Blake Frederick, the president of the Alma Mater Society at the University of British Columbia's Vancouver campus, has escaped removal from office for filing a complaint to the United Nations without authorization from the student union’s council.

At a meeting on Monday evening (December 7), the student council voted unanimously to censure Frederick and AMS vice president for external relations Tim Chu, after taking motions to recall the two executives off the table.

The recall motions were removed from the agenda in response to a legal opinion received by the student union that stated the council doesn’t have the power to recall directors. According to the opinion from Davis LLP, directors must be removed by the membership, either through a special resolution or a referendum.

During the meeting, Matthew Naylor, an arts representative on the council, asserted that Frederick had “sliced a gaping hole in the fabric of our society”.

“It is our job as a council to bind that hole up again and to show any and all future executives that the voice of the AMS must be the voice of students—not just one person,” Naylor said.

The November 25 complaint—which was also signed by UBC graduate and former AMS vice president Tristan Markle—argued that the federal and provincial governments are violating the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Canada became a party to in 1976, by not ensuring postsecondary education is accessible to everyone. The complaint urged the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to appoint an independent expert or a special rapporteur to look into human-rights violations in Canada’s education system.

On November 28, the council voted unanimously to retract the complaint and ask Frederick and Chu to resign. The pair apologized in a November 30 open letter for not “properly consulting” students, but stated they won’t step down.

Frederick said on Monday that the UN complaint was “purely a media stunt” to raise awareness of three issues: postsecondary education funding, student grants, and tuition.

“It’s meant to start a dialogue in the public on those issues,” Frederick told the council. “The intent is to not have the UN—as some people have alleged—drop other priorities and focus on the issue of postsecondary education, and come to Canada and change our policies. That’s not what the UN complaint is meant to generate.”

But the AMS president acknowledged that the complaint was a “failure” due to the backlash it caused on campus. He also admitted that it was “very wrong” to not seek the council’s approval before filing the complaint.

“I do regret having taken that action, and it’s been made quite clear to me over the past couple of weeks that the large majority of students also feel like I have done wrong in that case,” Frederick said.

Geoff Costeloe, a council member and a student representative on UBC's Vancouver senate, said the issue up for debate wasn’t tuition but the accountability of Frederick and Chu to the council. He asserted that the UN complaint has caused “more harm than good”.

“It’s not appropriate for you to take stances like this without talking to us,” Costeloe said. “That’s how the system works. I apologize, but I just can’t trust you now when you say that you will follow what we do.”

Responding to a question from law representative Dia Montgomery, Chu disclosed that the complaint, which was filed with the help of Pivot Legal LLP, cost the student union almost $6,000.

You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.