UVic pro-life club funding restored in lawsuit settlement
Group ends two-month legal battle with student union out of court
7/21/10
Anastasia Pearse, president of the University of Victoria's pro-life club Youth Protecting Youth. Photo by Scott Shi (The Martlet)
VICTORIA (CUP) — The University of Victoria's student union and the campus pro-life group have agreed to a settlement that will keep the long-standing debate over the club's status and funding out of court.
“It's a great victory," Anastasia Pearse, Youth Protecting Youth's president, said of the July 13 settlement. "And the terms of settlement show that the [student union] acknowledges Youth Protecting Youth has been treated wrongly over the past two years.”
Youth Protecting Youth filed a petition with the Supreme Court of B.C. on May 3, asking that the club's status and funding be restored, as well as funding they had been denied since October 2008. The petition also asked that the student union's harassment policy be revised, taking out the amendments pertaining to pro-life groups that were added last spring.
Youth Protecting Youth first had their club status and funding called into question in September 2008 after the group put up Feminists for Life posters at the university. From 2008 to 2010, the student union's board said they received several complaints that the club's tactics constituted harassment.
The club's status and funding were revoked several times between 2008 and 2010.
The settlement awarded over $700 to Youth Protecting Youth — the amount of funding they had been denied since 2008. They also regained club status on campus and were given funding for the current semester. In June, the student union's board voted to amend their harassment policy, taking out many of the amendments that referred to pro-life groups.
James Coccola, the student union's chairperson, said that settling the issue in a timely manner was important because of the costs associated with a court case.
"Considering what this was, it was resolved very quickly. A lot of legal cases take several years. This took two months," he said. "We knew if we stepped into court we'd be looking at anywhere between $30,000 and $50,000, so we're happy we didn't have to spend a large sum of money on this."
Youth Protecting Youth also sought a declaration that “past and current refusals to fund and/or ratify [the club] were and are unlawful,” an order saying that Youth Protecting Youth can be a club with status and funding as long they operate the same way they have in the past and do in the present, and coverage of court costs. None of these were granted in the settlement.
The settlement says that the club can hold their petition in abeyance, meaning that if similar issues arise in the future, they can resubmit the petition.
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