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“You can’t pick and choose the issues, the free speech issues that you stand up for,” Duncan told reporters Monday afternoon during a half-a-minute encounter outside the House of Commons. “The Conservatives speak up when it’s politically convenient and we haven’t heard from the Conservatives or from Andrew Scheer. I think their silence speaks volumes.”

The Choice Birth and Baby Film Festival is screening Vessel, an award-winning film about abortion, at a wellness centre near Saint Paul University after organizers were told they could not show the film on campus. “Free speech intersects with the right to access safe abortion care,” says a weekend post on the festival’s Facebook page, linking to a Global News report about the cancellation.

Photo by Gino Donato/Postmedia

The festival is still scheduled to hold other screenings on campus. The university did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Campus free speech has increasingly become a political football on Parliament Hill. Last week, the Tories chastised the Liberals for failing to condemn the recent censure of a teaching assistant at Wilfrid Laurier University. Lindsay Shepherd was reprimanded after showing students a clip of a televised debate on gender pronouns featuring professor Jordan Peterson. The university’s president has since apologized to her.

While Duncan ducked away from questions Monday, her office provided a statement that press secretary Ann-Marie Paquet said applies to all such issues, including what happened at Wilfrid Laurier.