Pro-life students get their case to court. (News in Brief: Canada).

Vancouver--On November 23, 1999, the pro-life students' Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) display was destroyed, trashed, and vandalized by three pro-abortion student leaders from the Alma Mater Society (AMS: student society at University of British Columbia). On September 16, 2002, three years later, the pro-life students finally got their day in court.

The court saw a video which showed the attackers Erin Kaiser, Jon Chandler, and Lesley Washington demolishing the pro-life students' display. Also appearing on the witness stand was Nathan Allen a director of the AMS and vice-president of External Affairs at the time of the attack. Mr. Allen can be seen on the video calmly smoking a cigarette, while watching the display being destroyed.

It is worth noting that the AMS Council took no disciplinary action against its own leaders and did not condemn their actions. The Vancouver Sun, in an editorial of February 16, 2000, had this to say about the AMS: "The society's failure to condemn the assault on freedom of expression is disappointing." The AMS's lawyer will be paid out of compulsory student fees, yet the pro-life students whose fees help fund the AMS have to depend on the voluntary donations of supporters of free speech to take their case to court.

A decision on this case will follow in a number of months. It is worth noting that the Lifeline club at UBC is the only club that has severe restrictions on its freedom of expression. Who said universities were bastions of free speech and free expression? The university's policy on academic freedom states: "Behaviour which obstructs free and full discussion, not only of ideas which are safe and accepted but of those which may be unpopular or even abhorrent, vitally threatens the integrity of the University's forum. Such behaviour cannot be tolerated."

Obviously on the evidence available, the AMS violated the university's free speech policy and the AMS is still censoring the pro-life students today.