UBC’s history of abortion protests

January 29, 1988

Following the supreme court ruling that Canada’s abortion laws were unconstitutional, many groups such as “concerned citizens for choice on abortion” met to celebrate. Up until this point, abortions were only performed legally in hospitals, and only if a committee of doctors decided that the pregnancy may endanger the mother’s life or health. The Ubyssey published an editorial praising the ruling, which opened with the sentence, “Dr. Henry Morgentaler has won.”

March 22, 1989

Anya Hageman, a fourth-year agricultural economics student, was arrested and jailed in Burnaby’s Lakeside Correctional Centre for Women for nearly a month after she and 104 other people blockaded the Everywoman’s Health Center — the first centre in Vancouver to give abortions — in early February of 1989. Hageman, at the time president of UBC’s Campus Pro-Life, participated in the blockade due to her involvement in the anti-abortion group “Operation Rescue.” According to Hilda Thomas, an English professor at UBC who worked with the clinic at the time, Operation Rescue harassed and intimidated patients and staff, protested in front of the clinic with graphic signs similar to those currently being debated at UBC and blocked the clinic’s doors.

September 7, 1999

The California-based Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) announced that it intended to bring the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) to UBC. From the Ubyssey archives: “GAP uses graphic photo displays of lynchings, concentration camp atrocities, and aborted fetuses to create a comparison between slavery in the United States, the Holocaust and abortion.”

September 24, 1999

UBC applied for an interim injunction against CBR to prevent the GAP, the pro-life display, from coming to campus, pending a full hearing. In response, CBR stated that they planned to take the university to court over the matter.

UBC’s application for injunction was based on CBR's refusal to comply with the conditions UBC gave in order for GAP to take place. UBC requested that CBR pay for its own security, which would cost $15,000 per day, and that CBR set up its display at Maclnnes Field.

This was covered more extensively in the following Ubyssey issue of October 1.

November 26, 1999

The anticipated GAP display finally came to campus, roughly six weeks after CBR first said the display would come to UBC. The display was not brought by CBR, but instead by a group of students. Three pro-choice students, Erin Kaiser, Jon Chandler and Lesley Washington, tore apart the display leaflets and knocked over tables that the display rested on. All three of the pro-choice advocates were highly involved in the AMS. The display was re-mounted later in the day, and the RCMP quickly arrived on the scene and requested statements from the pro-choice protestors.

February 25, 2000

The second GAP display to come to UBC drew an estimated 200 pro-choice protesters in opposition. UBC Campus Security was present, but the protests remained peaceful on both sides.

Three representatives from UBC Lifeline, a pro-life group on campus involved with the GAP, launched a lawsuit against the AMS and four of their representatives relating to the incident that occurred at the first GAP at UBC.

UBC Lifeline is the same group that put on the most recent pro-life demonstrations on campus this year.

March 10, 2000

The criminal charges were dropped in the GAP incident, civil suit pending.

October 5, 2001

The GAP was brought back to campus by UBC Lifeline. While the incident was less tense than prior ones, Students for Choice (SFC), a group formed as opposition to the first GAP, counter-protested with large banners several feet in front of the display.

Following this year, the displays continue to occur on campus roughly once a year until the present day.

March 8, 2012

A student named Justine Davidson removed her clothes on campus in protest of an anti-abortion demonstration, then coming under investigation by UBC for “non-academic misconduct” for allegedly “disrupting” a display by the GAP.

March 17, 2016

A UBC Lifeline display is slashed by a knife by a female wielding a pocket knife. The pro-life group came under fire by the UBC community for their images that equated abortion to genocide and the Holocaust. This was not the first time that the images had contained such content.

November 16, 2016

The most recent protests took place on campus, with Campus Security standing by to mediate the situation. A counter-protest was quickly set up advocating for pro-choice with a large banner to block the images, which did not include genocide images like the year previous.