Josh Kolic is the vice president finance for the Lakehead University Student Union, which recently decertified the Lakehead University Life Support pro-life club and last week he had this to say about the decision.

In a great victory for human rights on this campus, Life Support was denied club status in our first board meeting this year…

So it is a victory for human rights to deny people the right to associate and express themselves.

As your Vice President Finance, I met with members of Life Support in early October and suggested to them that if they truly wanted to represent “pro-life” values that they would perhaps be better served advocating for increased programs for expectant mothers on this campus or increased funding for child care services on campus rather than simply maintain an anti-choice stance by denigrating those who believe in a woman’s right to choose.  The group turned down my proposal. Almost immediately.

So here is a member of the student union executive attempting to bully clubs into changing their priorities and view the world through the same lens he does. Josh Kolic will define what it means to be pro-life. And apparently being pro-life means promoting Big Government and the Left’s pet projects. It is also typical for abortion advocates to imply that simply by disagreeing with them you are denigrating them.

I find it interesting that while Life Support refuses to change its aggressive and exclusive focus, not a single group that favours the pro choice option ever advocates exclusively for women to have abortions.  This statement might seem somewhat ridiculous in that I’m simply pointing out the obvious, but it is very telling in terms of the tactics that Life Support continues to employ. In fact, the neutral stance is simply one that allows the individual woman herself to choose.  This stance is the one that I believe LUSU should advocate and certainly the one that I believe that you as a student body would advocate for as well.

The raison d’etre of Life Support is to promote an anti-abortion point of view. It also amusing and self-serving for pro-aborts to argue that the pro-choice position is the neutral position. By definition, if these are polar opposites, neither can be neutral. And to show his neutrality, Kolic says the entire student body should adopt his position.

When you really get down to it, the focus of many pro-life clubs is not to argue that a woman’s choice to kill her baby should be abrogated but rather that we talk honestly about what that choice is and to offer alternatives to abortion. Abortion advocates prefer that these discussions not take place. Contra Kolic’s claim, many “pro-choice” groups do argue fervently in favour of abortion and resist any attempt at dialogue about what the choice entails. They will deny any side-effects, seek to squelch the presentation of other views including sidewalk counseling, and denigrate the choice to carry a child to term.

As your elected representative, I believe that you as a student body agree that a woman has a right to make decisions regarding her body.  I believe that we as a student body agree with the BC Supreme Court that the existence of groups such as Life Support violate the rights of students on campus.  It was once said in this country that the state has no place in the bedrooms of this nation.  I also contend that the state has no place within a woman’s body.  Neither does a student union club.

For some reason, as an elected representative Kolic knows what the student body believes.

As for the statement that the state has no place in a woman’s body, does he really believe this. In a system of universal care, the state-provided abortionist is in the woman’s body during the abortion procedure. Is Kolic advocating for private health care? Of course not. His statement is poorly chosen rhetoric, and necessary for the dumb line that a student union club should not be in a woman’s body, either. As noted above, they are trying to get to the woman’s head and heart.

I would ask all of you who support a woman’s right to choose to come to our next board meeting and – as the Life Support group has done – give a deputation to the board as to why a woman’s right to choose is important to you. 

I implore you to help restore democracy and the spirit of human rights to the Lakehead University Student Union.

Translation: “For the sake of democracy and human rights, come tell us what we want to hear so we can continue to ban a pro-life club.”

In this whole sordid story, the one who seeks to control others is the person who would call himself pro-choice.