pro-life student group, deemed "unsafe to women" due to its promotion of the pro-life message.
The club's accreditation was pulled in the wake of their "Life Fair," in which pro-life speakers addressed the audience and pro-life signs and images were displayed. Life Choice describes their group as "committed to proclaiming, celebrating and defending the dignity of all human beings from conception to natural death by educating people about pro-life issues."
The CSA, which governs the pro-life student group, stated that the pro-life activities of Life Choice were in violation of CSA policy. According to an official CSA memo posted on a student's blog, these rules state that one of the rights afforded to female students is "the fundamental right of all women to control their bodies," including "access to safe, reliable birth control and family planning information and the right of choice in the method" and the "freedom of choice choosing one’s stance in the matter of abortion."
"[Life Fair] wasn't pro-life, it was anti-choice. Many of the documents distributed were anti-choice. It was a clear violation to CSA policy and rights to students and women," Joel Harnest, CSA's Human Resources Commissioner, told the Ontarion, the university's newspaper. The CSA claimed that the Fair constituted an "unsafe space" for women due to the "misinformed and/or misleading" information promoted.
Life Choice president Cara Benninger told the Ontarion, "We were really surprised first of all and shocked," since the group was "careful to follow CSA policy and Human Rights policy." She said the group was not invited to the meeting in order to defend itself, nor were they alerted that their accreditation status was in question.
Benninger also said that, without accreditation, the club's hands are tied. "We want our university to be a place where people feel free to express their viewpoints so we're going to stand by our right to do so," she said.
According to the CSA memo, the decision falls in line with other organizations in the Canadian Federation of Students, who are uniting in their refusal to support "anti-choice organizations."
Life Choice plans to appeal the decision at a public meeting of CSA's board of directors on October 29, at 6 p.m. in the Eccles Centre.
To contact University of Guelph's CSA:
Central Student Association
Room 274, University Centre
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario
N1G 2W1
phone: 519-824-4120 x. 56748
email:
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.