Great Debate, fact-checked: Breaking down 2025 AMS Elections candidates claims

Numbers, figures, claims — during debates, candidates say all these and more.

It can be hard to hear or understand everything that was said, but that's why The Ubyssey has a team dedicated to fact-checking all the big claims candidates make during debates.

Here we're covering the Great Debate on March 6 where the candidates for all positions debated each other.

Hopefully this gives you a clearer idea on what was discussed — and how much of it was true.

Quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.

/u/sasamats, Riley Huntley, Barry "Bee" Buzzword, Nobody and Drédyn Fontana are running for president.

Fontana: AMS bylaws dictate what each [vice-president] can do ... I do think that we should return, or explore returning, to a flat executive structure."

True, and noted. From 2005–2015, AMS code explicitly mentioned the VPs reported to the president. The AMS bylaws and code outline the duties of each executive. A 2023 referendum bylaw change modified the wording of the AMS president’s role from being to “assist and advise” the VPs to “assist, advise, and manage” the VPs.

Huntley: The policy advisor primarily worked with the VP external, not the VP [AUA], and it reported to the senior manager student services.

Misleading. While the policy advisor did work with the VP external, an old job description also shows it they also worked with the VP AUA on large parts of their portfolio like the AMS Academic Experience Survey.

Huntley: There was the recent ombudsperson review delivered to AMS Council, and in that they reveal that students are hesitant to engage in the process because it's not well known enough.

True.

Fontana: The criticism of the [AMS's] review of the sexualized violence policy is that, essentially, it didn't consult enough with the student groups who were knowledgeable about the issues that were relevant to the policy.

Noted.

Ananya Gupta and Zarifa Nawar are running for VP academic and university affairs.

Nawar: “In just three months as your VP AUA, I've secured $250,000 towards undergraduate research opportunities, $150,000 towards hybrid and accessible learning and $800,000 per year for two years to fund Work Learn jobs.”

True but hard to verify. In a statement to The Ubyssey, Nawar said UBC administration verbally agreed to the Work Learn funding and Nawar provided correspondence confirming the money secured for hybrid and accessible learning.

Gupta: “I am the only VP academic in the past couple of years at the AUS who have completed their entire term.”

True. In 2022/23, the AUS held a by-election for VP academic role after Milada Dzevitski did not complete her term. 2023/24 AUS VP Academic Zarifa Nawar did not finish her term.

Nawar: “I played a critical role in giving feedback and advocating [on SC 17], in preparing the advocacy to a university that was done to ensure that we have a clear outline for what the jurisdiction to investigate looks like, removing a lot of vague language from the policy, ensuring that students have the option to appeal.”

Misleading. Prior to the 2024 update, SC17 already had the option for students to appeal — what was changed is regarding steps forward if an appeal is successful. There were, however, significant updates to the sections regarding jurisdiction to investigate.

Gupta: “The SC 17 policy was just reviewed for the next three years to come, and this sexual misconduct policy, it needs to be advocated for in many different ways, which include making sure students know that this policy exists, and making sure that we actually investigate the allegations of sexual misconduct as the policy itself states.”

Misleading. While SC17 was renewed in October 2024, with another review in the next three years, the UBC Investigations Office investigated 17 of 22 policy-applicable cases within the 2023/24 reporting frame (with the others being ongoing or retracted by complaint).

Dylan Evans is running for VP admin.

Evans: “[ASAP stands for] the AMS sustainability action plan.”

True.

Evans: “I believe the closest printer that's publicly accessible is in the library, so it's a big need for students studying. The Nest is a big study space, and so that's something that [I’m] hearing from students that they want, and it's been looked into in the past.”

True but misleading. The closest Pay for Print printer is in IKB, however it’s not clear that this is an issue, or priority, for students or that it has been investigated before.

Evans: "I would implement a user-friendly interface, as well as a universal form where all the AMS services are there and it's simple for the clubs to use and get at.”

Noted. Currently, there is one form for clubs to book rooms, which does include different rooms and potential questions about whether clubs will need food catering or equipment. However, there has been a persisting issue of the AMS having limited space for bookings and long wait times for clubs to hear back on their bookings.

Solomon Yi-Kieran is running for VP external.

Yi-Kieran: “BC ferry tickets can be expensive … there's already precedent for, they have rates for schools to buy in bulk if they're going on trips.”

Noted. BC Ferries rates for adults range from $11.60–$173, depending on route and vehicle. BC Ferries does have a group booking rate, but it is only a $2.75 discount per person.

Yi-Kieran: “I will meet with ... municipal parties running candidates in the Vancouver City Council by-election to give guarantees on all of their platforms towards food bank funding … because the by-election will be happening soon.”

True. The Vancouver City Council by-election is set for April 5 and will be within Yi-Kieran’s term as, if elected, he will take office immediately because of the VP external by-election.

Gagan Parmar is running for VP finance.

Parmar: “A lot of treasurer submitting documents and reimbursement that have certain errors in them … I was able to host a series of training workshops in January and we had over 60 treasures in attendance.”

True.

Parmar: “I would like to really work with the Indigenous Student Society to make sure that we're able to source funding for a lot of their events and initiatives through the constituency aid fund, in the event that their indigenous student fee funding is not enough.”

Noted. The AMS fee for Indigenous Student Fund is $1.13. The Constituency Aid Fund can be used for special projects and maximum amount is $1,000 per constituency event, no more than three-quarters of the cost of the project.

Parmar: “We can cut things that may not be as pressing or as important … see if we can cut some of the funding back [for Block Party].”

Noted. In the past, the AMS Block Party has lost the Society money — sometimes over $200,000.

Daniel Aminbakhsh, Keanu Chan, Drédyn Fontana, Dianya Gao, Shorya Goyal, Ananya Gupta, Kareem Hassib, Jasper Lorien, Mohkam Singh Malik, Bardia Mohammadizadeh, Zarifa Nawar, Veeru Vaidesh Seethanaboyina, Mankanwar Singh and Solomon Yi-Kieran are running for Senate.

Aminbakhsh, Chan, Gao, Goyal and Singh were absent.

Mohammadizadeh: “Science makes up the second largest faculty, but year after year, science students keep struggling to get at student senator at large seats. Currently, we don't have any at-large seats in the Senate from last year's election.”

True but misleading. While last year none of the elected student senators-at-large were from the Science Faculty, in the past there have been elected science students at large and there is also always one student senator from the Applied Science Faculty.

Fontana: "We should be really reviewing J-136, religious accommodations, because they don't have a body like the Centre for Accessibility."

True but misleading. While there is no centre to regulate religious accommodations, policy J-136 outlines that students can be granted exemptions/rescheduling from lectures and exams without needing a formal notice from anyone. Students just need to notify their professors in advance.

Lorien: "47.9 per cent of students were being under underdiagnosed, with an additional quarter of those students facing significant barriers to obtaining a diagnosis."

True.

Nawar: "LR7 does not take into account temporary health accommodations … UBC is also unique amongst Canadian universities that don't integrate this into their disability accommodations policy."

Mostly true. UBC’s policy does not apply to students with temporary health accommodations, and while other universities like the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and University of Victoria do include temporary health accommodations, The Ubyssey did not find evidence that UBC was the only Canadian university to include not include temporary health accommodations.

Nawar: "I'll continue to advocate for the expansion of the Black Faculty Cohort Hiring Initiative to hire more than 23 faculty members."

True.

Lorien: "LR10 ... is a board policy."

True.

Malik: "[The Student Senate Caucus] used to be two co-chairs, now there's three co-chairs."

False. There are still two Student Senate Caucus co-chairs, but co-chairs have changed three times this year.

Malik: "[The Student Senate Caucus] still don't have a website and an Instagram."

True. While some student senators post on their own social media, there is no official Caucus Instagram and the website has not been updated since the 2021/22 academic year.

Hassib: "A lot of people have to commute, and they don't necessarily have a space on campus that they can study after hours, especially after the commons blocks are now locked if you don't have a residence key card."

True.

Yi-Kieran: "We need to make sure that if people are there's a mechanism so that if people are doing hate speech, there's ways to make sure that they're being held accountable for that, because that isn't protected in academic freedom."

Noted. Hate speech is not protected under academic freedom, but UBC does a discrimination complaint process to report hate speech.

Yi Chen, Cade Desjarlais, Jasper Lorien, Mohkam Singh Malik, Bardia Mohammadizadeh and Alexander Wong are running for Board of Governors. Wong was absent.

Malik: “I think that the university definitely has to do some belt tightening when it comes to wasting money, like the fact that they spent $750 million on Workday.”

False. Workday cost UBC a total of just under 350 million dollars, as of the 2024/25 fiscal year.

Chen: “50 per cent of [UBC’s] revenue is currently from student research funding or provincial government support, which is 1,000,000, and 30 per cent from the tuition.”

False. 40 per cent of the 2024/25 budget funding came from the provincial government, amounting to over $1.2 million dollars, and 41 per cent of UBC’s 2024/25 budget came from tuition.

Desjarlais: “We had a $2.4 million deal to support food insecurity on our campus.”

True, although “our campus” is referring to both Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.

Mohammadizadeh: “There are 18 members in the board of governors who are not elected.”

False. Only 13 people on the Board are not elected

Malik: If elected, I'll push for UBC to finalize a deal with the Save On Foods on campus to ensure that we have a student discount.

Noted. While in 2022, UBC did have a partnership with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank that allowed students to receive discounts at the local Save-On-Foods grocery store, The Ubyssey was unable to find evidence that this discount is still available.

Lorien: "50 per cent of students reporting they they are worried about affording groceries."

True.

— Additional reporting by Stella Griffin

This article is part of our 2025 AMS Elections coverage. Follow us at @UbysseyNews on X (formerly Twitter) and follow our election coverage starting March 3.

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