Newspapers, civil liberties side with pro-lifers

By JEFF GRAHAM

University life can be a struggle for Christians sometimes; it can hold confrontations with professors, fellow students, and even governing bodies. Now it looks as though pro-life students at UBC Kamloops, a group comprised predominantly of Christians, have a struggle on their hands.

The group, after following normal procedures to get their club recognized, was recently denied club status at the university when the student union refused to ratify their application. Instead of following normal practice and immediately granting club status on receipt of the application, the student union on Nov. 28 put the application to a student vote.

The student union posted flyers and urged students to vote on the issue, likely knowing there would be a number of pro-choice advocates who would vote against ratifying the club. Unfortunately, because the pro-lifers at UBC Kamloops did not have club status, they were not able to post flyers and promote the vote amongst pro-life supporters on campus.

For the group’s leader, Marlom Bartram, the outcome was maddening and frustrating. “Groups such as this speak eloquently of freedom of expression, tolerance, and diversity,” he said of the student union, “but those virtues are quick to go out the window when someone who expresses pro-life values comes along.”

To the credit of Bartram and the pro-life group, they are not giving up. They have recently been in contact with both the Catholic Civil Rights League and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. Despite often siding with pro-choice groups, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association has defended pro-life students in the past.

UBC Kamloops is not the only pro-life club in Canada having difficulties with its student union. At Carleton University in Ottawa the students association passed a controversial Dec. 5 motion to refuse club status, recognition, or funding to any “anti-choice” groups or actions in the spaces it controls on campus.

The Carleton student association executive said religious groups would be free to hold pro-life views as long as they refrained from passing out leaflets and putting up displays or posters advocating removal of a “right to choose.”

In general, student associations and unions control some common areas on campus, financially support student clubs on a per-member basis, and have some means of communication. Unrecognized groups can still operate, but have no space to meet, do not receive funding, and cannot publicize their meetings.

At UBC Kamloops, Bartram has taken the struggle to the university, which has done little to intervene, saying the student union does not fall under its jurisdiction.

Bartram, however, doesn’t feel that statement should be true. “If the student’s union is not under the university’s rights jurisdiction, whom are they accountable to?”

Meanwhile, sentiment seems to be growing on the side of the pro-lifers, who have received editorial support from newspapers across the country, including The National Post and The Calgary Herald.