GAP came and we showed them UBC is pro-choice

Today the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) was brought to campus by UBC's anti-choice group Lifeline. These are large, graphic images comparing abortion to genocides such as the holocaust and Rwanda. Needless to say, this is horrific, disturbing, offensive, and inaccurate.

We got the word out just in time for pro-choice students and community members to gather and protest this awful display. Among the enthusiastic crowd was a wonderful group of pro-choice students from UVic who came all the way from Victoria to show their solidarity. The protest was very successful. We handed out lots of accurate information and received a heartwarming amount of positive feedback and support from the passers-by. We greatly outnumbered them and I think it's safe to say we dominated their hateful message with our positive message of human rights, justice, knowledge, and compassion.

It's terrible that GAP was able to come to UBC in the first place. I don't think it's a stretch to call it harassment, and UBC students should not be subjected to harassment on their own campus. At our next meeting, SRR will discuss writing letters and taking action to prevent this display from returning. If you'd like to be part of this discussion, or just to talk about this powerful day, our next meeting is this upcoming Monday at 1pm in SUB 245.

A quick update on SRR other than the protest: before the break, we had our first pro-choice movie night and watched "Vera Drake". It was well attended and for anyone who missed it, I suggest you rent it because it's an amazing movie apart from sending a powerful message. SRR will host another movie night in about a week (exact date TBA), to show the documentary "Lake of Fire". A discussion will follow, since this is an intense and thought-provoking movie. During our meeting on March 22 we will be writing letters to Stephen Harper about the upcoming G8 summit to encourage him to include abortion in his discussion of international maternal health.