The pro-lifers: Anti-choice, anti-communist, anti-women, and anti-student

Rebel Youth presents the following excerpt from a statement by an anti-choice / anti-abortion group at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The group was banned by the student union for harassing students with large graphic images such as foetuses and, in essence, pressuring women who might be considering an abortion, further stigmatizing those who have, and working to deny women's right to chose. Read their own words, below, and check out their graphic, seeing how this issue is fought in terms of 'freedom of speech.'  The LUSU has a constitution demanding equal rights for women, as does Lakehead University.



Earlier this year, the Lakehead University Student Union (LUSU, a CFS member) resolved to withhold "any and all funds, space, resources and services within its control from any groups, either on or off campus... if that group holds any aim, principle, belief, goal, etc. that is anti-choice."

Explicitly stated, any student that wishes to speak against abortion is labeled “anti-choice,” and will receive no support. This would also include clubs seeking status. It is this position that the CFS now officially endorses. The pro-life message is not only unwelcome on the university campus, but its marginalization is now sanctioned.

The time has come for Canadians to awaken to the reality of totalitarianism in our midst. Ironically, the CFS claims to represent students of differing ethnicities, creeds, ages, and sex; however, it has taken a stance contrary to tolerance and inclusivity. This recent decision demonstrates that the CFS has adopted a dogma of dictatorship. The Federation has employed rhetoric to defame pro-life students as “anti-choice,” and has made a sweeping motion at a time when students are not at school. This lack of transparency, and obvious restriction of the right to choose to be actively pro-life, is startling and unjust.

Also ironic is the setting of this situation. Universities are cherished institutions, our "marketplaces of ideas." After so much progress by the human community to recognize and celebrate human diversity, it is disturbing to acknowledge the prevalence of discrimination at our institutions of higher learning.