A pepper-spraying incident at Surrey’s main Kwantlen University campus Wednesday afternoon temporarily shut down a controversial meeting to oust the university’s student association directors.
Students registering to vote on a motion to remove the board in a conference room in the Cedar building allege that at about 2:15 p.m. someone released pepper spray into the hallway.
No students were injured, but a fire alarm was pulled and students were evacuated while fire crews checked the alarm.
Surrey RCMP Cpl. Drew Grainger said police were also heading to the scene after a call came in at about 2:26 p.m.
Arzo Ansary, a third-year Kwantlen student in favour of removing the board said the directors had hired private security to oversee the vote and that some students believed they had discharged the pepper spray.
“There were over 300 students that showed up to register waiting to register and I guess they felt threatened and decided to do whatever they could to cancel the meeting,” Ansary claimed. “They allege it was our side.”
The students require 250 registered voters to achieve quorum and then 75 per cent of those must vote in favour of ousting the board, for the directors to be placed in bad standing and removed.
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“There were already over 100 registered students,” Ansary said.
Student association president Sean Bassi said in an email that the Student Association had warned university authorities of “multiple complaints that the organizers of the purported meeting were ensuing hate speech against South Asians on campus in order to attract students to the meeting.”
Basi claimed “this is part of an overall pathetic attempt by the petitioners to oust only South Asian directors from the board, and place only South Asian directors who served in 2005 in ‘bad standing.’
“All 26 directors subject to these proceedings are of South Asian background. Students were obviously angry about the targeting of a minority.”
A university spokewoman could not initally be found for comment
Student Sheridan Taylor said that by 3:30 p.m. students were let back in the building and the registration and meeting resumed as planned.
The results of the vote are expected this afternoon.
In October, the Kwantlen Student Association settled a lawsuit against former directors regarding an alleged misuse of $1 million in student association funds.
Current board president Sean Bassi said that the decision to settle was made after “serious consideration and consulting of legal expertise,” and to save current students money.
But Ansary said that students are outraged that the case was not pursued, citing rumours that some of the current board members were freinds and relatives of past board members and had a vested interest in settlement.
The student association has a troubled history dating back to May 2005 when the B.C. Supreme Court appointed new directors after a botched election.
In Aug. 2006, the court ordered a new election after complaints about the expulsion of association members.
In 2008, the association sued seveal former directors and an ex-employee alleging they made more than $140,000 in unsupported payments and more than $820,000 in high-risk and unapproved loans.
That case settled, but two more are in play: a suit filed against the association by former general manager Desmond Rodenbour and a suit filed by the association targeting the anonymous owner of a critical website called ksatruth.ca.
In August, the student association withheld funding from the student newspaper, The Runner, which had been its vocal critic. The funds were later restored.
The university administration has asked the province to change the Society Act law to allow an institution to intervene when student association money is being misspent.
University president John McKendry told The Province this fall that the institution needs more control.
“It’s the independence of the body that allows them to go off in various directions that the institution may not feel are in the best interests of the institution, its reputation and the students that come here for an education,” he said.
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