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OTTAWA, Ontario, December 1, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After arresting pro-life students in October and then threatening them at a follow-up event later that month, Carleton University has a proposed an “agreement” to the school’s pro-life club that would see their activities placed under special limitations not demanded of any other student group.

“This act of ‘compromise’ on the part of the University is nothing more than an intimidation tactic limiting our expression on campus,” said Carleton Lifeline’s president Ruth Lobo, a fourth-year human rights major. “The definition of discrimination is differential treatment and that is what Lifeline is receiving.”

Lobo was arrested along with three other Carleton students on October 4th as they attempted to erect the Genocide Awareness Project, which uses large billboards of graphic images to compare abortion to past atrocities.  On October 27th, the students held an event called the “Choice Chain”, where the students stood along a campus sidewalk holding similar poster-sized images.

Director of Student Affairs Ryan Flannagan, who can be seen confronting the students about their October 27th poster campaign in videos released yesterday by the club, wrote them November 18th with a proposed agreement, outlining conditions under which the university would allow the Choice Chain.  In an accompanying e-mail, Flannagan renewed the university’s threats of disciplinary action or arrest if the students fail to comply.

In the agreement, the university proposes to set up a designated “zone” on campus where the students could stand with their signs, dictating that they must cover their posters when traveling to and from this zone.  The students maintain that this area receives little traffic in the winter.

The agreement forbids the club members from approaching other students as they walk by, and says that the university will display warning signs along the path leading up to the zone.  Further, the club members would be required to give the university written notice at least four days in advance of the dates and times they will conduct the demonstration.

“We wish to ensure that Carleton Lifeline has the opportunity to express its views at the same time as ensuring that other members of the campus community have a choice about whether or not to witness or participate in such expression,” wrote Flannagan.

Interestingly, in the past month, the university allowed graphic images of the Holocaust to be displayed as part of an awareness campaign.  They have also allowed an animal rights group to erect photos of brutalized baby seals.  In neither case were they subject to warning signs or restricted areas.

“What you suggest is the complete opposite of freedom of expression,” wrote the students’ lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos on Monday, insisting that the club will not accept the agreement.

“All individuals are at some point faced with an idea, a speech, a photograph or a display that they do not agree with and which may even offend them,” he wrote.  “To suggest that Carleton Lifeline only express their views in a ‘Free Speech Zone’ is the equivalent to having billboards on the highway warning drivers of upcoming billboards.”

Polizogopoulos notes that the University has been unable to indicate which school policy the club has violated through their Choice Chain.  “In fact, I am advised that there is no policy which requires students to book standing space on campus,” he wrote.

He also pointed out that the university’s “Womyn’s Centre” blocked the Choice Chain by setting up a table, a type of display for which university policy requires advance booking.  “In light of this fact, I must ask if Carleton University has also prepared a proposed agreement for the Womyn’s Centre,” he wrote.

James Shaw, vice-president of Lifeline, questioned the University’s conduct asking, “Are students now being required to book standing space on campus? The University is taking a ‘Big Brother’ approach in their relationship with Lifeline. Frankly, we find this behavior more akin to 1984 than to the 21st Century.”

Carleton Lifeline has also been decertified by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), a decision they are challenging in court.  On Monday, the students were informed by CUSA that they cannot bring legal counsel to an internal appeal meeting.

For more information about Carleton Lifeline and their battle against censorship, visit their website here.

The club released the following timeline yesterday, which summarizes their two-month-long ordeal:

Oct. 4: Four Carleton students arrested for attempting to display the Genocide Awareness Project
Oct. 27: Carleton Lifeline begins a hand-held, mobile project called “Choice” Chain.
Nov. 11: Carleton Lifeline receives official notice of revoked club status from the Student Association (CUSA)
Nov. 12: Carleton Lifeline has a closed meeting with Carleton Administration
Nov. 15: Carleton Lifeline Legal Counsel responds to Student Association
Nov. 18: Carleton Lifeline receives official “Exhibit Zone” Proposal and threatening letter from Carleton Administration
Nov. 19: Carleton Lifeline pursues internal appeal processes with Student Association as well as a judicial review
Nov. 29: Carleton Lifeline told by Student Association that Legal Counsel cannot represent them at internal appeal meeting
Nov. 29: Carleton Lifeline Legal Counsel responds to threatening letter from Carleton Administration