A group called the Capilano College Heartbeat Club is taking the student union at the North Vancouver college to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal alleging discrimination around its pro-life beliefs.
The club filed the complaint after a second rejection letter said the student union was pro-choice and the Heartbeat Club had no place in their organization.
Club status would give the Heartbeat Club access to several services and support by the student union including use of rooms and free photocopying.
Heartbeat's leader, Minerva Macapagal, claimed it was discrimination on the basis of religion, because their pro-life views are based on religious beliefs.
"One of Heartbeat's primary objectives is to offer Capilano College students information and an alternative view to the pro-choice position on abortion,'' tribunal member Tonie Beharrell wrote in a preliminary decision.
The student union agrees it twice denied the group formal "club'' status within the union because of its pro-life stance.
"The complainants allege that their pro-life views are, for the most of them, intrinsically connected with their religious beliefs,'' Beharrell wrote.
In an application to dismiss the complaint, a lawyer for the student union claimed it wasn't religious but political beliefs the student group discriminated against, and that doesn't fall under the tribunal's jurisdiction.
Beharrell has ordered that the Heartbeat Club get a full hearing, ruling the religious aspect of the accusation should be heard.
"I cannot find that there is no reasonable prospect that the complainants' pro-life views could be found to be a religious belief,'' Beharrell concluded.
