Current Case Status

On July 14 and 15, 2025, Chad Hyson completed his cross examination. One additional witness remains for one day of hearing: UBC will call Vi Addams, an administrator from the History Department (without direct knowledge of the events of 2014/2015) who will give testimony regarding records.

The last day of hearing is set for August 6, although additional dates remain on the calendar in October in case some delay occurs.

The parties will begin written closing argument. As the complainants, we will go first, then UBC will respond, and we will reply. I understand the deadline for those submissions has not yet been set but will likely be later in 2025, given the tight schedules of counsel for both parties and the Tribunal.

From April 22 through April 25, 2025, Chad Hyson finished his direct examination and the vast majority of his Mordvinov Class cross examination. Some cross examination related to the General Class took place. We will finish Hyson in the next round of hearing dates, and then UBC will call its last witness, an administrator.

The one hearing date scheduled for January did not go ahead because of illness.

The next dates will be the week of March 3 and the week of March 10, beginning with UBC’s witness Robbie Morrison, the Chair of the Non-Academic Misconduct Committee, and continuing with Chad Hyson, Student Conduct and Safety with VP Students (at the time of the events). I understand that both individuals are current employees of UBC.

The last block of hearing dates took place November 14, 15, 18-22, and two weeks in December from December 2-13. In that time, we heard from four new witnesses and from myself:

1. A member of the General Class wholly unconnected to the History Department or Green College testified and was cross examined on November 14 and 15.
2. Mark Vessey, Principal of Green College from 2008-2023. Vessey was called by myself as an adverse witness when UBC refused to call him. Vessey testified as to his decision-making respecting Dmitry Mordvinov, as well as General Class Members. Like the other adverse witnesses the university forced me to call (Monica Kay, Steve Bohnen, and Clark Lundeen), Vessey’s evidence did not undergo true cross examination.
3. Tina Loo, then-Chair of the History Department in 2014 and 2015. She testified only with respect to events surrounding Dmitry Mordvinov and the History Department, not any General Class Members.
4. Leslie Paris, Associate Professor of the History Department, who supervised two Mordvinov Class Members directly. She similarly testified related to the Mordvinov Class/the History Department, not about any General Class Members.
5. I (Glynnis Kirchmeier) returned to the stand to give direct testimony about expenses incurred since I first testified back in February 2023, and to be cross examined on all the expenses.

Two notable moments in the expense testimony. First, UBC sought, and received, an order from Member Prince ordering me to obtain my resignation letter from my employer this past year, because I quit my job earlier than planned in order to attend the July hearing dates. In order not to delay the hearing progress, though, I’ll make efforts to produce it and testify about it in the spring. Second, I claimed lost wages and expenses for buying health insurance for myself and my spouse in May 2018, because I pushed back the start date for that same employer solely to fly to Vancouver to review UBC’s first tranche of documents, which was incredibly deficient in terms of missing documents and documents so redacted as to be unreadable. (Had I not done so, I would have started work May 1 – for Americans, health insurance coverage kicks in on the first of each month.) The cross exam on this claim was vigorous. UBC objected specifically to me buying health insurance for my spouse and suggested that it wasn’t a necessary expense. My reply was basically that it was, in fact, a necessary expense for me: if he had gotten hurt at that time and needed health insurance, that would have hurt me, too. We’ll see if Member Prince agrees. I found it notable that UBC, an organization which has an annual budget in the billions, belittled me for loving my spouse and being willing to pay money to maintain his health, all so they could maybe save a few hundred bucks. UBC also vigorously complained about a handful of alcoholic drinks I had with meals while in Vancouver – less than the alcohol I consumed at UBC events, paid for by UBC, over my years as a grad student.

Mark Vessey was the last witness for the complainants, and all the evidence from our side is now in (save the last little thing about my resignation letter).

In human rights cases, defendants have the choice of whether to provide an opening statement at the beginning of the case, or at the beginning of their defense witnesses. Here, UBC opted to waive its right to provide an opening statement. Thus, the precise nature of the legal arguments they intend to make will be done in writing, after the witnesses finish.

After witness testimony, both sides will prepare our written closing arguments, which Member Prince will utilize as she considers her ruling.

UBC intends to call the following witnesses in 2025:

1. Robbie Morrison, who acted as Chair of the Non-Academic Misconduct Committee for Mordvinov and for General Class Members. He will begin testimony on January 7, 2025.
2. Chad Hyson, the staff in VP Students who “investigated” NAM cases and referred them to the NAM Committee, and seems to have handled post-NAM Hearing elements of cases as well.
3. [Potential] A staff member who will testify as to the money UBC paid to Dmitry Mordvinov. We were surprised that Tina Loo was unable to testify about this area when we put the (late-disclosed) documents to her.

At various points during the litigation, UBC indicated that it intended to call from the History Department Michel Ducharme, Laura Ishiguro, Leslie Paris, and Tina Loo; from Green College, Clark Lundeen; from NAM/VP Students, Robbie Morrison and Chad Hyson; from the Equity and Inclusion Office, Sara-Jane Finlay and Monica Kay; and from SVPRO Carly Stanhope, Alicia Oeser, and/or Habi Ba.

Finally, due to a scheduling error by my counsel, most of the January 2025 dates are no longer available. The next Hearing dates are:

January 2025: 7

March 2025: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

April 2025: 22, 23, 24, 25

July 2025: 9, 10, 11, 14, 15

October 2025: 14, 15, 16, 17

Please note that we are very hopeful the later dates will not be necessary. UBC’s counsel has generally been faster with witnesses than their provided estimates. At this point we are also hopeful that there are no more batches of previously undisclosed documents to be discovered only in the midst of testimony.