FAIR examples of academia in trouble in our troubled times

York University fires whistleblower

York University has fired one of its key investigators who turned into a whistleblower of possible fraud at the school that eventually led to a police investigation.

Code of Silence: legal threats silence Canadians

In 2008, Les Éditions Écosociété, a tiny Montreal publishing house, released a 348-page treatise on human rights and environmental violations by Canadian mining companies overseas.

Final solution applied to student Marc Kelly at the University of Ottawa – Neanderthal practice

In our liberal democracies university administrations do not shoot students. They may contrive false criminal charges and encourage police to arrest students [LINK]. They may arbitrarily apply trespass law to bar registered students from their studies and from Xmas parties [LINK, LINK]. And campus police wear bullet proof vests and bash students around. But at Canada’s university the administration does not shoot students.

The worst university administrations can do to “undesired elements” of the student body is what was done at York University in the case of Dan Freeman-Maloy: Unilateral deregistration from the student’s study program combined with an enforced physical ban from campus.

In the case of Freeman-Maloy this led to a legal precedent in the Supreme Court of Canada in which a university president can be sued for malfeasance in public office, and it led to a settlement victory for the student [LINK].

Now the Rock administration at the University of Ottawa has applied this final solution to scholarship mathematics student Marc Kelly. No specific reasons were given.

The administration’s death sentence was delivered by president Rock’s new hand-picked VP-Governance Diane Davidson [see letter HERE].

The administration’s action was vigorously opposed by the student federation’s Student Appeals Centre (SAC) but this protest stirred no visible emotion in the administration’s executive officer for governance [see exchange HERE].

In the latest development, the SAC is supporting an official appeal to the university’s Senate Appeals Committee [see appeal letter HERE].

Will the Rock administration come to its senses and stop attacking students in futile efforts to curb creative political expression?

Why not celebrate and protect student activists instead?

Why not encourage criticism and an open campus atmosphere rather than be this Neanderthal about unconventional student political participation?

The Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are examples of evolution. Why not evolve Mr. Rock? Let us move away from final solutions.

[Editor's note: No, that is not a photo of Marc Kelly, Allan Rock, or Diane Davidson!]

CAUT report reveals pro-Israel bias and suppression of free speech at York University

In March 2005 the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) set up a committee of inquiry to investigate issues respecting free speech and governance at York University.
.

The report of that committee is now available on line (in two parts, click “PDF” buttons in left column).
.

The report concludes “For many faculty members and students the explanation for the contentious events that unfolded on the York campus is found in what they see as decisions by the university’s senior administration to support pro-Israel initiatives and marginalize pro-Palestinian efforts.”
.

The committee concluded also that “on the face of the evidence before us we can only conclude that there were threats to and breaches of the right of free expression and academic freedom at York University.”
.

Has a similar pattern emerged at the University of Ottawa?
.

RELATED LINKS:

Talk Ottawa – January 8, 2009

Rabble-ca Interview

.

[photo: Daniel Freeman-Maloy at an event.]

Israel lobby in action at Canadian universities

.
UIA (United Israel Appeal) Federations - document (PDF)

B’nai Brith - document (PDF)

Hillel (“The Centre for Jewish Campus Life”) - document (PDF)


These three documents (above links), obtained by Professor David Noble of York University through freedom of information requests, illustrate how the Israel lobby in Canada uses its influence to attempt to suppress dissent at Canadian universities. David Noble is Jewish and an outspoken critic of the Israel lobby. The UIA (United Israel Appeal) Federations is the umbrella organization for the Canadian Jewish Congress, the United Jewish Appeal, and Hillel, three zionist organizations which Noble has sued for defamation.

Discrimination at York University

The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has recently completed its Case Analysis Report, in the case of Professor David F. Noble versus York University and Robert Drummond, Lorna Marsden, and Patricia Bradshaw, in the matter of "the respondents afford[ing] privileged accommodation to Jewish students at the respondent university (York) with regard to observance of religious holidays."

The Report's conclusion is unambiguous: "The university's practice of not scheduling classes on Jewish high holy days clearly results in differential treatment on the basis of creed, in that individuals in one group (those of Jewish faith) are given preferential treatment over others."

The full report is available HERE.