Along with the first robins, tulips and term papers, spring at U of T is marked by the arrival of anti-abortion activists. Around this time each year, U of T Students for Life and their off-campus allies break out a set of posters from the U.S. group Genocide Awareness Project and protest on campus.
This year’s demonstration was held last Thursday, April 3, at the corner of St. George and Harbord. The pro-lifers stood on all four corners, holding graphic posters equating abortion with slavery and the Holocaust. They were outnumbered about three to one by a coalition of pro-choice campus groups, including UTSU, ASSU, the Centre for Women and Trans People, the GSU, CUPE 3902, CFS-Ontario and the Steelworkers.
Jim Delaney, director of the Office of the Vice-Provost, Students, was on hand observing the demonstrations. Delaney makes a point of observing controversial events on campus.
“It’s simply useful to have a firsthand account of what transpired,” he said. In this case, very little did: “I did not witness any problems directed against either the group displaying the GAP materials, or against the counter-protesters.”
The university keeps tabs on these protests, usually attempting to negotiate their location ahead of time with U of T Students for Life.
“The university acknowledges the group’s to right to free expression. However, the rights of others who choose not to view the materials must also be respected,” said Delaney. Admin would prefer that the gory posters be set up in a circle or a tent, where students can choose to view them or avoid them.
But Students for Life isn’t having any of it—this year, they broke off negotiations with admin and set up shop on the sidewalk, which is not under U of T’s jurisdiction.
As fellow protesters held up their graphic posters, anti-abortion activist (and non-student) Rosemary Connell discussed the beginning of life.
“When you deny that a child is conceived, that there’s a child, right there, there is no other place to draw that line,” she said. “Who puts it there? Who puts it at 26 hours? Who puts it at two months?”
David Knight, a passing student who identified himself as prochoice, countered Connell: “You have to admit there’s a huge difference between a 24-year-old, sixfoot- two man and a collection of cells the size of a quarter.”
Connell claimed repeatedly that women who choose abortion are psychologically damaged by the experience. With adoption, she argued, “There isn’t that terrible, terrible regret, for the rest of her life.”
She also covered issues from capital punishment to the Terri Schiavo case.
“Terri Schiavo could smile, could communicate, the media didn’t want you to know that because we live in a very anti-life society,” she said.
The mood at the counter-protest was upbeat, with cheers greeting a call of “20 years of reproductive choice in this country!” Chantal Sundaram, a CUPE 3902 staff rep, said the counter-protesters were well-received by passing students.
On other campuses across North America, Jewish student group Hillel has demonstrated against GAP’s Holocaust comparisons. Hillel was not available for comment. Sundaram, however, did take issue with the GAP materials’ juxtapositions.
“It’s just such an insulting comparison to anyone who has in any way been affected by actual genocide, whether it’s the Holocaust or any other sort of terrible calamity that they’re drawing a parallel to,” she said. “It’s disrespectful to the real victims of those events.”
