The Ubyssey
An independent, nonprofit, public service student press covering the University of British Columbia community since 1918.
MARCH 9, 2026
VOLUME CVII | ISSUE XIV
Editor’s note:
AMS Elections issue
Published in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the traditional, ancestral and stolen territories of the Coast Salish peoples including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (TsleilWaututh) nations.
SINCE 1918
Boom! Pro Wrestling tells stories from the top rope
VOTE: March 9-13, ams.simplyvoting.com
It’s important students make an informed decision when voting for the people who represent them — it’s why we do this work. Our reporters have spoken to candidates, organizers of referenda items, attended debates and ‘chat and chills,’ and have spent the previous years staying up to date about what is actually going on in our governance structures. The elected executives, senators and governors will sometimes be the only people in a room willing to advocate for student needs in the face of UBC administration or different levels of government. Student politicians have gotten wins in the past — whether it be the U-PASS, fall reading break or funding for a host of initiatives — and have the ability to change that outlasts all of our times at UBC. Right now, students are facing an affordability crisis, and post-secondary institutions are experiencing financial strain unlike anything we’ve seen since the 1990s. It’s more important than ever for students to have someone working for them who can get the job done. Our news reporters spoke to candidates to understand their campaigns and whether they understand the role they are running for. You’ll find candidate profiles summarizing each of their platforms and looking at the feasibility of some of their promises. This year’s ballot also includes important referenda items that could see a $12 AMS fee increase that would go toward supporting student services, clubs and expanding spaces in the Nest. Another item, if passed, would call on the AMS to advocate to UBC to cut ties with Israeli universities. Similarly, we spoke to referenda organizers to see why they’ve put these items on the ballot, and what
would happen if they were to pass or fail. This year, our election report also includes a pilot project from the Opinion section. Previously, we’ve used the term “Editorial Board” to refer to the group of editors that runs the publication. When we penned our last editorial, which condemned the far-right, anti-Indigenous event on campus on Jan. 22, we did so as a group of editors. However, in keeping with the practices of larger newspapers like the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, or New York Times, we’re creating a separate group of experienced journalists to write their views on the news in our newspaper’s name. As such, the Editorial Board now refers to that new group, which spent much of the last few weeks interviewing candidates independent of the News section, attending debates and analyzing platforms and public statements. After considering the field, they’re ready to tell you who they think you should vote for. We’re excited to offer readers their endorsements, which you can find on pages 13 through 16. Student politics is as unimportant as you decide to make it. To some, AMS politics isn’t a luxury they can afford to be disinterested in. Student services like Safewalk, the AMS Food Bank, tutoring and AMS Advocacy are not trivial. The same goes for discussions at the Board of Governors about tuition, or at the Senate about academic policy. Your votes have consequences, and you owe it to your peers to make the time to study up and cast your ballot. It matters. And we hope our newspaper gives you the tools to make the decision that’s right for you and your community. — Aisha Chaudhry, Editor-in-Chief and Spencer Izen, Deputy Managing Editor and Opinion Editor U
Oscars Best Picture Marathon
RAUL DEL ROSARIO / THE UBYSSEY
Event Report by Jack Paransky Arts & Culture Reporter Anticipation runs through the excited crowd like minnows in a stream. The air is thick with the smell of four-dollar beer. All eyes are on the ring, chairs positioned around it like pews around the altar. More than half the audience is standing, crowding the available space in the at-capacity Cambie Street Legion. Max Mitchell enters the ring to devoted cheers. He welcomes each and every person to BOOM! Pro Wrestling. He smiles as the audience joins him in cheering, “THIS! IS! REAL!” Professional wrestling, inspired by the Greco-Roman style, gained notoriety in the United States, Mexico, and Japan between the ‘40s and the ‘60s. These were the decades of the all-time greats: Gorgeous George, Rikidōzan and the legendary El Santo. The advent of public television helped push wrestling from underground local scenes to a national broadcasting scale. The 1980s saw much of the sport fall under the banner of the World Wrestling Federation, now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Wrestling hit the mainstream and launched an industry
valued at roughly 1.4 billion dollars in revenue in 2024. Wrestling is one of the most interesting ways we have to tell a story. The match inside the four ropes is both colosseum and stage. The wrestlers establish characters that give each hit and tumble a sense of narrative. If you just want to watch people fight, go to a martial arts tournament. If you want to watch larger-than-life characters resolve weeks, months or even decades-long stories, watch wrestling. Each match is a vignette in a wrestler’s career-spanning narrative which informs and progresses their evolution. BOOM!’s regulars are perfect examples. Take POWERCHEF, whose gimmick is exactly what you think it is. He’s never won a match. A comic character, his signature move sees him rotate his opponent in the air and yell “MICROWAVE!” before slamming them to the ground. But underneath these comedic moves in the ring, his unrequited need to win gives the character a desperate drive. POWERCHEF, like every wrestler in BOOM’s roster, has wants and needs driven by the match, and his story happens both in and outside the ring. Continued on page 18.
I love movies. I enjoy nothing more than escaping into someone else’s story for a couple hours, leaving it feeling a little bit stronger, smarter, better somehow. With the Academy Awards coming up on March 15, I decided, for the first time ever, to watch all 10 of the Best Picture nominees and review them.
CULTURE // 2
Men’s Hockey’s disastrous end Going into the playoffs, this should have been one of the stronger teams UBC has ever put on the ice. Instead, they imploded, being eliminated without winning a single playoff game.
SPORTS & RECREATION // 20-21
Point of Inquiry:
Why you need to vote for the AMS fee increases
All the world’s a stage (for scholarship) The UBC Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference was born last year to increase the few opportunities English students have to present research. This year, the conference grew in submissions, organizers and overall turnout, showing these opportunities are something students want.
NAVYA CHADHA / THE UBYSSEY
Mona Berlitz’s journey back to the court Profile by Ian Cooper Sports & Recreation Reporter At the time of writing, Mona Berlitz is arguably one of the greatest forwards in UBC women’s basketball history. She’s been a Canada West all-star each year since her second season, making firstteam in 2025. Her game — an equal balance of brute force and ambidextrous finesse — instantly stands out every time she takes the court. Unfortunately, War Memorial Gym has yet to see her step on the court this year. Over 8,000 kilometers away from Vancouver, a summer team trip to her hometown of Schrobenhausen, Germany was supposed to be a homecoming. Instead, in a routine preseason game, Berlitz tore her ACL. Her team returned to Vancouver without her. Berlitz stayed
behind. The season went ahead, and Berlitz had no choice but to learn how to move on. For a player of her calibre, the injury is only a small part of her story. Mona’s path from a small German town to the centre of the UBC Thunderbirds program reflects more than just on-court excellence — it shows how sport can shape life, and the resilience required to push through when that life takes an unexpected turn. In the small town of Schrobenhausen, — population less than 20,000 — Berlitz first picked up a basketball at the age of five. By age 14, Berlitz was travelling nearly 90 minutes away to compete against older players, a routine that eventually earned her a spot on a senior women’s club roster before completing high school. Canada wasn’t on her radar yet. Continued on page 19.
RESEARCH // 22
SENEESHA EKANAYAKE / THE UBYSSEY
Opinion by Quyen Schroeder AMS Columnist Who doesn’t want to save a buck or three? Thanks to the 2021– 2022 AMS Council, we’ve done just that. By reducing our student fees, they saved us $3 per year — by now that’s $9 saved. With that kind of money, you could forget to renew your U-Pass before getting on the SkyTrain three times! Just one small problem: the $9 we saved has come at the cost of the very services the AMS exists to provide. In 2022, council ran a referendum to decrease the Clubs Benefit Fund by $1.03: from $1.78 to a measly $0.75. Unsurprisingly, students passed this referendum.
(Two other fees were also decreased or eliminated. Between the three, students saved $3.37 per year.) The ultimate cost of the few bucks wasn’t clear in 2022 — especially not in the referendum question posed to students. In the two years prior, the AMS had started spending more from the Clubs Benefit Fund: in 2020 to provide newly constituted clubs with $500 of seed money; again in 2021 to increase the funding available to clubs from $2,000 per club per year to $10,000 — a 400 per cent increase; and yet once more in 2022 to provide support to clubs returning following COVID. Continued on page 17.
Elections power grab There’s no sense in trying to make it in this world as an honest politician.
HUMOUR // 24