Late this afternoon, the Graduate Student Society (GSS) announced that UBC has reinstated the liquor licence for Koerner’s pub, effective this Monday, August 9.

“We had a very productive meeting with UBC officials today, to have final discussions about the service delivery plan and its execution,” said GSS President Arvind Saraswat in an email to councilors.

The lifting of the suspension came as a result of the GSS conceding to the university’s demands by submitting an operational plan and hiring a new Food and Beverage Manager—something Saraswat initially refused to do, arguing that it was a “new and arbitrary” condition.

The GSS had its liquor licence revoked by the university following two violations in March that involved serving minors and over-serving customers. Because of uncertainty about the pub’s future, many Koerner’s staff have left their jobs, with the local CUPE union voicing their complaints over the lack of communication. The liquor suspension has also been a large financial strain on the society, with the GSS projecting a loss of $139,000 for the period between June and December 2010.

The GSS has decided not serve alcohol on Monday or Tuesday of next week, as “to ensure that we are fully ready when we start liquor service,” said Saraswat in his email. However, it is expected that the full operations will resume on Wednesday, August 11.

As the above 1,300 pound climate denier sculpture melted away in front of the Capitol building, speakers spoke of the need to push for a comprehensive science-based climate bill for the world’s second largest CO2 emitter.

One of the speakers, Ethan Nuss of the Energy Action Coalition said, “Our ingenuity, our skills, our technology—the young generation is ready to lead. We just need our elected officials to point the way…”

But politicians were scarce on the sweltering lawn as a few passionate individuals called for action. It is possible that they heard about the event, but what are the odds that the majority of Republican leaders are capable of really hearing the message? It’s difficult how see how their bribe-based ideologies will get broken through.

The sculpture symbolizing the escalating arctic-led warming as well as the melting of the validity of climate denier claims lasted a couple hours. The “deniers” was last to go. That’s probably indicative of the path that we’re doomed to, unless something crazy and out of character happens in the policy-making circles.

See more photos of the event in my Climate Science Watch post here.

This provisional solution came after the budget—which requires 2/3rds approval to pass—had been initially voted down by council, with 11 in favour and 11 against.

While many councilors balked at the lack of clarity over the future of Block Party, and criticized increased discretionary funds for executives, VP Finance Elin Tayyar argued that not passing any budget would paralyze the student union.

Some councilors also felt that the final budget was not in the spirit of the preliminary budget that council approved in March.

Tayyar contended that if councilors had issues with the budget, they should have spoken with him earlier. According to him, only four councilors contacted him with any concerns prior to the meeting.

The final compromise, which was crafted just as quorum was about to be broken at 11:40pm, saw council approve the budget “as an operational framework” and passed unanimously, with Tayyar asking councilors to meet with him in the coming weeks to resolve the debate.

“Today’s experience was an example of the kind of communication gap that exists [between the executive and council],” said President Bijan Ahmadian.

The budget, which guides AMS spending for the year, had an expected revenue of $14.98 million this year, of which $13.56 million was automatically transfered to specific funds, such as SUB Renew or the Health and Dental plan. Unlike in years past, Tayyar presented council with a balanced budget.

%CODE2%

%CODE4%

Future of Block Party

Though the preliminary budget set aside a $31,000 subsidy for Block Party, the final budget eliminated this funding altogether, without any details as to how the event would be funded. The executive explained that this was an”oversight”, and they were assuming that the event would be run revenue-neutral. Last year, it lost $142,000.

“I don’t see a revenue-neutral Block Party as feasible,” said Science Councilor Iggy Rodriguez, who was one of the budget’s fiercest opponents.

VP Academic Ben Cappellacci, who also chairs the AMS Budget Committee, defended the AMS’s belief that it could be run without making a loss.

“A revenue-neutral Block Party is a bit ambitious but not unreasonable,” said Cappellacci.

Services Cut, Executive Budgets Increased

Another source of contention came from the executives’ claim that the budget was as economical as possible. In their presentation to council, Cappellacci and VP Finance Elin Tayyar claimed that “all AMS departments are running on bare bones.”

Some councilors countered that while services were being cut, the executive was increasing spending on conferences, a better health plan for themselves, and a general infusion of cash into the executive portfolios.

“Yes, they’ve saved money on services, but there really needs to be some reflection on whether students are getting the best value for this or whether the execs are,” said Neal Yonson, Editor for UBC Insiders.

Arts Councilor Warwick argued that increases in executive budgets would look irresponsible to most students, especially when the AMS hopes to pass a referendum in October to increase student fees and tie them to inflation.

After the budget was voted down, Cappellacci and Tayyar asked the councilors who voted against the motion to tell them specifically what changes to make.

“I don’t know what to change,” Tayyar told Council. “Just saying that services are too low doesn’t mean anything.”

%CODE3%

%CODE1%

Increased Health Benefits

The failed budget vote was followed by a successful 14-7 vote on increasing executive health benefits to the level of permanent AMS staff. Ahmadian argued that the executives were overworked and their health was suffering.

“When it comes to wellness you either pay for it now or you pay for it later with loss of productivity,” he said.

Rodriguez opposed the additional health plan, which will cost the society as much as $7200 this year. “I don’t buy into the argument that being an exec is any more stressful than what a lot of our students experience everyday” he told The Ubyssey.

Late in the night, some councilors supported a motion to “reconsider” the budget, which allowed debate to reopen.

This second attempt to pass the budget was strongly opposed by a vocal minority, who argued that since many councilors had left the meeting after originally voting it down, overturning the vote would be undemocratic.

Tensions Rise

The debate between the executive and councilors was tense throughout the night and often descended into shouting. The situation was further complicated by the fact that Dave Tompkins, the regular Speaker, was on vacation, leaving Ahmadian to chair the meeting.

Tensions reached a fevered pitch when some councilors attempted to reconsider the budget motion after a quarter of council had left and quorum was barely being met.

“You cannot pass a budget that will last an entire year with only 20 members,” Rodriguez told the Council. “It’s so unbelievably wrong.” He went on to claim that Ahmadian was “running roughshod over the democratic process.”

“I think that this was one of the worst performances I’ve seen by an exec against council,” he told The Ubyssey. “At least last year they were fighting each other, now they’re fighting us.”

However, Ahmadian replied that they were simply following procedure. “As long as council has quorum, we follow rules of order,” he said.

Ahmadian also cautioned council to make sure that their criticisms of the executives were not personal and to acknowledge the hard work executives put into the budget.

“The especially snarky comments by some councilors can really make some execs feel like they’re not valued, and that’s not a good thing,” he said.

Arts Councilor Kyle Warwick believed that the debate never became personal. “On the whole I think it was criticism of substance,” he said. “Council does need to work as a team, but it shouldn’t be afraid to be tough.”

“I do sincerely thank the executives for the time they’re putting in, but at the end of the day, they’re here to carry out the will of council, and I think council’s made their opinion very clear.”

-With files from Justin McElroy

BP is so huge in proportion it’s easy for those of us not in Gulf region to get dizzy with the numbers and scope of the whole thing. Thank goodness for people like this—reminding us exactly what the spill means on a more personal level.

[youtube 52am1DN_svA]

As I mentioned in my last post, I got an opportunity to volunteer at TEDxOilSpill here in Washington, DC. The event was exceptional, well put together—especially considering how quickly it was organized— and had a seriously impressive speaker list. You can see all the talks here.

I think the best part of the TEDx conference was how it brought together so many wonderful, concerned people. The love and eagerness to do something about the gulf oil disaster was truly overwhelming.

At the conference, a lot of people were talking about the terribleness of BP, how they’re the ultimate villain, etc. However, Mike Tidwell—one of the speakers at the event—reminded the audience that BP is not the only oil company in the gulf. While BP is completely responsible for what happened, there are thousands and thousands of rigs out there. Another BP-type event could very well happen again, and with National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predictions of this year having the most intense hurricane season on record (See here and here), it could happen very soon.

We clearly need to stick offshore drilling into our past—without even considering the climate change consequences, it’s just too much of of an environmental risk. We need to move away from fossil fuels, fast. But I want to know how we can attain fossil fuel independency and whether it’s even possible.

While at TEDxOilSpill, I found some presenters who were kind enough to get front of my camera and weigh in on how we might rid ourselves of our dirty fuel dependency, and what our energy future might look like.

It was all pretty impromptu and I didn’t have a mic, so please excuse the sound quality (one segment is so bad that I put in subtitles :S) and the unsteady filming…

[youtube D6iCyS7o7QQ]

Find out more:

• John Francis & Planetwalk
• Lisa Margonelli & her book, Oil on the Brain
• Mike Tidwell, Director – Chesapeake Climate Action Network
• Jigar Shah, CEO – Carbon War Room
• Cesar Harada, Open_Sailing, energy animal
• Phil Radford, Director – Greenpeace USA

All photos in this post courtesy of Mr. Amazing, Kris Krug

It’ll be streaming live from Washington, DC, tomorrow, June 28, starting at 6AM PST!

A glimpse of the line-up:

• Phillipe Cousteau, founder of EarthEcho International, and son of Renaissance man Jacques Costeau;
• Sylvia Earle, ocean explorer extraordinaire and all-around amazing woman;
• John Francis, the amazing ‘planetwalker’;

Plus over 20 other incredible and awe-inspiring people. All coming together to debate what the heck to do about this “spill”.

I volunteered to be a conference helper and I took this camera phone pic during set-up today:

- Terrible, I know, but as diehard TED fan, I had to document the moment. I’ll try harder tomorrow.

The riots were largely led by a group donning black clothing, goggles, bandannas and ski masks, who some news outlets are identifying as a black bloc group — a protest tactic in which participants aim to conceal their identity in order to carry out acts of violence. They were joined by members of the activist group No One is Illegal, as well as another socialist group.

Chants of “No justice, no peace, fuck the police!” rang through the air of a city that seemed entirely deserted, aside from protesters and riot police, who hid behind large, transparent shields.

The smashing of glass was punctuated by cheering and the low drone of vuvuzelas.

One employee inside a pizza shop on Yonge St. — one of the city’s main thoroughfares — glared angrily at the rioters through the broken glass of his front window as they marched past.

The band of rioters had broken away from the larger, peaceful protest, filling the intersection of Queen St. West and Spadina Ave. in the downtown core before they ran off toward the East.

Their attempts to approach the summit perimeter, where a three-metre fence has been erected to protect the venue where world leaders are meeting, were foiled by a row of riot police.

Several police cruisers seemed to have been abandoned on King St. West and Bay St., which the angry mob quickly set aflame, sending a plume of thick, black smoke up into the air, where it was visible from across the city for the next few hours.

The protesters then headed north on Yonge St., throwing rocks and smashing large, store-front windows as they passed one of Toronto’s emblematic malls, the Eaton Centre.

There was a notable lack of police intervention; instead, rows of cops lined several adjacent streets and guarded the summit borders, largely allowing the vandalism and rioting to run its course.

“No fences, no borders, fuck law and order!” the mob hollered, along with, “This is what a police state looks like!”

While passing a jewelery store, one young woman shouted, “It’s okay, we don’t need your blood diamonds anyway!”

The mob partially dissipated upon returning to Queen’s Park, the provincial legislative grounds, where police converged on the protesters from two sides and made several arrests.

“I am profoundly disappointed in the criminal acts that have taken place,” said Toronto police chief Bill Blair during a press conference around 9:15 p.m. “I want to ensure you that the persons responsible will be held accountable. We know who many of them are and have photographs of many others.”

Blair confirmed the use of tear gas at Queen St. West and Peter St. where a lot of the violent destruction occurred. He denied the use of rubber bullets and other devices, but photos of the alleged rubber bullets have been posted to Twitter.

“We have never seen that level of wanton criminality on our streets,” Blair said, also describing the day’s events as “shocking.”

The protests continued on into the evening as police tried to regain control of the crowds in several areas of the city. Blair said he expected violent acts to continue through the night.