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INSIDE LOOK
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Exes can use social media for pay back

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Euthanization’s fate rests with this trial

PATRICK JOHNSTON photo
Kwantlen students (from left to right) Reena Bali, Arzo Ansary, and Jennifer Campbell led the revolt against their student association.

Kwantien fracas provokes
Student association ouster

Wednesday meeting leads to removal of 12 student council members

By PATRICK JOHNSTON

wantlen University students
voted to remove 12 members of
their student council at a wildly
isrupted special general meet-

ing yesterday afternoon.

A group of students upset at the ac-
tions of the Kwantlen Student Associa-
tion executive asked for the meeting.

Before the vote could take place, stu-
dents lining up to register to vote were
pepper sprayed by unknown assailants
and the meeting room had to be cleared
twice because of fire alarms.

“One glance at the financial records
and it will tell you all you need,” said
Arzo Ansary, speaking on behalf of the

opposition group. “They spent $120,000
on a concert on campus. They’ve gone
over by 500 per cent their legal spend-
ing limit.”

The 352-to-0 vote ended with the re-
moval of 12 council members, including
president Harman “Sean Birdman”
Bassi and director of finance Nina
Sandhu. None of the under-fire council
members were in attendance.

Sandhu, it was determined by
Kwantlen’s student newspaper The
Runner, is the first cousin of controver-
sial former KSA director Aaron Takhar.

“When The Runner uncovered that
several members of the board had been
hiding their conflicts of interest they
refused to speak to the public and,

most importantly, the students,” said
former director Reena Bali.

Takhar and several others were de-
fendants in a civil suit brought against
them by a previous KSA council.

The B.C. Supreme Court ruled in the
KSA’s favour last winter. In October,
the case was settled for no costs.

Further controversy emerged last
week when Danish Butt, one of the de-
fendants in the lawsuit, was hired by
council as a KSA staff member.

“They hire one of the people that we
were supposed to be getting our money
back from,” said Kwantlen student Ka-
tie Walker. “How is that serving the
students?”

The ousted board declined comment.

66

They’ve
gone over
by 500
per cent
their legal
spending
limit.
ARZO ANSARY

Kwantlen student

More riot charges laid thanks to tips and posters

to those responsible for the June

B.C. Crown Council announced to-

After police By JEN ST. DENIS

handed out ustice is coming slowly but surely

pictures of J :

riot sus- 15 Stanley Cup riots.

pects, tips day that 61 charges have been approved
. against 25 suspected rioters. In a press

come in release, Vancouver police say they ex-

ever yday pect more charges to be approved soon.

This follows the Vancouver Police De-
Sy

ue

partment’s recommendation that 163
charges be brought against 60 people.

On Nov. 15, police handed out 35,000
“Riot Roundup” posters out to the pub-
lic, including at Langara. The posters
featured the photos of 104 suspected
rioters and proved to be very success-
ful, said Sgt. Howard Chow of the Inte-
grated Riot Response Team.

“We've got leads on 48 of those peo-
ple, and are still getting tips [at a rate

of] about two a day,” said Chow.

During the riots, 60 businesses were
vandalized and a third of those were
also looted, with damages in the mil-
lions, said Charles Gauthier, Executive
Director of the Downtown Vancouver
Business Improvement Association.

“The one thing that’s unquantifiable
is more the emotional distress...be-
cause there was a violent component to
[the riots],” said Gauthier.

Mounties
to stay in
province

A new agreement says that
the RCMP are likely stay-
ing for the next 20 years.

By DANIEL PALMER

going anywhere.

The federal and B.C. governments
have reached a tentative agreement to
keep the R.C.M.P. policing the province
for the next 20 years, said B.C. Solicitor
General Shirley Bond yesterday on the
deadline for negotiations.

“We're very pleased to recognize
that we do have what forms the basis of
a tentative agreement on the R.C.M.P.
contract,” said Bond at a press confer-
ence. “There is still work to be done in
terms of the process of finalizing that
contract, but I’m very pleased.”

The province had been in tense ne-
gotiations with Ottawa in the lead-up to
the Nov. 30 deadline after federal Pub-
lic Safety Minister Vic Toews issued an
ultimatum in July threatening to with-
draw R.C.M.P. forces failing a contract
agreement.

Premier Christy Clark responded by
saying that B.C. was considering its
own provincial police force, although
this option is now off the table.

The new contract addresses some
concerns of B.C. municipalities which
pay between 70 and 90 per cent of the
policing costs in their communities.

The municipalities had hoped for a
more equal cost-sharing formula, but
they have been given what Bond called
“cost containment tools” through a
contract management committee and a
five-year review.

“The fact that she’s agreed to a con-
tract management committee here... is
a major step forward for us,” said Peter
Fassbender, Langley City mayor and
Union of B.C. Municipalities spokes-
man.

Bond also suggested the government
would engage in a public consultation.

David Eby of the B.C. Civil Liberties
Association called the consultation
process “oddly hypocritical” and ques-
tioned why the government has not
made public a crucial R.C.M.P. audit on
financial accountability and officer be-
haviour.

“It’s like saying we'd like your feed-
back on this new bridge that we’re
building; we’ve already started con-
struction and we have an audit of the
construction company but we’re not
going to tell you what the audit says,”
said Eby.

Fassbender said the negotiation is a
victory, despite the compromise.

“No contract and no negotiation is
ever perfect, but I think we’ve come a
long way from where we started.”

|: looks as if B.C.’s Mounties aren’t