Charges Dropped Against Calgary Pro-Life Students
Well, this is a huge positive end to the University of Calgary trespassing story. From NCLN:
November 3rd, 2009: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CROWN STAYS CHARGES AGAINST CALGARY PRO-LIFE STUDENTS
CALGARY The trespassing charges laid against six members of Campus Pro-Life at the University of Calgary have been stayed by the Crown Prosecutor, effectively meaning that the charges have ended.
The group’s display held on the University of Calgary campus every semester since 2006, termed the Genocide Awareness Project, precipitated the charges. The display compares abortion to past historical atrocities, such as the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
Club President Leah Hallman stated, “We are relieved by this decision on the part of the Crown Prosecutor; Campus Pro-Life has consistently maintained that all of our actions were in full compliance under the law.”
The charges were initially delivered to the homes of several students by members of the Calgary Police Service in February of 2009. On March 16th, all charged members pleaded not guilty. At the time, Hallman argued “We have asked the university several times which of its by-laws, policies, regulations or other authority it relies on for censoring our viewpoint, and have received no answer to date.”
The staying of the charges takes place nearly one year after the November 2008 display on campus that was the catalyst for the charges being laid.
“Campus Pro-Life will continue being a voice for the voiceless,” states Club Treasurer Alanna Campbell, “we hope to continue our activities on campus and raise awareness among the next generation of community leaders.”
For further information, contact Club President Leah Hallman at (403) 808-3412, Treasurer Alanna Campbell at (403) 690-5217, or lawyer John Carpay of the Canadian Constitution Foundation at (403) 619-8014.
According to LifeSiteNews.com, “stayed” just means “effectively dropped” — but not actually dropped yet
I am a student at the University of Calgary and would like to say that I completely support the University’s decision to place these students on academic probation. Looking around, for instance, listening to AM radio, I am seeing that the debate is very one sided, in favor of the pro-lifers. There spokespeople have claimed that they are not aggressive or confrontational about the signs, however, I can tell you first hand that after walking by this site because I HAD to to get to where I was going and refusing a pamphlet from someone I was accused by a pro-lifer of not caring about human rights. I was deeply offended and insulted not only by the comment but also by the fact that they must think me rather stupid, believing that a pamphlet of a picture will change my belief on the freedom to choose what to do with one’s body.
They talk the talk but take no effort to educate people on sex or contraceptives. So basically their train of thought is if you have sex before marriage you will go to hell, we won’t teach you the safe way to have sex so if you get pregnant too bad, and if you don’t want your child to grow up in extreme poverty because you can’t look after them and would rather get an abortion, you’ll go to hell, too bad. These pro-lifers are scary fanatics who need to learn how to respect others beliefs just as much as they as others to respect theres. Furthermore, I think asking them to turn their signs inwards is more than fair. They are still able to express themselves (in a respectful manner) and if people want to see the signs they can, if they would rather not because they find them insulting and offensive (not to mention unintelligent, given that they are not even using the word “genocide” correctly) they don’t have to.
I fully support freedom of speech as long as it does not cause physical, emotional, or psychological harm towards others. The pro-lifers do not care about how they are harming others emotionally or psychologically by making them view these signs. All that it does is make me angry and furious at their lack of logic.
And to respond to the accusation that I don’t care about human rights, which a pro-lifer yelled to me as I walked by, I do care about human rights. In fact, in my opinion I care about human rights more than they do because I appreciate the right to live and express oneself but I also appreciate the right to choose. What is life without choice? As comedian, Wanda Sykes once said, when pro-lifers here the word pro-choice they seem to think that it means pro-death. That is far from true.
I support the UofC in their decision. I think that the pro-life group needs to present more honest facts and stop making it seem that they are being biased against. Any other club on campus would have to take responsibility for their actions as well if they went against their contract where they stated that they would agree with their club requirements. They deserve no special treatment.
Are you copying and pasting this comment elsewhere? You already left us this exact comment on our most recent post about the situation…