U of O Watch mission, in the words of Foucault...

"One knows … that the university and in a general way, all teaching systems, which appear simply to disseminate knowledge, are made to maintain a certain social class in power; and to exclude the instruments of power of another social class. … It seems to me that the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticise the workings of institutions, which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticise and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them." -- Foucault, debating Chomsky, 1971.

U of O Watch mission, in the words of Socrates...

"An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all." -- Socrates

video of president allan rock at work

Saturday, March 12, 2011

U of O students::: What can you do about this? -- Malfeasance in Medicine


Dear students of the University of Ottawa:

I am in the process of sending the following message to each and every staff member of the University of Ottawa, 5000 professors, administrators, technicians, etc.

I am asking your professors to stand up for what is right when an obvious and serious malfeasance occurs in academia, on our very own campus.

I ask that you also consider what you can do individually or in groups to right this wrong... Ask your professors if they got the email yet and how they are considering responding... Imagine if this happened to you after you graduate.

Let's fix the big obvious things we can.

HERE IS THE MESSAGE I'M SENDING:

Dear colleagues of the University of Ottawa:

Maybe you have seen the recent national and regional news reports about the U of O Faculty of Medicine firings of three talented medical doctors?

Such as this Globe and Mail article:
LINK-G&M

And these two major Ottawa-Citizen stories:
LINK-OC-1
LINK-OC-2

This is a very disturbing situation where administrative malfeasance is apparent in documented emails and where doctors were fired as reprisals for making complaints.

The malfeasance is so evident and so extreme in this case that it damages the public trust.
The specific incidences of malfeasance are also morally condemnable.
And it has produced unacceptable damage to at least three of our colleagues.

I therefore urge you to consider how you can personally contribute to pressuring or convincing the Allan Rock administration to repair the situation immediately rather than to use the protracted tribunal and court cases as a pretext to not act, and thereby effectively condone the administrative actions.

As background, here are critical blog reports (and video reports) that I have posted about this horrific situation:
LINK-blog-1
LINK-blog-2
LINK-blog-3

Some of the leaked emails are posted here:
http://academicfreedom.ca/doctors/

I hope that you will be able to act individually and as groups to pressure the administration of our university, that seems intent on inaction in the face of prima facie malfeasance.

I understand that the academic implications of this matter are going to be discussed at the next meeting of university Senate.

Please contact me if you wish more information or to discuss this situation.

Sincerely,
Denis Rancourt, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.
University of Ottawa alumnus
Former physics professor, University of Ottawa

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