{"id":1879,"date":"2012-01-10T10:56:04","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T18:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=1879"},"modified":"2012-01-10T10:56:04","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T18:56:04","slug":"ubc-students-charged-for-vancouver-riots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/01\/10\/ubc-students-charged-for-vancouver-riots\/","title":{"rendered":"UBC students charged for Vancouver riots"},"content":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER (CUP) – Two University of BC (UBC) students were among those charged on Nov. 30, when Crown Counsel handed down 61 charges against 25 suspected rioters in downtown Vancouver following game seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup finals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The riots in the aftermath of the Stanley Cup loss (photo by David Elop\/The Ubyssey),<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alexander Peepre, a 20-year-old political science student, is to date the only person charged with assault in connection with the riots.<\/p>\n

Cameron Brown, a photographer who was at the riots, claims that Peepre struck him from behind as he tried to put out a trashcan fire. Brown says he required three stitches as a result, and nearly $3,000 worth of camera equipment was destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to get some clear shots of people that were causing the damage because I knew right away that that would be the best way to identify them afterward and send them off to the police,\u201d says Brown. \u201cThe only way I know exactly what happened is from the videotape that I saw. Apparently [Peepre] sucker-punched me, then ran away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peepre declined comment.<\/p>\n

An assault conviction carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, but BC Civil Liberties Association executive director David Eby says it\u2019s unlikely that the Crown will recommend it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor first offences, and particularly for people who are in university, the sentences are not going to approach the maximum,\u201d says Eby. \u201cThey\u2019re going to be on the much lower end, simply because having a criminal record for someone with a postsecondary education is going to be a pretty major punishment\u0143that\u2019s very much going to limit their employment opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other UBC student singled out by Crown Counsel, Jensen White, is the only non-Canadian to be charged. Hailing from Seattle, White is studying science at UBC on a student visa and is charged with mischief and participating in a riot.<\/p>\n

Eby says that the Crown will almost certainly revoke White\u2019s visa if he\u2019s convicted, in lieu of sentencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually the Crown will say, \u2018We will suspend these [charges], but we will also end your student visa, and you\u2019ve got to leave Canada immediately and not come back.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n

White couldn\u2019t be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Another UBC student, Camille Cacnio, publicly apologized for rioting last June, amid cries that the university take additional disciplinary actions against students who were involved. But the university says it will leave the matter to the courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the university believes all persons involved should be called upon to account for their behaviour, it does not believe the student discipline system at the university is the appropriate forum to do so,\u201d explains Randy Schmidt, associate director of UBC Public Affairs. \u201cThe system of student discipline at the university is meant to address offences specifically committed against members and property of the university community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmidt also says that students who have their visas revoked as a result of a criminal conviction are outside of their jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

Eby says the publicity around the crimes and the trial has led many to wrongly equate these charges with convictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people were very upset about what happened, and understandably, but the people who have been charged are still entitled to a fair trial, and although their names have been released publicly because they\u2019ve been charged, employers and schools and others should keep in mind that these people have not yet been convicted,\u201d he says. \u201cUntil they are, they should be given the benefit of the doubt because they are presumed innocent in our system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER (CUP) – Two University of BC (UBC) students were among those charged on Nov. 30, when Crown Counsel handed down 61 charges against 25 suspected rioters in downtown Vancouver following game seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup finals. Alexander Peepre, a 20-year-old political science student, is to date the only person charged with assault […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-january-11-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1879"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1883,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions\/1883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}