Re: 'Anti-abortion groups on York campus denied funding,' News, June 6.
To clarify the statement by Gilary Massa, vice-president external of York Federation of Students, the pro-life group at York presently does not receive any funding from the student union nor has it ever been given an office.
What the motion of the York Federation of Students has effectively done is to deny the pro-life voice on the campus the right to engage in any "campaigns, action, distribution, solicitation, lobbying efforts" to quote the newly enacted policy spearheaded by Massa. Curiously, this is the same Massa who lobbied against the ban of the phrase "Israeli apartheid" at McMaster University, stating this was a "blatant violation of democratic freedoms of speech and dissent, and an attack on students' right to organize".
In a free and democratic society, all points of view must be tolerated.
What Massa and her group have shown is that at York University, groups are only allowed to voice their opinion and exercise their right to free speech and to organize if the York Federation of Students agrees with them.
Is this the future of our universities? Is this the future of our democratic society?
Terry McDermott