After last night’s message from UBC V-Day, I returned home today to find an altogether more happy surprise:

Dear UBC V-Day Mailing List,

We apologize for flooding your inbox. We would like to address an email that was sent out last night concerning a letter sent to us by the AMS President.  As an AMS club the controversial issues involving the council of the AMS effect us, too. We feel that it is important for students to be involved in expressing their opinions and views. We apologize for initially presenting only one side of the debate. This was the first email we’d received on the issue, and now that we’ve received alternate viewpoints we wish for you to have those as well. We continue to maintain a non-partisan stance on this issue as a club. We simply wish for students to take a stand and get involved.

However, we understand that this issue is not directly link to V-Day or any issues of violence against women. For this reason we also apologize. If you would no longer like to receive emails about other issues on campus or abroad that are not directly linked to our mandate, let us know and we will refrain from sending those types of emails in the future.

We sincerely hope that we did not cause anyone distress and we would love to hear your feedback so that we can continue to learn and develop our communication.

Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ahna, Chrissy, and Lau
UBC V-DAY Coordinators 2010

This was accompanied by this email:

As per our non-partisan stance in regards to UBC politics, here is another view on this controversial issue. We stress that UBC V-Day remains neutral on this issue, but does encourage you to get involved!

The following is a letter from Councilors of the AMS:

Fellow students;

As you heard yesterday, your AMS has initiated proceedings to remove President and the VP External Affairs. We would like to say, first and foremost, that this debate has never been about tuition. This is about democracy and representation. When the executives filed a Human Rights Complaint to the United Nations alleging that Canada and BC are violating human rights by allowing a 2% increase in tuition, they did this without consulting either the Student Council, or students at large.

Your Student Society is governed by a student council made up of representatives from each Faculty. It is their job to make sure that what the AMS does is representative of your student voice. The UN Human Rights Complaint from Council should have been brought through AMS committees. We feel council cannot tolerate rogue actions by executives when they are purported to be on behalf of the student body.

The executives never initiated a debate in Council about tuition policy, and instead spoke without the approval of your representatives. We feel this is an affront to your right to democratic representation. We could have had this debate months ago, but Blake and Tim never brought it forward. We feel we can’t continue trust them to respect your representation on Council.

If you believe that we should stand up to executives overstepping their bounds and misrepresenting the students of UBC,

1.       Fill out our online feedback form, here: http://ow.ly/GkdW

2.       Come to the meeting tomorrow (6:00 PM in Council Chambers, SUB 206) and demand accountability from your student executive.

3.       Email your representatives.Sincerely Yours;
Concerned Councilors of the AMS

I am very happy that my concerns have been addressed and that the system works. I was never angry at UBC V-Day as an organization, just at Blake for going through such a channel to communicate his lies. Here is my response to UBC V-Day:

Ahna, Chrissy and Lau,

Thank you very much for this response. I realize that you did not intend to cause any damage with this action and I respect your honesty and forthrightness in responding to my concerns. I wish you the best of luck with your organization’s efforts this year, and I look forward to attending this year’s Vagina Monologues.

Sincerely,
Nicholas FitzGerald