Canada: Anti-abortion groups given no platform on campus

The student government at York University, Toronto, on 1 June voted unanimously to deny ‘resources, space, recognition or funding’ to student clubs or individuals ‘whose primary or sole purpose’ is to oppose abortion.

’Our summer quorum is eight [members], so we surpassed our quorum,’ said Gilary Massa, vice-president external of the York Federation of Students, who said she did not know how many people actually voted. The story is reported in the National Post.

‘The York Federation of Students respects and affirms a woman’s right to choose,’ the policy reads. ‘No YFS resources, space, recognition or funding will be allocated to enhance groups or individuals whose primary or sole purpose is anti-choice activities. Such activities would be defined as any campaign, action, distribution, solicitation, lobbying efforts, etc., that seeks to limit the individual’s right to choose what they can or cannot do with one’s own body.’

The same conditions will also apply to groups or individuals ‘who are members or directly affiliated with external organisations whose primary or sole purpose is anti-choice activity.’

The YFS is supported in its effort to rid the campus of ‘anti-choice groups’ by the Canadian Federation of Students, the national umbrella group of student unions, which recently adopted a YFS-sponsored motion to support any member union that adopts such a ban.

The controversial new policy, and its enactment during the summer holidays, has drawn condemnation from the school’s administration, which promised to compensate with space and resources where appropriate.

Ms. Massa said she has received no objections from York students, however, other than one who was quoted in a National Post story the previous week, and the members of the antiabortion group Students for Bioethical Awareness, whom the YFS did not consult.

She said the student body was outraged in March when a member of the Genocide Awareness Project - a university -targeted poster campaign of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, a privately funded U. S. organisation with a Canadian branch in Alberta - came to campus for a debate hosted by the debating club. The ensuing controversy led to this policy, which Ms. Massa said is not a ban of antiabortion groups, but rather a ‘limitation of resources.’

‘They are able to conduct their activity, they just are not able to take advantage of the student union resources,’ she said.

She said the YFS has democratic processes in place to ensure application of the policy will be fair.

In response to the administration’s criticism that this policy is being pushed through when the student body is away for the summer, she said: ‘We are the students union. Therefore, we are an autonomous organisation. We are not accountable to the university administration. We’re accountable to our membership.... We have been empowered as elected representatives to sit around a table and make these kinds of decisions,’ she said.

Students shut out abortion opponents. National Post, 2 June 2008