Monday March 15, 2004
Controversial Abortion Display Descends on University Campuses Across Canada
VANCOUVER, March 15, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Wednesday, March 17th university students from BC to Ontario are displaying graphic, 4x8 foot posters from the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), an exhibit that compares abortion to atrocities like the Holocaust and the Rwandan massacre.
Pro-life students at the University of British Columbia, University College of the Cariboo, Okanagan University College, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba, University of Toronto, and Carleton University in Ottawa are working in conjunction with the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform to expose the reality of abortion and stimulate debate. Pro-life students at Trinity Western University will also be exposing the atrocity of abortion through a similar display known as the Matthew 28:20 Project.
"Over 50% of Canadian abortions are committed on university-aged women (20-29 year-olds)," says Denise Schmidt of UBC's Lifeline Club. "We feel compelled to show our peers the harms of abortion that are kept hidden by society." Elaine Barber, of the University of Toronto Students for Life club agrees. "It's time Canadians see the ugliness of abortion; the posters we show are disturbing because abortion is disturbing," she said.
The first time GAP was displayed in Canada was at UBC on November 23, 1999; it was violently attacked by abortion-supporting student society leaders. The images have since been displayed more than 10 times at UBC, without further incidents of violence. This, however, has not calmed the fears of some university officials.
Several of the campuses have denied pro-life students open, outdoor space to display the images. The Vice Provost and Dean of Students at the University of Alberta, Bill Conner, said, "The level of disruption that has occurred on other campuses and the likelihood that similar disturbances will occur at the University of Alberta if GAP is displayed in a high traffic area can reasonably be expected to compromise the safety of the campus community." Chuck Marple, a student at the U of A expresses frustration at this response, "I have great difficulty in accepting that my freedom of speech ought to be denied on the basis of the actions of a few radical pro-aborts. U of A is caving into mob-rule; that sort of suppression of academic freedom is alarming, particularly at a university campus."
Marple and several pro-life activists will turn the March 17th GAP-Day into a cause for free speech as well. They will hold GAP signs just outside university grounds. All campus pro-life students East of BC will be resorting to the same approach due to suppression of free speech. GAP-Day runs from 10am to 2pm, local provincial time.
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