This site is devoted to transparency at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. UofOWatch exposes institutional behaviour that is not consistent with the public good.
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
Senator Joseph Hickey has exposed another administrative scam at the University of Ottawa (LINK).
The admin wants to tailor classroom practice towards more mindless technology that prevents or substitutes human interactions with technological gadgetry. And of course they want to media market the fact that they are doing this, as though it were a good thing.
The best way to manage the behaviours of professors is to offer research money and gold stars of funding for their annual reports...
Meanwhile the disease of PowerPoint has spread to epidemic proportions:
How a disgruntled physics student could get this far against another physics student using the graduate student union is, well, difficult to understand. Are the GSAED Council members eager to participate in mindless mobbing and why?
We might conclude that the brilliant administration of the university has inspired high quality student governance. Oiyoiyoi.
It is difficult to know what is most surprising about this 1997 story: That the Fulcrum would write a biting story critical of the administration or that a judge would side with a student against the university...? The legal decision is HERE.
The University of Ottawa was found to disregard a student complaint and to aide a School of Management professor (Jimming Lin) in stealing a student's (Paul Boudreau) intellectual property. Really nice stuff.
This is stunning in view of the University's stated and demonstrated dedication to protect its intellectual property in certain other circumstances... HERE, HERE, HERE and THIS video!
It would be interesting to know if the notorious professor Lin was ever disciplined for his academic fraud? After all, the author of the instant blog was suspended without pay by the University of Ottawa for the picture of Tabaret Hall that you see here on the front page (VIDEO).
This is an update in the matter of the $1 million defamation lawsuit of plaintiff law professor Joanne St. Lewis, funded by the University of Ottawa, against defendant former physics professor Denis Rancourt.
The parties attempted mediation on December 6, 2011. The mediation attempt lasted almost three hours. The mediator was Deidre Powell (link). The mediation resulted from the defendant's Offer to Settle (link).
The plaintiff is a lawyer and was accompanied at mediation by four more lawyers from the Gowlings law firm:
Richard Dearden
Wendy Wagner
Ryan Kennedy
Anastasia Semenova
The plaintiff did not allow the defendant (who is self-represented) to bring an accompanying person.
The parties did not settle any issues in the case.
Immediately after leaving the mediation a Gowlings lawyer served the defendant with a new motion. The new motion is for case management leading to a plaintiff's motion for Summary Judgement.
The case management motion is scheduled to be heard on January 26, 2012 (which may change). The Summary Judgement hearing would be arranged following a schedule that is to be determined.
As a rough definition: A Summary Judgement is a kind of "trial on paper" where the evidence is presented in documentary form and only legal arguments from counsels are heard at the public court hearing.
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As background, all related posts about the lawsuit are HERE.
Links to all pleadings and court documents in the lawsuit are HERE.
A Law Times media article about the lawsuit is HERE. .
As a recent development in the St. Lewis v. Rancourt matter, University of Ottawa student university-senate member Joseph Hickey reports "Joanne St. Lewis Threatens to Sue Student Senator over Blog" and has posted an email exchange with counsel for St. Lewis Richard Dearden, initiated by a Notice of Libel sent to Hickey, on the blog "Student-s-Eye View":
"We can't follow the Adjudicator's Order because it's in English" -- University of Ottawa, "Canada's largest bilingual university"
When it comes to dealing with their wrongly fired physics professor Denis Rancourt, the University of Ottawa Allan Rock administration's disposition for legalistic stunts is unbounded.
to argue that the professor's "post-dismissal behaviour" (read U of O Watch blog) should be allowed as (future) evidence to justify the (past) dismissal, in a sad display of "see, we told you we were right to have fired him, see, see..." (LINK-with-video)
to argue that there are reasons that Rancourt's U of O Watch blog needs to be silenced during the tribunal hearings but that these reasons should not be disclosed to the public in the public tribunal... (LINK-with-video)
to argue that Rancourt's pre-dismissal suggestion to a student to invite the rapper Immortal Technique onto campus was an incitement to violence (yes) now requiring a special investigation (even though the rapper suggestion, with copied lyrics, was sent to the entire senior university administration without causing so much as a ripple at the time)... (LINK)
to argue that the pedagogical developments used by Rancourt were "experiments on human subjects" and that therefore it now (in mid-tribunal hearings) needed to be researched if a research ethics committee approval had been obtained and whether this constituted an additional cause for discipline... (LINK)
It could almost be called the "Emond-Harnden zoo of legal stunts, sponsored by the Allan Rock administration" and here is the latest instalment...
On the one hand, Lynn Harnden solemnly stated to the labour Arbitrator that the University is seriously (in the "zoo" sense?) committed to providing disclosure of "all arguably relevant documents" (on the same day that obviously incomplete and superficial "disclosures" were handed over - LINK), while on the other hand the same law firm has been hired by the University to now additionally generate stunts to block Rancourt's access to information (ATI) requests for his own personal information in the matter, in appeals with Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) Adjudicators.
And here is the latest of these:
IPC orders (IPC Order PO-2009-F) University to search, obtain, and hand over documents to Rancourt from all its professors...
Emond-Harnden's Steven Williams argues to IPC that it ("Canada's largest 'bilingual' university") cannot because the Order is in English...
IPC Adjudicator responds to the University to get itself a translation if it needs one and gives it an extra month to accomplish this difficult task... (see Adjudicator's letter to the University HERE).
The IPC Adjudicator seems, understandably, exasperated (link). Layers and layers of unboolivable... A world where legal stunts are the norm, in the service of a university administration, "Canada's university"!
Relevant media commentary by Rancourt about ATI and university professors:
All posts about the wrongful dismissal hearings: HERE.
The instant U of O Watch post gives the relevant link for information, in following all substantive developments in the lawsuit. It does not imply endorsement or agreement.
As background, all related posts about the lawsuit are HERE.
Links to all pleadings and court documents in the lawsuit are HERE.
A Law Times media article about the lawsuit is HERE. .
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed in posts and comments are those of the posting authors. Except if otherwise stated, the views and positions of UofOWatch are those of Denis G. Rancourt, former professor of physics at the University of Ottawa. Obviously, links and references to cited works do not imply agreement with or endorsement of the views expressed or information in the linked postings or cited works.
