Candidates say a lot during debates — numbers, figures, claims and more.
It can be difficult to comprehend everything that gets said, which is why our fact-checking team works behind the scenes to check all the big claims made by candidates.
The claims which follow come from the second AMS debate on March 4, where the candidates competing for the VP administration, VP external affairs and student Senator-at-large roles debated each other.
We didn't cover everything, but hopefully this provides some clarity on a few of the claims that were made and the extent to which they’re true.
Quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.
VP administration
Dylan Evans is running for the VP administration position as the sole candidate.
Evans: I've led countless volunteers, hundreds of volunteers, and I have carried out a full organizational and governance restructuring and so that's quite comprehensive, which also included expanding club club support and affiliating forestry clubs, which is something that had never been done before.
Noted but unable to verify.
Evans: The fiscal status of the AMS is on everyone's mind. Money's tight these days, and so that's always important to consider.
True. The AMS finished the 2023/24 year with a $557,000 deficit, and is projecting a surplus for 2024/25. The AMS has presented a referendum item which would increase AMS student fees by $4.95. Accompanying the referendum question is a note written by AMS President Christian ‘CK’ Kyle explaining that the AMS may be “unable to maintain current levels of support for Clubs, Constituencies, Athletics & Recreation and AMS Nest projects,” among other initiatives, if this fee increase is not passed.
VP external
Solomon Yi-Kieran is running for the VP external position as the sole candidate.
Yi-Kieran: So one of the barriers [for international students] is that in order to have your work count towards the permanent residency (PR), you need to be having full time work.”
False. To qualify for PR, applicants must demonstrate at least 1 year of work or 1,560 hours total (30 hours per week) in the 3 years before they apply. As outlined in the “how to count your work hours” section on this page, those 1,560 hours in 3 years can be obtained in a number of ways, one of which is working a part-time job for 15 hours a week for 2 years.
Yi-Kieran: The reduction in international students has really been harming universities across Canada, including UBC.
True.
Yi-Kieran: UCRU is the organization where we work with other student unions and other student union leaders across BC to advocate for issues that pertain to students.
True but slightly misleading. UCRU spans universities across Canada, not just BC.
Senate
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 five Senator-at-large positions.
Goyal, Mohammadizadehand and Singh did not attend the debate.
Nawar: I’ve secured $250,000 for undergraduate research, $150,000 for hybrid and accessible learning, and ensured that student jobs continue to be prioritized and funded by the university.
Partially true. Narwar was the VP AUA when the AMS secured the $250,000 in research funding, but The Ubyssey was unable to verify whether Nawar secured $150,000 for hybrid and accessible learning.
Lorien: Myself [and] another senator sitting behind me in the academic policy committee pushed for the creation of a working group to review policies V-102 and V-103 to make them more accessible for students.
True. Lorien is a part of the academic policy committee which has created a working group to review V-102 and V-103.
Gupta: I have advocated for … Textbook Broke funding to which we [the AUS] contributed $10,000.
Noted, but unable to verify.
Daniel Aminbakhsh: I've had experience operating $250,000 plus budgets and working with multiple organizations, multiple corporations as well, in order to deliver results.
Likely true. While the exact budget details are not disclosed, Aminbakhsh’s experience as the 2022 treasurer for Vancouver's Premier Model UN Conference CAHSMUN makes this claim very plausible.
Hassib: The University Act, which governs how universities function in BC already, already designates universities as nonpartisan.
True. The University Act states in Section 66(1) that universities "must be non-sectarian and non-political in principle."
Nawar: UBC has historically not been a neutral institution.
True. In 2022, the Vancouver Senate unanimously voted to cut ties with Russian governmental entities in response to the invasion of Ukraine. UBC also pursued a partial divestment from South Africa in February 1986.
Gao: I went through The Ubyssey Instagram account. I just found out it's currently blocked for Canadian users, preventing students from accessing importing information. I think that is the only installed Instagram account that we currently have for sending information sharing.
False. The Ubyssey’s Instagram, while blocked because of Bill C-18, was and is not operated by the Senate.
Seethanaboyina: UBC, Okanagan campus has 27 hours and [UBCV] has 24-hour exam hardship.
True. To qualify for exam hardship at UBC, students must have 3 or more end-of-term exams in a 24-hour period.
Fontana: [I] worked with the [Centre for Accessibility] director to publish a list of possible accommodations.
Partially true. While Fontana did work with the CfA, no list of possible accommodations had been published by the time of his removal from the AUA office.
Hassib: We cut ties with Russian universities. Go back to the '90s apartheid South Africa, we played an important role and had important discussions about cutting ties with South African universities.
True. UBC did cut ties with Russian universities and engaged in partial divestment with South African universities in 1986.
Yi-Kieran: I was proud to be one of the 16 votes in favor of [the] motion [to cut academic ties with Israel.]
True.
Lorien: UBC has generative AI guidelines. It doesn't have another policy yet. These guidelines are not binding.
Hassib: AI has important accessibility purposes, whether it be creating alternative text for images that you're in a course of a lot of complex figures, or whether it be auto generating captions for people who are who are auditorily impaired.
True.
Gao: Right now, most textbooks cost from $75 to $100.
Misleading. The average cost for Term 1 Arts or Commerce textbooks is $400.00 and for Science $700.00.
With additional reporting from Viyan Handley and Iman Janmohamed.
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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