April 2013
The University of Waterloo is investigating after an
anti-abortion Conservative MP was blocked from delivering a lecture Wednesday
night by protesters led by a man dressed as a giant vagina.
Ethan Jackson, 21, an art student at nearby Wilfrid Laurier
University, said he calls his pink costume Vulveta, and that Stephen Woodworth’s
talk about the universality of human rights came from an oppressive western
discourse that ignores the rights of indigenous people.
“That kind of speech, that kind of facts, are not acceptable,”
he said. “We decided to go by the route of using satire instead of
intimidation…. We decided to make Stephen Woodworth feel as uncomfortable as he
makes us feel.”
Ellen Rethore, associate vice-president of communications and
public affairs, said the disruptive behaviour was “unacceptable,” and that a
joint inquiry of the school’s secretariat, police, and student success office
was underway.
“Our goal is to ensure an environment of tolerance and uphold
the right of individuals to advance their views penly,” she said.
Mr. Woodworth — who gave a third of his talk before woman in a
red dress commandeered the podium to award him a trophy as
“Kitchener-Waterloo’s Nastiest Misogynist” — said it is “a mark of extremism to
take disrespect of others as a virtue.”
“I couldn’t outshout the shouters. I’m not there to
engage in a shouting match,” he said.
After the talk was cancelled and the protesters left, Mr.
Woodworth said he was able to stay and have a discussion with a few people.
He was speaking about the section of Canada’s Criminal Code
that, in the context of defining homicide, says a child “becomes a human being
within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded, in a living
state, from the body of its mother.”
His legislative effort to have Parliament study the definition
of “human being” failed in a House of Commons vote last year, despite support
from eight cabinet ministers, including Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose
and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. It cannot be revived in this Parliament.
“What we’re really getting at is at what point do we say that an
individual has equal worth and dignity,” he said in an interview. “You can’t do
that arbitrarily, you can’t do that without regard to the nature of the
individual… Would you be justified in taking someone’s life simply by pretending
they weren’t a human being?”
He said the willingness of people to grant the state the power
to declare who is not a human being betrays a lack of confidence in their own
justification for abortion.
One person in attendance said the protesters became unruly when
he mentioned other instances in which laws declared people to be non-human, such
as in 1930s Germany or the age of slavery in America.
Mr. Woodworth called this “oppression,” to which someone shouted
“oppressor.”
In a video of what came next, the costumed Mr. Jackson can be
seen confronting Mr. Woodworth, and shouting: “We’re not going back to this!”
Mr. Woodworth muttered an inaudible comment, to which Mr.
Jackson shouted: “I’m disgusting? Who do you think you are trying to impose your
bigotry, your views on society through your Christian monotheistic faith.”
The woman in red was even more forceful, backed by people
holding placards saying “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries,” and “If you cut off
my repro-choice, I will cut off yours,” with a drawing of scissors.
“In the name of every c—, we stand here today refusing to let
you further devalue the anatomical jewel, and moreover refusing to let you keep
talking about removing it,” the woman in red said. “We are the defenders of the
c—. You are threatening the freedom of all c—s while disseminating anti-c—
misinformation in institutions that require academic integrity.”
Ms. Rethore, for the university, could not say what sanctions a
student might face for disrupting the lecture, other than to say that “silencing
of anyone who proffers an opinion is totally unacceptable.”
She said the school would welcome Mr. Woodworth back, and
prevent a repeat.
The disruption of controversial speakers by student protesters
is a common problem at Canadian universities. Lectures often begin with
recitations of student codes of conduct, and host groups are encouraged to
document everything with video.
Last week at the University of Toronto, for example, someone
pulled a fire alarm to try to stop a lecture by a men’s rights activist. A few
months previously, another speaker invited by the same student group drew such a
large protest that police intervened to protect a classroom.
As a hub of activism with several colleges and universities,
Waterloo is familiar with the problem, and was embarrassed in 2010 when a talk
by Postmedia columnist and author Christie Blatchford was cancelled because
protesters used bike locks to affix their necks to the stage, making their
forced removal unsafe. She was later able to deliver the talk, about aboriginal
protests in Caledonia.
Ms. Rethore said police were at the event Wednesday to guard the
safety of everyone, not enforce rules of academic debate.
National Post, March 15, 2013.
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