Read Allan Rock's mail to Stephane Emard-Chabot -- access to information documents made public

Student's Eye-View has published a large cache of University of Ottawa emails between president Allan Rock and his then chief-of-staff Stephane Emard-Chabot: LINK.

The university vigorously opposed transparency. The disclosure follows two Orders of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Ontario in an on-going appeal (link).

Here are snippets from the 318 pages that were ordered disclosed to date:

"I was wondering whether you might be in a position to contribute a modest sum from your 'secret fund' to our extended international human rights series."
--Roland Paris (research chair, and "Global Ethics Fellow") to Allan Rock (record 192)

In this email to Allan Rock, then VP-Academic Francois Houle is pissed at Rock for not trusting his capacity in his functions as VP-Academic:

"Allan, ce mémo détaillé (avec des CC a tous les membres du CA), tout comme celui sur le VRA international, et le fait que tu penses qu'il était important pour toi de communiquer avec Britta apres qu'elle eu décliné l'offre que je lui avait faite m'amenent a m'interroger sur ton niveau de confiance envers mes capacites a remplir le poste de vice-recteur aux études. On devrait en reparler a ton retour de vacances. Francois" (record 87)

(That provides some insight into possibly the true reason that Houle suddenly resigned using a rather unbelievable pretext -- Rock did not trust his ability further than he could throw an overweight dean. Ann Coulter fallout?)

This is how Allan Rock explains to his chief-of-staff why he wants a 10-minute meeting with the Chair of the Board of Governors:

"It is to bring him into the picture about the CAPEA project. [...] We won't commit to that of course without Board approval. But in the meantime, we are spending $585,000 in incremental costs up to September 1 to prepare plans for 5 stories instead of 3 stories. It is that expense that we are incurring as a matter of management authority, but for my own comfort I want the Board Chair to be aware. If we find the $19 million in additional financing, of course, the $585,000 will have been well spent and not a penny wasted." (record 257)

(Sounds like rubber-stamping heaven to me -- Management authority to spend more than half a million to study a project that has not been considered or approved by the Board...?)

St. Lewis v. Rancourt::: Update on the Defendant's "champerty" motion

The last update on the St. Lewis v. Rancourt defamation lawsuit on this blog was the February 24, 2012 post.

Justice Robert Smith, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, recently summarized the current status of the lawsuit this way (LINK):

[1] Denis Rancourt (“Rancourt”) is a former professor at the University of Ottawa who publishes a blog. He is being sued by the plaintiff, Joanne St. Lewis (“St. Lewis”), for libel for statements he made in his blog, criticizing the University of Ottawa.

[2] St. Lewis is also a professor at the University of Ottawa who prepared a report which concluded that there was no systemic racism in the University of Ottawa’s treatment of visible minority students. Her legal fees for her libel action against Rancourt are being paid by the University of Ottawa (“University”), which Rancourt alleges constitutes champerty.

[3] Rancourt seeks leave to appeal the decision of Beaudoin J., acting as a case management judge, wherein he refused to allow him to bring a motion (the open court motion) to allow members of the public to attend the cross‑examinations on affidavits that were filed in his champerty motion.

At this time, Rancourt has moved that the action be dismissed for abuse of process ("champerty" motion). That motion hearing will be on August 29, 2012, in open court. The reason alleged is that the University of Ottawa is funding the Plaintiff's entire legal costs with improper motive and stands to benefit from proceeds of the action.

Since the previous update, many events have occurred in the action, including:

• the motion for Leave to Appeal the Court's decision to deny Rancourt's Open Court motion to make cross-examinations public was heard and decided - Decision (LINK);
• a motion by student Joseph Hickey to intervene in the Leave to Appeal motion of Rancourt was heard and denied (no written decision was provided);
• legal costs were ordered against Rancourt for his Leave to Appeal motion - Costs Decision (LINK) 
• legal costs were ordered against student Hickey for his motion to intervene - Costs Decision (LINK)
• a seven-hour discoveries examination of the Plaintiff by the Defendant was held;
• a seven-hour discoveries examination of the Defendant by the Plaintiff's lawyer was held;
• the Chair of the U of O Board of Governors, Robert Giroux, was cross-examined as a witness by Rancourt for the "champerty" motion - Transcript of the examination (LINK)
• the President of the U of O, Allan Rock, was cross-examined as an affiant by Rancourt for the "champerty" motion - Transcript of the cross-examination (LINK)
• the Plaintiff, U of O law professor Joanne St. Lewis, was cross-examined as an affiant by Rancourt for the "champerty" motion - Trancript of the cross-examination (LINK), Exhibits at cross-examination (LINK);
• the Dean of the U of O common law faculty, Bruce Feldthusen, was cross-examined as an affiant by Rancourt for the "champerty" motion - Transcript of the cross-examination (LINK);
• a lawyer for the U of O (in the Rancourt dismissal arbitration case), Celine Delorme, was cross-examined for the "champerty" motion - Transcript of the cross-examination (LINK), Exhibits at cross-examination (LINK);
• Both the University and the Plaintiff declined to cross-examine the Defendant on his two affidavits in the "champerty" motion - First affidavit (LINK), Second affidavit (LINK);
• Rancourt filed a refusals and productions motion to seek orders compelling the witness and affiants to answer refused questions in the "champerty" motion examinations;
•  The first day of hearings for the refusals and productions motion in the "champerty" motion was held on June 20, 2012, continuing on July 24, 2012 in open court.

In cross-examination, U of O president Allan Rock testified under oath that he made the decision to entirely fund the Plaintiff's litigation without a cap (no spending limit) from the University's operating budget. This decision to fund, according to the Plaintiff's testimony, occurred before the Plaintiff researched or contacted her counsel for the action.

The chosen counsel had been suggested by the Plaintiff's Dean, Bruce Feldthusen, who, according to his testimony, made a strong appeal to Rock that the University had a responsibility to fund the litigation (to sue Rancourt).

The Chair of the Board of Governors provided sworn testimony establishing that Rock had never informed the Board about the fact that the Plaintiff's Statement of Claim sought $125 thousand for a university scholarship fund (that St.Lewis had spearheaded). The Chair learned this fact for the first time at the April 18, 2012 examination of him by Rancourt.

All transcripts and many of the court documents are provided as links HERE.

Allan Rock on Ann Coulter - New access to information report released

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A new report based on 138 emails via University of Ottawa president Allan Rock's office about Ann Coulter has been released HERE.

The report suggests that former Liberal heavyweight Loyd Axworthy may have played a significant role in the U of O Rock-Coulter affair.

The text of the second letter that Allan Rock wanted to send to Coulter is revealed in the report and it is shown that Rock was motivated to write the second letter by a desire to minimize his legal liability following an email from associate professor of law Amir Attaran.

The preamble of the report states:

This blow by blow account provides an incisive picture of the executive crew of a modern Canadian university which will be of interest to all stakeholders that must deal with these institutions of "higher learning."

A student reviewer of the report said:

"The prez is more concerned with covering his ass and controlling his playground than he is about principles or education etc. It cuts Rock down to size from superstar to petty, mean-spirited, and panicking. It vaporizes his rhetoric. He looks totally out of place in academia. Profs have been sacked for the kind of academic fraud he's up to. The report contrasts what the University is meant to be to show how Rock doesn't have a clue."

RELATED POSTS:
URL of the new report: Allan Rock on Ann Coulter
All UofOWatch articles about the Ann Coulter affair
UofOWatch "list of Allan Rock lies"
"Ethically challenged" Allan Rock U of O mistake was avoidable

Another one bites the dust at U of O -- Jolicoeur out Giroux in -- (with VIDEO analysis)

Meet the new Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of Ottawa, Mr. Robert Giroux.

No mention of the last guy...?

It has become commonplace under the Allan Rock reign at the U of O for top executives to be removed or demoted or to leave without any explanations or public thank yous.

Former president Gilles Patry fell off the edge of the earth and has been nowhere to be seen in public life. His acclaimed talents for running a top Canadian university or any similar corporation seem to be going entirely to waste.

VP-Governance (then Secretary) Pamela Harrod was suddenly demoted to "special" assistant to the president doing routine access to information legal work, to then suddenly leave under early retirement.

VP-Governance interim Nathalie Des Rosiers was never formalized and took administrative leave to head the Canadian Civil Liberties Association but is now leaving that post under questionable circumstances.

VP-Academic Robert Major could barely be convinced to stay one year into Rock's mandate and left without a public thank you after being a pillar of the institution for decades.

Major was replaced by Coulter-fiasco Francois Houle at the same time that the position of VP-Academic was downgraded from second-in-charge to "just another VP cause we need at least one from academic ranks" while the newly renamed position of VP-Governance was given to outside hack Diane Davidson and upgraded to second-boss-man.

The underlings feel it also. The turn-around in staff at media relations (Marketing Service and Communications Office) is legendary, to say the least. Must be a nice work environment in that department?

And now the latest...

The University simply put out THIS June 16, 2010, press release announcing:

"The University of Ottawa has appointed Mr. Robert Giroux as chair of its Board of Governors."

The press release makes NO mention of Marc Jolicoeur or his many years of service and gives no indication as to why a new Chair of the BOG was appointed. No search had been announced, no search committee formed, nothing. Quite remarkable really.

The celebrated Chair of the Board of Governors, Marc Jolicoeur, is being replaced without any explanation or public thank yous?

Jolicoeur remains the Regional Managing Partner of the Ottawa office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG Law), the same law firm that threatened to sue UofOWatch some time ago and that appears to have used illegally-obtained personal information to threaten lawsuits against students for client VP-Resources Victor Simon, well known for his respect of academic freedom.

This is all the more surprising given the intellectual and legal stature of Jolicoeur, as can be ascertained in this video in which he explains the democratic nature of the BOG to an interested student:

Did Jolicoeur quit?
Why would he quit?
Did he not want to be thanked publicly?
Will there be a thank you reception later this summer?