FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Simon Fraser University Student Club Displays Graphic Abortion Photos Despite University Restrictions on Sign Orientation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY STUDENT CLUB DISPLAYS GRAPHIC ABORTION PHOTOS DESPITE UNIVERSITY RESTRICTIONS ON SIGN ORIENTATION

November 7, 2011. BURNABY:  Members of a Simon Fraser University (SFU) student pro-life club (SFU Lifeline) announced that today they will be setting up an exhibit featuring pictures of bloody, mangled, aborted fetuses.  The images will be displayed next to victims of historical genocides, such as the Holocaust, on the Convocation Mall on the SFU campus from 9am until 2pm. The university had confirmed the club’s booking on October 21, but then on November 4 it said the event was not approved.  SFU administration said it would not approve the event because the club would not agree to orient their signs in such a manner that passing students would not see them inadvertently.

“This is content-based discrimination,” said Mary-Clare Turner, club president.  “If we were putting up signs saying SFU is the best university in Canada, I hardly think they would have asked us to turn our signs in so that students wouldn’t accidentally see them.”   Turner said there is no policy or rule in existence at the university limiting student’s peaceful freedom of expression on public areas of the university.

SFU Lifeline vice-president Sarah Volpatti added, “We even submitted a reasonable proposal to the university, leaving a path behind the signs for students to walk and putting up warning signs at the entrances to the Convocation Mall, but the university rejected that proposal because the signs weren’t faced inwards.  The expression of unpopular messages needs protection, not suppression.  If students disagree they can walk away or engage in debate.  We refuse to be censored. We are going ahead with our display as it was originally booked.”

SFU has a firm commitment to protecting free speech on campus, as evidenced by a recent statement by SFU President Andrew Petter: “…when disputes arise in our university around major social and political issues, we should err on the side of tolerating free speech. Provided such speech does not overstep legal boundaries, it should not be censored even though it may be provocative or offensive.”

The display, the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP: http://www.unmaskingchoice.ca/projects/gap), was set up at SFU in 2005 and has been set up on other campuses across Canada, most notably the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia. In October of last year, students attempted to set it up at Carleton University in Ottawa but were censored: Carleton University had Ottawa police arrest those students as they attempted to set their display up.  They were charged with trespass but in the past week the Crown dropped those charges.  A civil suit is still pending.

It is not known what action the university will take when the students set up the display at SFU.

For more information, contact SFU Lifeline President Mary-Clare Turner at 604-318-5143.

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