On June 5, 2019, my lawyer filed two Applications with the Tribunal. These applications, as well as the supporting affidavit of Jennifer Cocke (which was used to file evidence to the Tribunal), are now uploaded on the Documents page. I’ve chosen to put up only the pleadings and not the underlying documents themselves as they have some confidential information like email addresses, and I don’t currently have access to a pdf editing program.
The first Application is for Documents and Costs. As you will see, it thoroughly sets out the relevant documents UBC should have provided, and the deficiencies in what it did end up providing. As a result of the egregious deficiencies, I’ve asked for the Tribunal to order UBC to pay me costs of $10,000. I should have been provided documents by late 2017, but granted UBC extensions, and over a year’s worth of time to follow up the insufficient disclosure from May 2018. In the process, I incurred costs to travel and stay in Vancouver, as well as delaying the start of a new job (two weeks of pay and a month’s worth of health insurance coverage for my family), plus the costs of a year of lost litigation time, paying for my lawyer’s time, and the lost time of class members who assisted me in figuring out what was missing. In the past year, I moved even further away from Vancouver and as a private citizen working pretty much by myself on this case, my ability to put on the pressure pales compared to UBC’s ability to ignore me. I am hopeful the Tribunal will recognize that UBC should be penalized for its foot dragging.
The second Application is for Documents from a Third Party – Paula Butler. As you may recall, in the immediate aftermath of the airing of “School of Secrets” and the press conference when I announced I would file a human rights complaint, UBC hired her as an outside consultant to evaluate what went wrong in the Mordvinov events. She interviewed me and several others from the History Department, but I understand that some people refused to work with her, as their trust in UBC’s institutional management was completely broken. In February 2016, UBC released a summary of her full report (claiming the full report would be confidential in order to “protect the privacy” of the women). Martha Piper and Sara-Jane Finlay made some rather crowing statements to the Board of Governors and the media about how Butler had exonerated UBC’s conduct in mishandling the reports about Mordvinov, and also that she concluded CBC had made misleading statements in its reporting. However, UBC stated after this litigation began that her report was suddenly privileged and did not produce it, despite relying upon it in its defense. Butler personally told me that she would not be able to answer whether UBC retained her to produce privileged materials. My Application requests the Tribunal order her to produce the full report, her terms of reference, and relevant supporting documents, such as communications with people who refused to speak with her and the documents she reviewed.
At this point our next step is to await UBC’s response to the Applications. I anticipate it will oppose them.
Finally, I should explain the delay in updating this blog for the month of May. We had hoped to file the Applications in that month. My time has also been taken up as I have been defending myself in a defamation case (unrelated to this human rights case). In the past two months I prepared and filed an application and affidavit and was cross examined in that matter. I regret that my attention was divided to the detriment of this case, but now that the ball is back in UBC’s court I am hopeful that forward progress will continue.
Glynnis Kirchmeier - and - Kirchmeier obo Others v. UBC 