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, June 25, 2018

U of O's first law dean was an unprincipled creep


MEDIA ARTICLE:

Pratt: Why it's time to rename University of Ottawa's Fauteux Hall

UofOWatch reaction:

University of Ottawa - L’Université d’Ottawa's first law dean was an unprincipled creep.

Keep the building name Fauteux as a reminder.

Law students should be reminded to consider a different career path.


 

Two Gee-Gees hockey players found not guilty of sexual assault



The trial verdict is::: Not guilty.

The reaction of the University of Ottawa was to put out a press release defending former president Allan Rock's decision to punish the entire hockey team with indefinite suspension.

The University decided to further defame the hockey players rather than admit that Rock over-reacted in a politically motivated move to manage liability to the university's image:

The University of Ottawa will not comment on the decision rendered today by the Ontario Court of Justice in the sexual assault trial of two former Gee-Gees hockey players.

As we have stated previously, the University’s 2014 decision to suspend the men’s hockey program was based on the serious nature of allegations against team members and following the results of an independent investigation into the events in Thunder Bay that illustrated widespread misconduct unbecoming of University representatives. Today’s court ruling has no impact on that decision.

Additionally, the University has presented its statement of defense in a related class action lawsuit. Our statement speaks for itself and the University will not comment further on its substance.

Since 2014, the University of Ottawa has taken several key steps to counter sexual violence and harassment on campus, including the creation of a Task Force on Respect and Equality, along with an Action Team to implement the Task Force’s recommendations.

The University followed up on these efforts with the development and adoption in 2016 of a campus-wide policy on the prevention of sexual violence. This survivor-centric policy aims to maintain a campus culture that fosters respect for every individual in a University-wide environment that is free of harassment, discrimination and sexual violence. This policy takes into consideration how difficult it is for survivors to come forward.

Following the suspension of the hockey program, the University implemented new measures to provide student-athletes, coaches, administration and support staff in all varsity and competitive club sports with the support they need to ensure respectful and appropriate conduct. The University believes that these measures have fostered a positive environment for student-athletes and coaching staff.

The men’s varsity hockey program was relaunched in 2016 and this past season, the team made the playoffs for the second consecutive season under the leadership of Patrick Grandmaître.

LINKS TO MEDIA REPORTS ABOUT THE VERDICT:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/former-university-of-ottawa-hockey-players-not-guilty-of-sexual-assault-1.3988142

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/former-uottawa-hockey-players-found-not-guilty-of-sexual-assault

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/guillaume-donovan-david-foucher-live-1.4716283

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/06/25/former-university-of-ottawa-hockey-players-acquitted-on-sex-assault-charges.html

Thursday, April 5, 2018

It happened at the University of Ottawa: Psychiatrist Louis Morissette Should Be Barred From Practice

By Denis Rancourt, PhD

This article was first published on Dissident Voice (LINK).

The Quebec medical tribunal will decide if psychiatrist-for-hire Louis Morissette was allowed to provide a hatchet job based on hearsay.

The review committee of the medical tribunal of Quebec will decide within 90 days whether or not anyone anywhere, such as a political party or institution or individual in any province or state, can hire a Quebec expert psychiatrist to render a medical opinion about an opponent without interviewing or even informing the individual.

The said medical opinion could be made without any medical record or clinical evaluation or verification of information, and then used publicly or otherwise for political or institutional purposes.
This happened to me, with devastating consequences.

I only found out by chance, years later, thanks to an investigation into my 2008 dismissal from the University of Ottawa, which is still in litigation.1,2,3

I filed a complaint to the medical tribunal as soon as I could. I have publicly posted the entire complaint, the intake investigator’s conclusions, and my appeal of the said conclusions.4

This is what occurred, in the most neutral terms I can muster.

Dr. Louis Morissette, a psychiatrist licenced by the province of Quebec, agreed to conduct a secret medical evaluation of an individual who was critical of his employer.  The psychiatrist evidently agreed to the employer’s request that he work without informing the individual.  The psychiatrist never contacted the individual, never tried to contact him, and never even claimed that he tried to contact him.

The psychiatrist did not use any medical records whatsoever. Instead, he relied entirely on false intimate personal information provided by the employer, which he never attempted to verify, and on media reports selected by the employer.

On this basis alone, the psychiatrist wrongly labelled me a dangerous person, causing me to be exiled from my community, following his definitive recommendations to that effect.  Years later, when I found out that the psychiatrist had medically evaluated me, he refused to give me a copy of his report.
Morissette has a long documented record of evidence-based alleged and proven violations that the Collège des médecins du Québec has ignored.

These include the following that I added to my complaint, with the evidence:
  • judicially proven lying while giving expert testimony in court;
  • giving expert opinion in a criminal proceeding without consulting the relevant scientific research literature;
  • an appellate court finding of his reprehensible behaviour;
  • giving an in-court expert opinion of the harmlessness of mass-murderer Karla Homolka based on 3½ hours of interview;
  • being in conflict of interest while recommending release of double-child-murderer Guy Turcotte;
  • destroying his appraisal-session interview notes immediately and prior to termination of criminal legal proceedings and engaging in such disallowed practice since 1983;
  • requesting double payment for the same service by claiming the same accused person both as patient and legal client;
  • performing such a large amount of opinion-for-hire contracting for clients as to affect his professional independence, put him in conflict of interest, and influence the quality of his practice; and,
  • exercising his profession in a jurisdiction in which he is not a certified practitioner.
After eight months, the medical tribunal’s intake analyst, Dr. Michel Jarry, summarily dismissed my entire complaint, writing that there is no cause to bother the disciplinary committee since I am not a “patient” of Morissette. This remarkable result was handed down despite the many and repeated unambiguous violations by Morissette of the statutory rules of professional ethics.

I filed an appeal on April 2, 2018, and the review committee has 90 days to make its decision about whether this sort of thing is allowed.

It must not be allowed. Otherwise, we are no better than any totalitarian regime that mines rumours and false accusations to legitimize state actions, and psychiatrists are no better than opportunists-for-hire in such a system.

It is also of note that the vice-president-governance of the University of Ottawa who coordinated the collection of hearsay about my intimate personal information, for use by the hired psychiatrist to render his secret “psychiatric opinion”, was Nathalie Des Rosiers.

Des Rosiers subsequently became Director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) for a time and is now an elected member (MPP) of the Ontario parliament and a minister in the government.

The university did not inform me of its actions, and vigorously opposed my access to the psychiatric report until the final hour of an appeal in litigation for access in 2017.5
  1. Academic Freedom? How Nasty Can a University Be?” by Denis Rancourt, Dissident Voice, February 17, 2018.
  2. Denis Rancourt’s letter to president Jacques Frémont, University of Ottawa”, with three attached supporting letters from Hazel Gashoka, Jean-Marie Vianney, and Cynthia McKinney, January 8, 2018.
  3. Did University of Ottawa Persecute a Professor on Its Faculty? A Petition in Support of Denis Rancourt”, March 2018.
  4. Book Of Complaint Against Psychiatrist Louis Morissette With Appeal To CdR CMQ”, by Denis Rancourt, April 2, 2018.
  5. Book: All arguments of parties and intervener in Dr. Denis Rancourt’s constitutional challenge of Section 65(6)3 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, at judicial review, in the Divisional Court for Ontario, Court File No.: 17-DC-2279”, Ontario Civil Liberties Association, March 2018.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Denis Rancourt's letter to president Jacques Fremont of the University of Ottawa, Canada

https://archive.org/details/POST20180108DGRLetterToPresidentJacquesFremont5All

This is about my own case of the University of Ottawa's egregious violations of my academic-freedom, civil and Charter rights, over many years. One rarely has the evidence of how far they can go.

This post is from my main blog, here: http://activistteacher.blogspot.ca/2018/02/denis-rancourts-letter-to-president.html


Sunday, January 21, 2018

Doctor Donald Kilby disciplined by CPSO following allegations of sexual exploitation of sick Black foreign student at U of O

Dr. Donald Kilby accepting the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award in 2014.

Recent criminal charges of a medical doctor covertly filming a young female patient at University of Ottawa Health Services causes one to examine that institution.

U of O Watch has discovered that the Director of Health Services, Dr. Donald Kilby, has been disciplined by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) for alleged financial coercion of a Black foreign student and patient for sexual service.

In its October 19, 2017 discipline report, the CPSO puts it this way:

[...] A patient (whose country of origin is outside Canada) complained to the College that after initiating financial support for the patient’s studies in Canada, Dr. Kilby said he would not continue to support the patient unless they were sexually intimate. The patient was also concerned that Dr. Kilby treated him for a certain condition and offered to give him a related vaccine, but then said the vaccine would cost $1500; the patient also claimed that Dr. Kilby did not tell him of risks associated with the patient’s condition.

Dr. Kilby denied the patient’s claims. He said he absolutely never made any suggestion to the patient that his financial support was conditional upon entering into a sexual relationship. He acknowledged treating the patient’s condition, but said he never gave him incorrect information and that he offered the patient employment at a clinic to help pay expenses, which could include a vaccine.

[...] As to the concern that Dr. Kilby threatened to withhold funds from the patient unless they engaged in a sexual relationship, the Committee concluded that a referral to the Discipline Committee was not warranted in all the circumstances of the case, as there was no reasonable prospect of successfully prosecuting the concern.
However, the Committee stated that it did have concerns about Dr. Kilby’s overall understanding of boundaries with patients, noting:

• The investigative record describes how Dr. Kilby has funded many students to come to Canada for university education, and how (among other forms of support) he has arranged (and often paid for) things such as part-time work and housing for them.
• By Dr. Kilby’s own admission, he provided episodic treatment to the patient (whether he made statements attributed to him about a vaccine was unknown to the Committee),and he admits to treating some of the other students for whom he provided financial support.
• Dr. Kilby indicated that, on reviewing the College policy, Physician Treatment of Self, Family Members or Others Close to Them, he recognized it could be perceived that the students fell under the definition of “others close to him.”
• Dr. Kilby indicated he has taken steps to ensure he will not treat the patient and he has drafted a letter to the other students under his care advising he was making arrangements to transfer their care.

The Committee noted that while it was important that Dr. Kilby has recognized the problem in treating the students whom he sponsored and often continued to support financially, the Committee was concerned by his actions to begin with, which reflected poor judgement on his part. The Committee said it needed reassurance that Dr. Kilby will not treat these students going forward, and that he fully understands his obligations in not treating those close to him and maintaining appropriate boundaries with patients at all times. The Committee decided the two-fold disposition set out above was appropriate in all the circumstances of this case.