U of C pro-life group retains club status

A University of Calgary pro-life group embroiled in an on-campus dispute over its graphic posters will be able to keep its status as a club.

The Campus Pro-Life Club’s standing was under review after the U of C Students’ Union club committee moved to revoke it.

“I’m really happy about it,” said club president Alanna Campbell. “We’re planning to continue as normally as we have in the past couple of years with various activities and we’ll put the Genocide Awareness Project in the fall.”

The Genocide Awareness Project is what put the club in hot water with both the students’ union and U of C administration. The controversial anti-abortion display shows images of dead fetuses and compares abortion to genocide casualties and Holocaust victims.

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“I mean it’s the most effective thing we do as a club,” said Campbell, a fourth-year student. “It has the biggest impact and has changed hearts and minds on abortion.”

The club puts on the demonstration twice a year. It was in February 2009 that the club committee attempted to decertify the group. The pro-life club appealed the complaint, allowing it to keep its standing during the review.

“They really didn’t give a reason,” Campbell said of the move to have the club’s status revoked. “We’ve always asked them which policies we broke. It’s a new executive every year and a new set of people dealing with the issues, so I think that probably had a factor or influence.”

Lauren Webber, U of C Students’ Union president for 2010-11, said she was not aware of the latest decision.

“It’s actually the students’ union review board that made the decision,” Webber said. “They still haven’t formally let us know about it.”

With the club reinstated, the next issue is appealing a decision by university administration. In May, administration found six students guilty of non-academic misconduct in connection with the posters.

“Our situation with the university administration is separate from the one with the students’ Union,” Campbell noted.

However, it’s the same contention over the posters that led to four campus trespassing notices being filed starting in 2008. The group was told by U of C officials to turn the posters inward but didn’t comply.

lstorry@theherald.canwest.com