Students at the University of Alberta (U of A) protested a two-day pro-life display on campus.
From March 3-4, the university’s anti-abortion group, Go Life, with the aid of the Canadian Centre for Bio-ethical Reform set up seven signs with graphic images of aborted fetuses to be displayed on the outdoor campus quad.
Warning signs were put up a week prior to the display in order to give students notice of the graphic images, so individuals uncomfortable with the subject could plan alternative routes to class.
Students formed a protest during pride week, stating intent on keeping U of A a safe space.
About 100 protesters created a barrier between students and the displays.
According to the group’s Facebook page, one of the goals of their opposing pro-choice rally was to bring attention to the fact that the pro-life display violates the school’s code of conduct.
But members of Go Life argued the protesters were the ones committing the violation.
“Many of them were yelling at me and undermining my intelligence,” said Kianna Owen, Go Life’s secretary. “When we were engaging students, they would come up and yell at us and tell the student we were interacting with not to speak with us.”
Owen said they notified both the university’s protective services and the Edmonton police about this, to no avail.
“Our goal is to educate the students of U of A [about] who pre-born people are and what abortion does to them. They used flags and posters cover up our display to take away the choice students had to see them,” she said.
Protest organizers Claire Edwards and Zoe Chaytors made a speech before the university’s pride parade, which was then posted on Facebook.
“Women considered not going to class today, because the images behind us [are] aimed to shame women,” the speech stated. “We will not accept harassment under the guise of freedom of speech. We will not accept an admiration that shows so little regard for the mental health of their own students and staff, and we will not accept any limitation on our ability to block this hateful deceitful display. We will not be shamed. We will not be silenced. And we will not apologize.”
Rachel, a third-year environmental studies student who asked not to be fully named, said she was involved in the protest because she herself has had an abortion.
“I don’t think it’s acceptable to shame women who are trying to focus on their studies. Our main purpose of the protest was not even to debate pro-life or pro-choice, but to express that school should be a safe place,” she said.
“While I do not regret any of my choices, the images did affect me for the rest of the week and when I pay $7,000 a year to be here, I don’t deserve to have that distraction,” she said. “I hope students see that this is a supportive campus and even if the dean doesn’t care about us, there are 1,500 plus students who will stand outside . . . to support each other.”
According to the university, since the reactivation of Go Life last September, the only incident reported concerned the posters with only procedural transgressions, such as the number of posters in the same vicinity.
Kiann McNeill, U of A’s director of marketing and communications, said the university will always start from a position that supports freedom of expression and will endeavour to foster and facilitate discussion and debate in a safe environment.
