Student abortion protesters plead not guilty to trespassing, vow to return

Six University of Calgary students who pleaded not guilty to trespassing charges Monday morning vowed to return to campus with their graphic anti-abortion display.

Leah Hallman, one of the Campus Pro-Life members, said her group will be back on campus March 25 and 26 with their display comparing abortion to the Holocaust, the Ku Klux Klan and the genocide in Rwanda.

"We have a right to freedom of speech in Canada, and the university has acknowledged that we have the right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom in the past. I am not too sure why they changed their minds. I think it's because of the nature of the signs, because the signs show abortion for what abortion is," Hallman said.

Six students were charged with trespassing after refusing a request from university officials to turn the signs inward so they would be less visible to the public.

University lawyer Paul Beke said last year that the charter's freedom of expression protection doesn't extend to trespassers.

"Protesters are on the university's private property and they have refused to follow the university's instructions," Beke said at the time. "Because they won't co-operate, they had to give notice to the protesters that they will become illegal protesters. So they will be dealt with legally if they do trespass."

The students will be back in court in November.