Legal Commentary

Canadian University Restricting Graphic Posters That Compare Abortion to Genocide

By Eugene Volokh

From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

The University of Calgary is threatening to expel a group of students who refused to move a graphic anti-abortion display on campus....

[In november 2008, the group] refused university administrators? requests to make the posters [of aborted fetuses] ? which compared abortion to the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda ? less visible, and also ignored a letter threatening legal action.

Six students were charged with trespassing on campus, but those charges were later stayed.

The group put up the display again on April 8, and was asked by campus security to turn the graphic images inward, away from passersby. The students snubbed that request and refused to leave campus, according to the university?s letter.

Their ?failure to comply with the direction of a campus security officer or university official in legitimate pursuit of his/her duties? could result in sanctions ranging from fines or probation to suspension or expulsion....

Judging by the photograph in the newspaper, the sign at issue is this one:

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on April 21, 2010 (boomark / email).