UBC, ex-student fail to reach agreement on rights complaint

VANCOUVER — A former University of British Columbia student who filed a human-rights complaint over the school’s handling of sexual-assault reports says mediation ended unsuccessfully after 90 minutes on Monday.

Glynnis Kirchmeier said she cannot disclose what happened due to a confidentiality agreement, but she is pushing ahead with her case.

She filed a complaint in March with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, which said UBC didn’t act on numerous complaints about a male PhD student over long periods of time, resulting in more students becoming victims.

Kirchmeier said she filed the complaint both as an individual and on behalf of anyone who has alleged sexual assault, sexual harassment or sex discrimination to the university.

None of the allegations has been proven, but the university promised to create a stand-alone sexual assault policy in 2015 after Kirchmeier and other women came forward with complaints.

UBC is consulting with students, faculty and staff on a draft policy, which has been criticized for continuing to rely on the school’s general non-academic misconduct process to discipline students accused of sexual assault.

“It’s been a year since they promised to do better and I don’t see them incorporating that promise in a way that makes me think that it’s safe to drop the complaint,” says Kirchmeier.

Sara-Jane Finlay, UBC’s associate vice-president of equity and inclusion, said the university participated in the meeting, but can’t comment because there are ongoing legal proceedings.

Kirchmeier said the tribunal has asked her and UBC to make submissions on whether her complaint was filed within the necessary time limit. The tribunal requires a complaint to be filed within six months of the most recent discriminatory action.

As long as the complaint is not thrown out, the next steps will be for the university to file its response and for the disclosure process to begin.

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal’s website says that if parties cannot resolve their issues through mediation, the responding party can reply to the complaint and apply to dismiss it without a hearing.

Kirchmeier has developed 44 recommendations for how the university could better respond to complaints of sexual misconduct.