The University of Calgary pro-life club president Matthew Wilson and treasurer Leah Hallman made this statement to media after their own university censored their display on campus. Wish I had their courage when I was a student. (I didn’t.)

We are here today because abortion is here. If abortion was already recognized as what it is, the killing of an unborn human being, there would be no need for ‘notices to vacate,’ or suppression of constitutional freedoms or scare and bully tactics used by the university on its own students. In their ‘notice to vacate,’ which was handed to members of the Campus Pro-Life yesterday at 3:30pm, the University clearly stated that it did not want pro-life activities to be done on campus. In stating that ‘students registered at the University of Calgary may remain on campus for their classes and other regular activities not connected to Campus Pro-Life’ the university proved that it is not a matter of graphic signs, security risks, or any other rhetoric that they have employed in the past.

The issue simply boils down to the fact that they do not want our message on campus, period. It is worth pointing out that even in Russia, where human freedoms are still beginning to make their way back into everyday life, [pro-lifers] experienced no problems in erecting the same display that the University of Calgary has found so unacceptable.

We are not radicals or extremists, unless trying to promote dialogue on an important, controversial issue can be misconstrued as such. We are simply students who want to express our beliefs that human life has dignity from the very first moments of fertilization. Never in our history have we been violent, demeaning, or rude. Rather, we have always tried to use our convictions as students in a marketplace of ideas to promote the philosophical and scientific position that the unborn are worthy of life. We do not know how the university will react to our actions today. We hope that we will be allowed to display our exhibition as we have done for the last several years and that the University will recognize our right to be there, regardless of whether they like our message or not. We are not seeking trouble. We are seeking to be a voice for those who have none; yet, even our voices are being stifled by those who do not believe, in the words of Voltaire, though ‘I disagree with what you say…I will fight to the death for your right to say it.’