February 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life advocates are celebrating the fact that freedom of speech has been upheld on two Canadian university campuses in the past week, as two student unions have decided to treat pro-life clubs fairly despite opposition to giving the clubs official status.
Choose Life McGill, the pro-life club at McGill University in Montreal Quebec, received full accreditation as a campus club at the student union’s board meeting on February 12th. The final vote after a more than 2 hour debate was in favor of ratifying the club. The vote came after Choose Life operated as an interim club for 3 months.
Meanwhile, at the University of Victoria, pro-life students had been fighting for fair treatment from their student union since October 2008, when they were denied the same funding as all other campus clubs. On February 10th, the student union board voted to grant the pro-life club, Youth Protecting Youth, the same funding that is applicable to other campus groups.
Both of these decisions come shortly after the campus pro-life club at the University of Guelph had their club status restored in a January 27th meeting. All allegations against Guelph Life Choice were dropped after a term of battling with their student union.
Additional progress towards the restoration of free speech on university campuses is expected in the next couple of weeks. Pro-life students at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario are awaiting a decision from their student union on their club application and, according to the National Campus Life Network, a positive response is currently expected. Since September 2007, Lakehead pro-life students have been fighting for their right to fair treatment from their student union.
Renee Schmitz, Assistant Western Director of National Campus Life Network said in response to these recent developments, “It is our hope that with these recent events other student unions will stand up for what is right – protecting freedom of speech – rather than silencing students they do not agree with.”