Today, Youth Protecting Youth attended a meeting of the Organizational Development (OD) Committee that has been tasked with making changes to clubs policy.

On February 8th, the UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) Board of Directors revoked YPY’s status until this OD Committee presents policy changes to the Board which will then decide whether or not to grant status to YPY. In the same motion, the Board revoked funding for one year. The original motion would have applied an exclusive policy to YPY, but it was amended to make all clubs subject to OD’s policy changes.

We attempted to appeal this decision (as described in the last post) because it restricts our members’ freedom of expression by denying them funding and recognition based on their beliefs. Indeed, the OD process was initiated as a result of bogus accusations of harassment and hate-speech. We maintain that we have been wronged.

However, the UVSS decided that their clubs policy needs to be changed, and YPY supports the idea of providing a more specific, non-discriminatory policy that can be applied to all clubs. We attended the OD meeting today in that spirit, and may continue to do so. Regrettably, YPY’s status depends on the committee’s outcome, and many committee members intend to insert specific clauses in policy that would address pro-life groups in particular.

The UVSS’ decision to penalize YPY is still absolutely unwarranted, and the OD process is in danger of becoming an investigation into how to silence pro-life on campus completely.