AMS to vote on cost for external investigation into president
The AMS and Board of Directors has chosen an investigator for the external investigation into AMS President Miguel Martinez—the cost of which will be voted on later this month.
Last November, the Board engaged with a potential investigator for an external investigation into allegations made by former Judicial Affairs Manager Brandon Tyrrell against Martinez.
The Board “has explored several avenues and has settled on a particular investigator who they believe is best suited to conduct this investigation,” Chair for the Board of Directors, Mikela Page, wrote in an email to The Journal.
The AMS wouldn’t disclose the name of the investigator.
According to Page, the investigator has provided the Board with an estimate of the required number of hours to complete the investigation as well as an hourly cost.
While AMS Assembly voted to engage an investigator last November, they will vote again on the cost of the investigation “to allow Assembly to make an informed decision,” wrote Page.
The AMS didn’t disclose how the investigation would be funded.
At the AMS assembly meeting on Nov. 29, Engineering Society President Carson Cook moved that the Assembly direct the Board of Directors, in consultation with the President’s Caucus, to create a mandate for an external investigation into the allegations made against Martinez.
The motion also sought “to engage an external investigator for said investigation.”
The selected investigator has seen the mandate created by the President’s Caucus and the Board of Directors, accordingto Page’s statement to The Journal.
In his position as Judicial Affairs manager last fall, Tyrrell was investigating a complaint made against President Martinez regarding his conduct at Queen’s Model Parliamentin January of 2018, which alleged Martinez’s executive status gave him preferential treatment in his sanction agreement with the University Conduct Office.
Tyrrell alleged Martinez interfered with his investigation.
Last November, Martinez denied this, telling The Journal in an interview he didn’t interfere in Tyrrell’s investigation in “any way that policy doesn’t allow [him] to.”
Before his termination, Tyrrell told The Journal he feared he may be “arbitrarily dismissed” because of his reluctance to give up his investigation into Martinez’s behaviour.
Martinez denied the investigation influenced Tyrrell’s termination shortly after.
In a November interview, Munro Watters, AMS vice-president (university affairs), said Tyrrell was fired because he disclosed confidential information to The Journal, violating the Agency Agreement between the AMS and the University. The Agency Agreement provides authority to the AMS Non-Academic Misconduct System (NAM).
Tyrrell argued he was investigating Martinez under the AMS Policy Infringement Protocol (PIP) system, not NAM, and that the Agency Agreement only applies to cases the Judicial Affairs Office adopts from the NAM system.
According to Tyrrell, because the PIP system is independent of the University’s NAM system, he wasn’t tied to any obligations set out in the Agency Agreement.
Tyrrell argued his disclosure to The Journal—which Watters said is the reason for Tyrrell’s termination—was justified by a notwithstanding clause included in the Judicial Policies and Procedures.
Citing an absence from the AMS offices in the days leading up to Tyrrell’s departure, Martinez denied any involvement in Tyrrell’s termination.
Martinez addressed Tyrrell’s allegations against him at the Assembly meeting in November when AMS Assembly voted to launch the external investigation.
“I cannot be silent in the face of his malfeasance,” Martinez said of Tyrrell. “This attempt to undermine who I am as an individual and misrepresent my character can go on no longer.”
The AMS didn’t respond to questions about the timeline of the investigation.
