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The University of Ottawa Common Law Student Society (CLSS) cancelled an election last week, less than 12 hours before voting was to begin, after students complained on social media about a Christian, socially conservative and pro-life candidate who was running uncontested for the society’s vice-president of equity.

The candidate, 23-year-old Garifalia Milousis — she uses an anglicized name on Facebook after her early experience speaking out against abortion garnered her and her family death threats — saw the CLSS’s Facebook ad seeking candidates “interested in fighting for equity issues.”

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She applied, passed the bilingualism test, and was accepted as a candidate; that’s when she learned that no one else was running.

As she told the National Post Monday in a phone interview, “I didn’t see my role as campaigning for any one group … I wanted to foster ideological diversity.”

What concerns me is the principle of the matter

She started campaigning early last week, and on Wednesday, posted on the Facebook groups for the law classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022, basically introducing herself.