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

Monday, December 12, 2011

St. Lewis v. Rancourt::: Motion follows mediation attempt


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.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Post the motion

Denis Rancourt said...

Link to new motion Motion Record has now been added:

December 6, 2011 Motion Record