Good news! UBC provided its second batch of documents at the end of the day on July 31. The supplemental list provided by UBC is on the Documents page. It contains 19 groupings of documents organized, apparently, by source; in some ways this is easier than the prior document disclosure, which was in form of very large PDF files composed from multiple sources thrown together without clear organization delineation between the sources. At least some of the documents we’ll be able to easily confirm are not altered, because they appear to be original files. However, it also presents a challenge, as many are individual Microsoft Outlook emails, with the date associated with the file as August 1, 2020 rather than the last date sent, and I have not poked around enough to see if the files retain their original dates in properties. Nothing appears to be bates numbered. Thus organization in the review, and probably the purchase of Microsoft Office, will be necessary.
I have only given the documents a cursory review, but I have already found a few examples of excessive redaction – but as a scope of a few lines rather than whole paragraphs. Still, no person’s name is the length of two lines, and that is the only permissible redaction under the Tribunalmember’s order, so we’ll need to keep an eye on how frequently this occurs.
The third party documents from Paula Butler with (I presume) her final confidential report and her underlying research for her February 2016 Executive Summary of the Mordvinov situation appear to be included, just looking at the list of disclosures filed by UBC.
The next step will be to see what is there and whether we believe there are additional documents UBC has held. Clea and I will be working closely together this month to review the disclosure and make a strategic decision about whether and what we need to inquire after, whether to challenge redactions, or whether we should, in the interests of moving the litigation forward, go with what we have. She was counsel on a famous, and famously long-running case, between several South Asian-origin and -trained veterinarians and the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia. In that litigation, the College of Veterinarians withheld documents from her clients and of course this came out during questioning at the hearing, which dragged the case on for much longer as the hearing was interrupted so the new documents could be reviewed. That is partly why we are insisting on complete disclosure right now; if we have a UBC witness at hearing, and ask them, say, “did you provide the copies of the self-incriminating emails Mordvinov wrote that were quoted by the CBC, and his Facebook messages to a Class Member about his attack on her?” if the answer is “no” then this will be a problem I would like to avoid.
I will also need to ensure my own disclosures to UBC are complete, since I received more relevant documents after my last disclosure. Once both sides agree we will cease arguing about pre-hearing disclosure, we will need to draft and file an answer to UBC’s Application to Dismiss, which has been on hold pending the disclosure issues.
Although I anticipate substantial work will be done on these tasks before my next update, there are three time-sensitive matters that will hold things up for me. First, my spouse and I live in the US and he is here on a marriage-based green card that expires in mid-September. To remove the expiry condition, we need to provide documents proving (again) that our marriage is legitimate, and we have a narrow window in which to apply. (Although the president recently signed a proclamation that no new green cards would be issued right now because of the racist pretext of the pandemic, because he’s a coward it doesn’t include groups of people most likely to be subjects of sympathetic media coverage – in our case, applicants married to American citizens and applicants already living in the US.) Compiling the evidence is time-consuming and is my first priority. Second, I am still working full time until mid-August so my time to review UBC’s disclosure is limited. For the first disclosure in 2018, I delayed the start date of a new job and spent three solid weeks and weekends reviewing, to give you a sense of what it is like. Third, I am expecting to deliver a baby on August 31, and as babies make their own schedules I am not sure what that will mean for the timing of my next update or whether I will be able to substantially complete review before the end of the month. Class Members are always welcome to email me for updates at ubcsexualassault@gmail.com or to contact Clea.
Glynnis Kirchmeier - and - Kirchmeier obo Others v. UBC 