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Email: "Calgary Pro-Life Students Handed Trespassing Notices, Again"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiCALGARY, AB, March 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Members of University of Calgary Campus Pro Life (CPL) will continue presenting the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) display on campus, despite having been charged with trespassing for setting up the display last Fall, and despite having been yet again handed trespassing notices by university security guards today.CPL set up the GAP display this morning, in defiance of the University’s attempts to quash the display by issuing trespassing notices. They intend to set up the display again tomorrow morning. Leah Hallman, Campus Pro Life president, said the group will not be intimidated, despite the fact that they might once more be charged with trespassing."Since we pleaded not guilty and we hold that our actions are not wrong, that our actions are just, we should conduct ourselves as we always have," Hallman said.In response to the Campus Pro Life display the university administration issued a press release stating that the "University of Calgary advised members of the Campus Pro-Life Group that, given their unwillingness to compromise on their provocative signage, they are not welcome on campus for protests," and insisted that freedom of speech and censorship were not the issue but rather the school’s "need to uphold its legal right to manage activities on campus."CPL vice president Cameron Wilson pointed out that Harvey Weingarten, president of the U of C, had stated, "The role of universities is to promote, permit and enable the free exchange of ideas, debate and civil discourse. If universities do not support these values, which societal institutions will?" (Academic Freedom Needs to Come First: Canadians Universities React to Proposed Academic Boycott, Sara Hanson, The Gauntlet, July 19, 2007)."If the university can silence our viewpoint on campus just because it’s unpopular in some quarters, then they can censor others as well," said Wilson. "Being told to turn signs inward is like being told that you can express your views as long as nobody can hear you."First year biology student Marc Russel, though not favorably disposed to the stark images in the GAP display, defended the pro-life students’ right to express their position."I think their message is profane, and their way of saying it is obscene," Russel told the Calgary Herald. "But I fully support their right to be here and to subject us to this. Isn’t that what a place of higher learning is supposed to be all about?"To contact the University of Calgary:Dr. Harvey P. Weingarten, PresidentAdministration Building, Room 100University of Calgary2500 University Drive NWCalgary, AB T2N 1N4Phone: 403-220-5617Fax: 403-289-6800Email: president@ucalgary.caTo contact the University of Calgary Campus Pro Life:Leah Hallman, CPL President: 403-808-3412Cameron Wilson, CPL Vice President: 403-465-9164John Carpay, CPL Legal Counsel: 403-619-8014Website: http://www.campusprolife.comSee previous LSN coverage:Despite Trespassing Charges Calgary Pro-Life Students to Again Erect Display on Campushttp://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032412.htmlSix Calgary Pro-Life Students Plead "Not Guilty" to Charge of Trespassinghttp://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09031602.htmlUniversity of Calgary Charges Pro-Life Students with Trespassinghttp://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09020201.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/calgary-pro-life-students-handed-trespassing-notices-again/

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