Case Update #37 – Proposed Remedies and Witness List Filed

On July 1, we filed the anticipated witness list (which I am not posting on this website) and our remedies sought. (We obtained a short extension due to an illness of Clea’s and a family emergency for me.)

I am very proud of the remedies. We may end up adding to, dropping, or otherwise adjusting the remedies based on changes in the law or based on evidence at the Hearing – but the below document has been the product of years of deep conversations with many, many informed and intelligent people and reflects a careful, ambitious but practical vision for what it would take to make UBC how it SHOULD be – a safe, discrimination- and harassment-free environment for all.

In filing this remedy document, my counsel wrote “In setting out the remedy sought, we are aware of the Respondent’s position that a good deal of what we are seeking is in the policies the University brought in in 2017 and has since been amended. One way to deal with this, in our view, is for the Respondent to advise which paragraphs of the Remedy the University accepts or does not oppose on the basis that it is already doing those things.  That would assist the parties and the Tribunal to focus on what is contentious between the parties, while also permitting a clear statement of what has already been incorporated into current policy by the University.”

I think it is fair to recognize that in 2015, we didn’t have the coherent policy, centralized reporting entity, fact-finders, or the process that students have in 2022. While this human rights case was certainly a pressure factor, I credit the sincere and sustained concern by former and current UBC students, particularly in the AMS and Ubyssey staff, for the landscape today. Nevertheless, UBC requires a legal order to conform with the progress already obtained, to address the clawbacks it has already taken (its promise on rape kits), and to address the pernicious cultural factors that make failing their obligations to survivors the easier choice.

On a personal note, a family member living in India has suffered a sudden serious health condition and the circumstance will require me to travel there this summer and perhaps in the future (depending on what folks there say will be most helpful). I will do my best to prevent any other impacts for deadlines leading up to the Hearing, but it is by its nature difficult to predict the impact.