Originally published on February 18, 2025 at 12:55 p.m. Updated on February 18, 2025 at 8:44 p.m.
A previous version of this statement misstated the date of the Student Senate Caucus meeting. The Ubyssey regrets this error.
A recent news article about the AMS’s Executive Performance and Accountability Committee’s inquiry into the performance of then-VP Academic and University Affairs Drédyn Fontana included the use of anonymously-obtained documents and source interviews and statements.
Following publication, some readers questioned the reporting's fairness, claiming The Ubyssey selectively published quotes from sources, published this article to promote Fontana’s upcoming presidential campaign and was complicit in the alleged intimidation of student leaders. Those criticisms are unfounded and unequivocally false.
The Ubyssey rigorously edited this article before publication and made efforts to corroborate the information obtained from interviews and documents by providing AMS staff with identifying information about certain aspects of the documents for verification and opportunity for comment.
While our editors have reviewed the leaked documents and worked to ensure their validity and honest and fair representation in the story, due to their confidential nature and inclusion of individuals’ personal information, The Ubyssey did not publish them in its reporting or share them to sources in their entirety.
The Ubyssey publishes quotes from statements that are relevant to an article’s reporting and scope, and individuals were provided two and a half business days to respond to our request for comment. In the interest of accessibility, concision and clarity, we rarely publish entire statements from any source.
Any claim that The Ubyssey published this article to further or hinder any sources’ AMS Elections campaigns is false. At the time of writing the article, The Ubyssey was unaware of Fontana’s involvement in this year’s elections and had been pursuing this story since his removal in November 2024.
The Ubyssey adheres to the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Ethics Guidelines and takes any and all possible steps to ensure that our reporting is fair, balanced and honest, and that includes prohibiting any and all people who work or volunteer for The Ubyssey from being directly involved in coverage that correlates to person(s) they have a real or perceived conflict of interest with.
The Ubyssey attends meetings, speaks to individuals and otherwise investigates when provided with newsworthy tips. In August, a Ubyssey editor attempted to attend a Student Senate Caucus meeting as the newspaper received a tip that the co-chairs were being faced with removal. The editor had no personal connection with the individual who provided the tip and was not granted access to the meeting.
Ubyssey reporters will always identify themselves and make it clear they are working on stories for the publication. Any claims from non-Ubyssey editors that they can control, influence or begin reporting is unacceptable, false, misleading and threatens both press freedom and editorial independence. The Ubyssey has been independent from the AMS since 1995 and any claim that the student society influences our reporting is false. Only Ubyssey editors may control what is published in the newspaper. Any assertion from external forces — including current and former AMS staff members — regarding their ability to influence, bias or falsify our reporting is unequivocally false.
The Ubyssey is committed to addressing errors, concerns and complaints from readership and others. Concerned readers can submit complaints through The Ubyssey’s complaint and feedback form, located at the bottom of each article on ubyssey.ca.
We stand behind this reporting. Any implication that it was intended to further a specific person’s political ambitions or that The Ubyssey engages in retaliation or retaliatory practices is simply false.