Return Fire: Blake and Tim Reply

Blake and Tim have replied to the public with this letter:

Open Letter to Council regarding Saturday AMS Council Meeting

Dear Council,

We understand the commentary that has come as a result of the AMS’ complaint to the United Nations against the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia for breaching the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by failing to work towards “the progressive introduction of free education.” We know that while some support the complaint as a means to generate media attention about the prohibitive financial barriers of post-secondary education, many do not. A vigorous debate has started on campus about the appropriateness of the AMS’ policy to accept tuition increases.

We are aware that Council has called a meeting on Saturday to consider whether or not to ask for our resignations. Unfortunately, neither of us will be able to attend this meeting due to prior commitments. This point was made clear to Councillors when they initially decided to call the meeting for Saturday. The two staff members who we directed to work on the complaint will also be unable to attend. We will, however, be able to address Council at our regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, December 2nd at 6:00 p.m. There have been many allegations flying around and many questions such as: “Why the UN?”; “What effect will such a complaint actually have?”; and “What democratic process did you follow to file the complaint?” We strongly believe that Council should withhold any discussion of disciplinary action before we are able to clarify the facts around this issue and clearly explain the motives behind the complaint.

We believe that students should be extremely concerned that some members of Council have indicated they will attempt to illegally impeach Executive members who are democratically elected by the UBC student body. Given the fractured opinions of students on this issue, we encourage those Councillors who wish to impeach us from our elected positions to initiate the proper formal and legal process by conducting a referendum.

We also find it curious that we have been targeted exclusively on this issue by some Council members. It is important to note that we raised the topic of the UN complaint several times at our Executive Committee meetings and that VP Finance, Tom Dvorak and VP Academic and University Affairs, Johannes Rebane signed the contract with Pivot Legal Society to go forward with the complaint. We believe that if any call is made for our resignations, they must be coupled with a call for the resignations of Tom Dvorak and Johannes Rebane.

We both appreciate the seriousness of the current situation and will be prepared on Wednesday to give a full account of the facts.

Signed,

Blake Frederick
President
Alma Mater Society of UBC Vancouver

Tim Chu
VP External
Alma Mater Society of UBC Vancouver

The official letter is available here.