Potential student referendum questions were circulated to Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) councillors last week — some of which are inexplicably ambiguous and discriminatory at the same time. Agree with them or not, they need to be revised.
One question asks students whether they would support banning pro-life groups like Carleton Lifeline from campus, based on the fact that they “use inaccurate information and violent images to discourage women from exploring all options” in the event of pregnancy. Another asks students if CUSA should amend its anti-discrimination policy to ban groups “that promote guns and gun violence.”
Some students on campus are upset because they feel these questions unfairly single out individual groups, but the problem with these questions goes much farther than that.
Is Carleton Lifeline’s sole mission to disseminate inaccurate information to students? Is Carleton’s lone gun club, the Firearms Association of Carleton University, really promoting gun violence by allowing Carleton students to lawfully learn about and use guns? The wording of each referendum question suggests this is the case.
The claims made in each question are not verifiable fact. Each question is loaded with the value judgments of their creators.
Furthermore, the questions don’t specify what should be done to each group, beyond “banning” them. Banning from what? From receiving CUSA club status? From appearing on campus? Students need clarity, and these questions will only confuse people.
If these questions did receive 1,000 signatures, as they are required to by CUSA rules, they should be made neutral before students are expected to vote on them.
Let students decide for themselves whether these groups deserve to be banned before swaying their opinions with questions loaded with their writers’ opinions.
