Race Profile: Student Legal Fund Society

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UBC Insiders Analysis

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The Student Legal Fund Society was created in the wake of the 1997 APEC protests. Its specific mandate is: “SLFS is a non-profit student run society that provides advisory, legal, and financial assistance to fund, initiate and continue advocacy, lobbying and litigation to improve education and access to education at UBC and such other matters of law, which set broad precedent and concern UBC students.” It’s a very broad definition, and the decision this year to provide funding for the BC Civil Liberties Association’s Legal Observer training and Know Your Rights workshops exposed the widely differing interpretations of this mandate that are possible.

More on the SLFS and questionnaires, after the jump.

This may or not be reflective of one of the SLFS’s biggest problem at the moment: a lack of internal housekeeping. The Bylaws of the society are filled with examples where there are notes asking for verification and clarification of information contained in it. During meetings, students on the SLFS were not completely certain about how they were to conduct business. Whoever sits on the SLFS board this year should have an in depth look at the Bylaws, and seriously undertake the needed revisions. Peter Ramsay, a law professor who serves as a faculty advisor, should probably be listened to more attentively and is currently not being used to his full potential.

The SLFS has about $250,000 in the bank right now, collected from quite a few years’ worth of the student levy. Some may see this as an absurdly large amount of money to be accumulated, especially when no one seems entirely sure exactly what it’s for or how it should be used. The defense against that charge is that hiring lawyers is expensive; if the SLFS were to fund a major, deserving, ground-breaking case, it would require that amount of funding and more. Bottom line: obtaining funding is certainly not a problem for the SLFS, but trying to spend it should not be an imperative either.

The SLFS board has seven positions, 6 are elected and 1 is appointed by the AMS. As is stands now, for six seats available via election, there are six candidates belonging to a slate called “Students for Responsible Leadership” and two independents. Regardless of the outcome, the majority of the SLFS board will be members of the SRL slate; the only question is whether they will be able to sweep all six seats. If they do, a united set of directors should be held to the expectation to make things happen with more impact and more efficiency. If they don’t, having an independent present will likely be a good thing as long as everyone involved is mature enough to maintain effective working relationships. While the slate will still be in control, the independent can hopefully provide some new ideas, and some checks and balances in the system.

Candidate Profiles

Students For Responsible Leadership

Name: Anthony Bryson
Age: 21
Year: 4
Faculty and program: Science – Combined Honours Biochemistry and Chemistry
Years on campus: 4
Past campus involvement: Place Vanier Musical, Undergraduate Chemistry Society, IMAGINE
Past non-campus involvement: St John Ambulance (Officer), EMR Paramedic

Name: Paul J. Godin
Age:21
Year:4th
Faculty and program: Science Chem & Phys
Years on campus:4
Past campus involvement: Vice-President SOS club, Fencing club. Hamber house floor rep. MUG leader. UCS CGSS rep.
Past non-campus involvement:Volunteered for Variety’s Boat 4 Hope

Name: JJ MacLean
Age: 22
Year: 3
Faculty and program: Dual degree; B. Sc. in Chemistry and B. A. in Economics
Years on campus: 4
Past campus involvement: SUS First Year Council, SUS Finance Committee (previously as grants coordinator and now as vice-chair), SUS Academic Committee, SUS Code & Policy Committee, Pride UBC Fundraising Coordinator

Name: Hillson Tse
Age: 21
Year: Four
Faculty and program: Arts, Political Science and Economics
Years on campus: 4
Past campus involvement: Student-at-large senator, judge on the AMS Student Court, Coordinator of the AMS Advocacy Office, VP External of the UBC Dance Club
Past non-campus involvement: Youth worker, children daycamp leader

Name: Alexander Shalashniy
Year: 2
Faculty and program: Faculty of Law-JD
Past campus involvement: UBC BC Civil Liberties Association Club (help founded), editorial board of the UBC International Law Journal, UBC Young Liberals of Canada, UBC Venture Capital and Private Equity Club, and the International Business Club.
Past non-campus involvement: Vancouver chapter of the Canadian International Council, Global Vision, Junior Team Canada

Name: Aaron Sihota
Year: 4
Faculty and program: Science-Biology
Past campus involvement: SLFS Board of Directors, AMS Council, Science Undergraduate Society Executive and Council, numerous Faculty/constituency level, AMS, and University level committees, UBC Access and Diversity Advisory Council

The Students for Responsible Leadership (SRL) endorse the following response:

1) Where should the SLFS draw the line between taking a pro-active approach (ie.. Legal Observer Training) and legal approach (ie. Mediation and/or providing funding relating to already-existing cases)?

From a general standpoint, the SLFS is established for the protection and preservation of students’ rights, and should be available in the situation we have to address an issue that has broad precedent setting value to UBC students, and so it is important to ensure the resource is there when it’s needed. That being said, I do believe there is some room for pro-active programming-I did support the Know Your Rights workshops for a General Audience (KYR-GA) as I saw the value in the KYR-GA workshops in educating and entertaining many questions students have about various issues on campus, including their personal rights, and is applicable to almost every student.

I felt that it was rather inappropriate for the SLFS as a non partisan student organization, to be funding programs such as the Legal Observer (LO) training and Know Your Rights activist training (KYR-A). The proposal was focused on the Olympics coming to UBC and the KYR-A and LO programs could potentially seem to be geared towards a dissenting view towards this issue, and being mindful and respectful of all student views towards the games, I think the SLFS cannot be perceived as taking sides. Further, I think the entire SLFS Olympic Preparedness program could have been carried out in a much more cost-effective manner and it will be important to evaluate what this program has achieved in the coming months.

Student rights are important, and this society is in place to protect just that- to ensure that it is not allocated towards impractical pet projects, and accessible to every single student regardless of what faculty or financial background they are from.

2) What are the biggest challenges currently facing the SLFS and how do you plan to address them?

Right now how the way things operate seems to be if you know a board member, a case comes in, on a rather Ad-Hoc basis, and so we would work towards streamlining how issues come forward, and create a more objective solicitation process for potential cases. Associated with this issue-it is important to increase the online presence of the society with a website that provides info to students about the process.

The governance documents are outdated and need a review to reflect the will of the students and for the more efficient function of the society-they need to be updated and kept fresh. Finally, the relationship between the board and Litigation committee needs to be reviewed in terms of how appointments are made and the roles of each body.

3) If the SLFS had to focus on just one issue for the next year, what would it be?

The issues outlined above all go hand in hand with each other, and so all are all going to be equally important to tackle.

Editor’s Note

Neither of the two independent candidates, Siavash Ahmadi or Omid Atai, provided us with any information about their campaigns. We are happy to add this info if and when is provided to us.

Kyle Warwick withdrew his candidacy in this race prior to the start of campaigning.