OTTAWA — When members of Lifeline, a small but committed pro-life club at Carleton University, tried to put up a pro-life display, university security and police officers arrested them.
The incident took place last October, when five members of the group were hauled away in handcuffs after their attempt to display the Genocide Awareness Project in a prominent campus quadrangle at the Ottawa university.
Now, two of the five students facing trespassing charges have sued the university and several staff for $200,000 Canadian. Lifeline president Ruth Lobo and treasurer John McLeod, both 22, claim that the school and its staff were wrong to arrest them, broke their own policies and violated the Canadian constitution.
Moreover, in choosing a “high-traffic area” to make the arrests and bringing in police to do so, the pair claims the university acted “deliberately, maliciously and with bad faith, with the intent of intimidating, bullying, humiliating and censoring Carleton Lifeline.”
The university released a statement vowing to “defend itself vigorously” against Lifeline’s suit. It had acted properly, the statement insisted, in trying “to balance the Lifeline group’s right to exercise free speech with the desire to allow other members of the campus community to choose whether or not they wanted to see the images that make up the Genocide Awareness exhibit.” The exhibit compares Canada’s 100,000-plus annual death toll from abortion to genocides in Armenia, Rwanda and Nazi-controlled Europe.
‘No Right Not to Be Offended’
Lifeline had tried to book the inner-campus outdoor “Tory Quad” for the display but had been shunted by the university to a remote hall because, stated the university, GAP was “disturbing and offensive to some.”
“I think the university was sincere,” Lobo told the Register, “but they are certainly being selective about which offensive images they choose to protect people from.” For example, she says, the university took no action to restrict the viewership of two other groups displaying strong images. The Holocaust Awareness group displayed pictures of historical genocides, much like the Genocide Awareness Project, but without reference to abortions. The campus animal-rights group displayed images of slaughtered baby seals, while shouting “Shame on you” at passing students.
“There is no right in law not to be offended,” says Lifeline’s lawyer, Albertos Polizogopoulis. “There are some prohibited forms of speech, such as incitements to violence and hate speech, but offensive speech is not among them.”
Lifeline is suing the university on several grounds, the main one being that the university has a contractual obligation to its students to follow its internal policies, including those promising to uphold freedom of inquiry and speech.
The second allegation is that the university violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This is a more dubious claim because the 30-year-old charter applies only to government bodies; it has never been established in court that Canada’s public universities are government bodies under the charter.
“We have a [Supreme Court of Canada] decision from the 1980s that said the charter did not apply to a university in its dealings with its employees,” says Polizogopoulis. “But the court stated that the ruling left the question open as far as other university operations were concerned.”
Last year an Alberta court ruled that the charter protection for free speech did apply to the University of Calgary, “but that ruling doesn’t apply here in Ontario,” said Polizogopoulos.
Lobo said she’s “shocked that there is not more of an uproar at this violation of free speech,” neither from academics nor the 150-plus clubs on campus, many of them highly political. “I can only guess that it is because the abortion issue is so controversial.” The Canadian Civil Liberties Union, which is officially pro-abortion, has supported Lifeline on the free-speech issue.
Carleton says it hasn’t restricted the club’s rights because it “repeatedly offered the Lifeline group the use of Porter Hall, a venue that is used for town-hall meetings, speeches and other events on campus. … Carleton remains a marketplace of ideas, a place where members of the community can debate and discuss a full range of issues and ideas.”
But Stephanie Gray, the president of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, which provides the Genocide Awareness Project to Canadian universities, said, “Canadians don’t embrace free speech like Americans do. Most of our universities have explicit policies in support of free speech, but when we show up with our pictures showing the brutal ugliness of abortion, they discover a supposed right not to be bothered or distressed. GAP provokes discussion about abortion, and that threatens the status quo.”
Register correspondent Steve Weatherbe writes from Victoria, British Columbia.
View Comments
Comments
Join the Discussion
Canada won’t let you buy a pack of cigarettes without looking at hideous pictures of diseased lungs or people on respirators. It’s all about hypocrisy.
@Trebert,
Are you by any chance Stephen Harper? This is is favorite excuse to justify his doing nothing about the shocking lack of ANY abortion laws in Canada. As for the bishops, they are not infallible or beyond justified criticism, and in this case they are clearly wrong.
The Canadian Catholic News has just reported (Mar 16/11) that the Alberta bishops will NOT participate in this year’s March for Life because organizers could not guarantee that placards displaying dead fetuses would not be present at the event.
Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith, liaison bishop with march organizers, said the presence of images of aborted babies at the march is not consistent with the message the bishops want to portray about the dignity of human life.
Let the Alberta Bishops lead the way to make abortion safe, legal, and rare. And make childrearing safe, economically supported, and surrounded by a loving community that celebrates the mystery and miracle of life and that honors and rewards the parent or parents who have undertaken the difficult and beautiful task of raising children. The answer to abortion will never be found in taking a negative (graphic pictures) or a militant and reactive approach. It cannot be legislated. It can only come through a conversion of the heart.
Unfortunately, for a long time Canada has been ruled by self-appointed elites which make mockery of the traditional political designations. Canadian “Liberals” are in fact socialists, Canadian “Democrats” are semi-Communists, while Canadian “Conservatives” are just rank opportunists. They can get away with this because of the moral indifference and mental sluggishness of the majority of the populace. There are only two things that could cause a general uproar in Canada: a shortage of beer and a ban on hockey. Other than that, Canadians are very nice people indeed.
Let’s begin with the objective frigate of fraternal correction
1 Saint Thomas aquinas ( Summa through second part of the second part. Question #33 , there are 8 articles in reference to this objective )
2 document in reference to the widespread evil of abortion ” Declaration De Aborttu” procurator of the s.congregation for the doctrine of the faith ( 28, June 1974 )
3 catechism on the fifth commandment ” you shall not kill ” precept # 2270-2275 and catechism on the eight commandment ” you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor precept # 2465-2470 in reference to living in the truth and precept # 2471-2474 on reference to bear witness to the truth
4 scriptural exposition in reference to abortive births
a. Job 3:17,10:18-19
b. Jeremiah 20:15-17
c. Hose a 9:11; 9:14
Please read the anchor bible commentary for individual scriptural passages follow by the commentary from Navarre bible which safeguard in transmission the purity of the catholic doctrinal documents and Tradition
Lastly a quote from Saint Pius x catechism ,page 417 ” our Lord condemns scandal that is any saying, action or omission which constitutes for another an occasion of sin”
May the peace of Jesus be with you all !
Feminism is The Wh*re of Babylon.
And she is getting drunk on the blood of dead children.
Now you know.
It is so inspiring to read reports like this one. Lifeline and the persons detained are certainly the heroes of today. They are just like a firefighter rushing into a burning building. They are not saving victims of a fire but may impact the world to save one or more babies in the womb. They work to save lives and maybe will save a soul or two on the other side of this issue before our time is up. My sincere thanks for your great use of God’s talents. I pray all of you will be rewarded with a larger stake in God’s kingdom.
I too am a journalism grad from Carleton and I didn’t even know about Porter Hall until I had to write an exam there.
The point is: no one has a right not to be offended and universities should be a place where people’s values and ideas are challenged. Having done both my undergrad and graduate degrees at the school, I saw all kinds of offensive speech that was allowed on campus.
The students pro-life students weren’t being rude, they weren’t going to screaming at people passing by - they were just going to show pictures that were offensive to some and talk to those who would be willing to chat with them. It isn’t dubious to expect that to be protected under the law.
The Alberta ruling on campus free speech discusses how universities when they act in a public capacity - providing education - have an obligation to respect Charter rights. The Court ruling that the Charter doesn’t apply to universities only dealt with a university professor who didn’t want to be forced to retire - it never dealt with free speech.
The pro-life students’ case will hopefully put an end to that myth that university students don’t have free speech rights on their own campus.
Information on how to donate to Lifeline can be found here: http://carletonlifeline.wordpress.com/how-can-i-get-involved/
For decades now college and university professors and administrations have reacted with fear and hatred towards those just exercising their right of free speech to raise awareness of the reality of the snuffing out of human life. Why is it that defense of the needs of animals should be prioritized over human dignity? Groups who rally against the use of torture or the death penalty are not treated this way. What is Carleton so afraid of anyway? That students will see this and come to better appreciate their own human dignity and the dignity of fellow humans?
I went to Carleton. This is typical. Two things:
1. Porter Hall is a very low-traffic area. People only go in there if they are planning to go in. It’s not a high-traffic part of the university’s main tunnell system and it’s generally out of the way for most students who do not have classes in the building. They were trying to hide them, definitely.
2. Carleton is home to one of Canada’s best and biggest JOURNALISM schools, of which I am a graduate. For this very reason alone, the university should be ashamed of itself.
Steve, do you know how people could donate to Lifeline’s legal defense? As a true libertarian when it comes to freedom of speech, I’d like to support them.
Join the Discussion
We encourage a lively and honest discussion of our content. We ask that charity guide your words. By submitting this form, you are agreeing to our discussion guidelines. Comments are published at our discretion. We won’t publish comments that lack charity, are off topic, or are more than 400 words. Thank you for keeping this forum thoughtful and respectful.
Comments are no longer being accepted on this article.