Through mediation between Youth Protecting Youth and the UVSS, the pro-life group’s funding has been restored and it has received the near $800 it was denied since October 2008. Youth Protecting Youth is still waiting to hear from UVSS that its move was illegal, however.

“We are waiting for some sort of solid precedent that will prevent future boards from acting in a discriminatory way,” said Anastasia Pearse, the president of Youth Protecting Youth. “This shouldn’t happen again.”

While the club has achieved part of its goal, it is concerned the same discrimination will occur in the future. The new harassment regulations that have recently been introduced will exclude parts of the previous policy that directly affected pro-life clubs, but Youth Protecting Youth is still concerned actions such as those that sparked its censorship will be viewed as harassment. These include putting up posters on campus and hosting debates or speakers on the issue of abortion.

“They claim that our posters harass women,” said Pearse. “But no matter what we do, they’ll be offended by it. It’s our message that they’re targeting, not our actions.”

Youth Protecting Youth's partial financial victory is certainly one in principle and goes against a trend across Canada where campus pro-life clubs have been denied the same privileges as other school-sanctioned groups. Similar incidences have occurred at a number of Canadian universities, including Guelph, McGill and Lakehead, each resulting in the censorship of pro-life clubs.

“It shows that we must be doing something right,” said Pearse. “If we win, it would send a message to other universities that no club should be denied the same privileges as other clubs.”

Youth Protecting Youth expects the UVSS to make a statement some time in July addressing the remaining clauses of the petition.