Tension rise as candidates discuss priorities at first presidential debate

Presidential candidates came together last night to talk about AMS culture, divestment, reinstating staff access to the food bank and to sound party horns as question responses.

Changing AMS culture

Several former AMS executives have alleged the AMS has poor workplace culture including casual bullying, according to The Ubyssey coverage. Fourty-six per cent of all elected AMS executives have left the society in some capacity since 2022.

When asked about how the candidates would change the culture and image as president, current Nursing Undergraduate Society president and AMS Councillor Riley Huntley said the “first step of fixing the AMS’s image is ensuring that our goals are aligned with those students.”

He said this alignment will require consultation from clubs, constituencies and resource groups and should happen before executives get their goals approved by AMS Council in the summer.

Barry “Bee” Buzzword said he would be bullying out his VPs within the first week.

“I'll replace them with my partners and best friends and best friends’ partners,” said Buzzword. “That will cause the AMS to reach peak efficiency.”

Current student senator and former AMS VP Academic and University Affairs Drédyn Fontana said rebuilding the AMS's public image and culture was something especially important to him. Fontana was removed from office in November 2024.

Fontana proposed reestablishing Student Court, a body which was abolished in 2020 and used to mediate disagreements in the AMS as a neutral third-party.

Huntley replied and said Student Court was defunct long before being abolished and “no student on campus is asking for the AMS to add a judicial branch.”

Fontana said “Student Court actually was a check against [AMS] Council,” and noted the Court ruled in favour of the Varsity Outdoors Club (VOC) when it sued the AMS over ownership of a cabin. The suit eventually resulted in the AMS club paying the VOC $30,000, but this happened in 1977.

u/sasamats/ referenced how soldiers can be imprisoned if they go absent without leave and said it would be implementing the same thing at the AMS.

“I think I would keep a very high retention rate in the AMS,” it said before blowing a party favour into the mic for 30 seconds.

“I think the AMS should not be an organization, but just a fun place where we can all do whatever we want. And I think VPs are going to enjoy it a lot more if they're not being told what to do,” said Nobody.

Staff access to food bank

Candidates were asked about whether the AMS should reinstate staff access and to what extent the AMS should take public yes-or-no stances on topics of student discontent.

Over the summer, students called on the AMS to reinstate staff access to the AMS Food Bank. A June special general meeting relating to this issue failed to meet quorum, and some student groups criticized AMS staff members and councillors for taking a ‘no’ stance regarding this reinstatement.

u/sasamats/ said “of course, people suffering from food insecurity can't make time to go to a dumbass AMS meeting about it.”

The Reddit account also said it would be donating $400 to the AMS Food Bank from the $750 candidates receive in campaign funds. In an email to The Ubyssey on March 4, u/sasamats/ clarified that it had been notified by the AMS Elections Administrator that they could not donate campaign funds. However, u/sasamats/ wrote they do not break promises and still plans to donate the money from its personal funds.

Nobody said “I haven't spent any of the money on any campaigning at all.”

Buzzword said he plans to win a Tesla with his name as the license plate, as people would throw money at it as he drove by which would allow for more funding.

Huntley said the AMS needs to secure long term funding for the food bank before reinstating access.

Fontana said despite not meeting quorum, the AMS should have still talked to students about their concerns and explained why it could not reinstate staff access.

Advocating for divestment

This year, students have also called on the AMS to support divestment from companies protestors say are complicit in Palestinian human rights violations.

On this topic, Fontana said “I think it's easy to say, ‘let's not invest in weapons’ … I had conversations about this with the university about how we can push the needle on this.”

Huntley said he would advocate for a review of UBC’s investment criteria and added that Fontana hadn’t made any progress on divestment despite including it on his executive goals.

Fontana shot back that his lack of progress could have to do with his removal from office, which he said Huntley led. Huntley pointed out Fontana was in office for six months which is half of his term.

Huntley served as the chair of the Executive Performance & Accountability (EPA) Committee during the inquiry into Fontana’s performance as VP AUA, which eventually led to a motion to remove him from office. The Ubyssey obtained an unverified version of the EPA inquiry report into Fontana's performance which said the EPA found as fact that “It is premature to make a determination on the progress of [Fontana’s] goals due to the number of ongoing goals and multi-year goals.”

Huntley asked why Fontana has not given the AMS consent to release the EPA inquiry report given he consented publicly on Reddit.

On February 27, AMS President Christian 'CK' Kyle said that while Fontana gave consent publicly, he rejected consent privately.

At the debate, Fontana said he spoke to his legal counsel about releasing the report and said there are problems around "libel being written down in [the inquiry] report that [Huntley] wrote."

Presidential candidates will debate again on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Pit before voting opens on March 7.

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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