AMS Council passed a contentious revision to the student union’s surveillance policy, SR4, last night, which now permits staff to use body-worn cameras on duty.
The amendments to SR4 allow authorized personnel who have completed mandatory training on the use and legality of body-worn cameras (BC) to activate them “during public interactions or while performing duties where recording may be necessary for safety or accountability.” The policy also requires staff to inform individuals that a BC has been activated, unless telling them is “unsafe or impractical.”
Access to footage is restricted to the managing director, building operations manager, specific IT staffers and the senior manager of student services — or their delegates, and only for purposes related to their roles. Footage disclosure is restricted to assist law enforcement investigations or investigations initiated by certain AMS staff, including the AMS president or VP administration. As well, footage will be disclosed to comply with a court order or to show an individual a recording of themselves, but without revealing the identity of others.
In Council, President Riley Huntley said the AMS has been facing a “growing number of problematic interactions” in the Nest over the past year, all of which have been with non-students. “Unfortunately, I think if we were to do a poll of our Building Ops team, [that would indicate] a majority of them have been assaulted” over the course of their job, he said. “We’re seeing harassment of students, sexual harassment of students and workers in the building,” as well as damage to the building. BCs are part of the solution, said Huntley, expecting them to help the student union identify those posing a risk.
Student speakers were invited to address Council during the debate, something normally restricted to sitting members of Council. All were critical of the proposal, urging councillors to either defer or oppose the motion. “Students do not feel safe with body cams. Students, in fact, do not feel safe with Building Ops. I can name multiple Building Ops [staff] that have threatened students with cops,” said the first speaker.
“I would like the councillors to try and explain how a body cam is keeping their staff and students safe,” they said.
Unlike standard practice, The Ubyssey is not able to report the full names of each speaker in part because of technical difficulties at Council that resulted in speakers being present via audio only and speakers did not share their surnames.
When asked by a speaker about the absence of specifics around the mandatory training for authorized BC users, Huntley said a separate procedure would need to be developed to implement that aspect of the policy. “The changes to the policy start those discussions,” he said. Training depends on the model of cameras that need to be purchased, and if the policy did not recognize this, it would likely need to be revised. When developing the training, AMS will take cues from its legal counsel, Huntley said.
Another student speaker said that they already feel safe in the Nest as a regular user, finding the introduction of BCs “really concerning” but did not specify why. “There’s a lot of ways we can ensure the safety of staff,” they said, advancing that BCs do not need to be a part of that solution. A third speaker said that if the “folks who introduced this motion did any research” they would find the evidence on the link between BCs and keeping “people safer” is “incredibly slim and very shaky.”
The same speaker said, having volunteered at UBC Sprouts in the past, they have “never, ever felt that an outside level of surveillance would ever make any of us safer.” Instead, “making sure that there is enough to go around, treating people with grace and kindness, and understanding that we are all shared users in a shared space.” Such a policy on BCs would “absolutely destroy” this sense of safety, they said.
All speakers were also critical of the AMS’s move to bring the revisions to Council in the summer. One said they found out about the policy within 30 minutes of them speaking before Council. Huntley said the AMS does not distinguish between Summer and Winter sessions, and work must proceed throughout the year.
Huntley repeated that the AMS is “not trying to track or profile” anyone. “To put it bluntly, if one of our staff is punched in the face, we would like to know who punched them.”
“We're just currently unable to identify those individuals that have broken the law and put our students and our staff at risk,” he said. Earlier, he reported that the AMS has tried “many different things” to respond to the problem, but did not give details in Council.
In light of the student speakers’ testimonies on discrimination by building staff, Commerce Councillor Luke Parolin and Engineering Councillor Humleen Samra commented that it was important to take their reports of mistreatment seriously. Both said they are comfortable with the BC amendments to SR4 to capture interactions from an “objective” perspective.
The amendments were passed 16-3, with 2 councillors abstaining from the vote.
Instagram stories from the Migrant Students United Vancouver account began circulating online on Wednesday afternoon, raising several questions about footage use, collection and disclosure — all answered by the publicly available text of the draft policy. One of their stories shared a screenshot of Huntley and AMS VP Administration Dylan Evans’ accounts with text reading “since they want to surveil us, good to know who *they* are.” Huntley alluded to this later during council, saying “certain labels” have been applied to Evans and himself.
Other business
Last night's Council meeting also saw the passage of the 2025/26 final budget. Non-discretionary allocations (spending already spoken for, like transfers to subsidiary organizations such as constituencies) total $28.7 million, and the AMS’s discretionary allocations are budgeted at $6.5 million. A surplus of $3,000 is projected — “fairly close to a net zero budget,” VP Finance Gagan Parmar said, without promising that means the AMS is in the clear. He stressed the importance of the student union’s Three-Year Financial Plan, which aims to reduce the deficit by at least $185,000 annually.
Also discussed were the AMS’s letters to BC Ferries advocating for a $10 student rate and to federal Cabinet ministers lobbying for the creation of a Youth Climate Corps.
This article was updated at 6:40 a.m. on Sunday, August 24 to change the abbreviation of body cameras.
