University of Calgary officials have issued a formal warning to eight members of a campus pro-life group — stopping short of expelling the students, but promising stiffer sanctions if they continue setting up displays on the property.
The warning is the result of the university finding members of Campus Pro-Life guilty of non-academic misconduct.
In a statement issued Sunday night, the group said it will challenge the guilty verdict, which followed disciplinary hearings that group members had with university officials 10 days ago.
“We did not break a single university bylaw or regulation, and so we will defend ourselves accordingly. We will also not cease exercising our rights to free speech just because they’re threatening us,” club president Alanna Campbell said in the group’s statement.
“I’d rather be expelled as a principled person than graduate a coward.”
The non-academic charges stem from an incident April 8, when members of the pro-life group set up its Genocide Awareness Project display on campus.
Campus security officers asked them to turn the signs inward. After declining, the group was asked to leave. They refused.
All were accused of failing to comply with the instructions of a campus security officer.
Members of the club have argued they were being discriminated against by being required to turn their graphic display of aborted fetuses inward — away from passersby — when other groups didn’t face similar restrictions.
The group said it was able to set up its Genocide Awareness Project display in 2006 and 2007 without opposition from university officials, but the administration reversed its position in 2008.
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