Liana Voia video interview with Denis Rancourt: Insights

A short and incomplete video history of student activism at U of O...

Did you know about this YouTube channel "KrillKop"?

It has an eclectic collection of videos of past student activism against institutional logic at U of O.

Check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Krillkop

Like the time Allan Rock lost his nerve with student Marc Kelly and yelled at him like a crazed university president...: HERE. (Marc had a recorder in his pocket.)

Or the time the Faculty of Science decided it needed hyper security against student walk-in inquiries...: HERE.

And many more.

"We can’t just have a protocol or policy" --Anne-Marie Roy

Forum calls for consent culture initiatives on Canadian campuses (LINK)

Student conference held on the U of O campus makes its point. Are university administrations hearing this? Where is the official forum that would have heard the students? Will resources be allocated for student-lead initiatives?

Now, leaving hockey players aside for a moment, do powerful executives ever participate in rape culture? It seems to me that the student politicians could also focus on obtaining a policy with teeth that admits that the problem can lie with deans, VPs, and presidents, rather than effectively treat the highest echelons as beyond reproach and beyond any real accountability regarding complaints, except when Allan Rock decides to throw one under the bus.

Any such policy without real and apparent teeth at the top will only serve to widen the gap between students and the top executives, and between university employees and their bosses.

Here (below) is a video look at the need to include transparency and accountability at the highest levels when it comes to rape culture. How can rape culture be changed if we condone blindness to the institution's dominance hierarchy?

Will there be transparency regarding the content and frequency of the training provided to deans? Will there be special training for VPs and the President? Will we know what that training or education consists in? Who will have the gravitas to provide that training? Will there be a final exam and grades to ensure certification?

Getting serious about rape culture must include a horizontal policy field that corrects for hierarchical power.

Sophistry 101 -- Allan Rock on what is not an "academic program"

When lawyers run the world... It's not every day that the president of "Canada's university" overtly manufactures a novel mental construct to circumvent the statute (law) that defines the mission and governance structure of the institution.

There you have it, as reported by Student's-Eye View:

Video of Allan Rock Interview with La Rotonde

November 17, 2014

by Student's-Eye View

 

La Rotonde has posted a video (in french) of its recent interview with University of Ottawa President Allan Rock.

At 1:40 in the video, Allan Rock is asked why the university’s new Security and Policy Institute (SPI) program was not approved by the university Senate or Board of Governors.

An English translation of this segment of the video (beginning at 1:40 and ending at 3:34) is as follows (free translation):

LR: Our next question is about the Security and Policy Institute.
Rock: Yes.
LR: So, since the Board of Governors and the Senate were not consulted, we would like to know who approved the program and why there were no consultations?
Rock: Yes. Generally, when we launch a new program, whether it’s in Science, or the Faculty of Arts, or somewhere, we have a consultation and then we also have an analysis and discussions at the level of the Senate and its committees. In this case, we are talking about a program that is non-academic, in the sense that it’s not credited, it’s a program which is offered to people who are implicated in the domain, so that they can perfect their skills, in the professional sense. So, given that it’s not an academic program, we don’t need approval from the Senate and we did not initiate a consultation like we would do with an academic program. The Continuing Education Centre exists in order to give people who are already in the job market a means of improving and perfecting their professional skills — we hire people mostly from outside the university as teachers — so it’s not an academic program as such. We use the framework of the university to offer professional programs, and we also hope to generate additional revenue for the university.

Video by La Rotonde:

University of Ottawa paying for pointless legal battles -- Sun News

Ezra Levant interviewed Executive Director of the Ontario Civil Liberties Association Joseph Hickey on May 23, 2014, about the St. Lewis v. Rancourt lawsuit.

Click image for link to Sun News video report

Related Links:
OCLA campaign: Public Money is Not for Silencing Critics
Cynthia McKinney's petition: Give a Fair Court Hearing to Denis Rancourt 

Original video link (dead link):
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/3585179969001 

Routine intimidation of student TAs denounced at the University of Ottawa -- media reports

Des étudiants dénoncent le harcèlement à l’Université d’Ottawa (LINK)

Students speak out about U of O ‘intimidation’ practices (LINK)

TA says she was fired for failing students (LINK)

Trailer for new documentary film about Denis Rancourt

Filmmaker/Director/Producer: Peter Beisterfeld

Expected release date: Fall 2014

Many years of filming in several cities.

"Rancourt -- The Documentary" Facebook page LINK.

U of O president Allan Rock and law professor Joanne St. Lewis must not sue student Hazel Gashoka

Threat of lawsuit against YouTube video

By Denis Rancourt

Hazel Gashoka earned an Honours B.A. in psychology from the University of Ottawa in 2012 and is now a graduate student in Community Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University.  As an undergraduate at the U of O, she was an activist for social justice, and in her graduating year was elected to represent students on the University Senate.

In 2008, while Gashoka was an undergraduate, the student union reported systemic racism at the University of Ottawa.  The report drew a lot of public attention and was an embarrassment to the university.  In response, the university asked U of O law professor Joanne St. Lewis to publicly "assess" the student report.  In just a few days' time, St. Lewis issued a public report questioning the validity of the student charges.

Gashoka recently made a six-minute YouTube video (imbedded below) analyzing St. Lewis's role in helping the university deflect the students' charge of racism.  (St. Lewis and Gashoka are black, and this writer is white.)

After the video was posted, St. Lewis, through a big-name lawyer hired for her by the university, sent Gashoka a notice of libel, which is a threat to sue for defamation.



St. Lewis is already suing former U of O physics professor Denis Rancourt for $1 million for expressing a similar view on his “U of O Watch” blog.  That defamation lawsuit, which began in 2011, is funded by the university and pursued by the same lawyer who is threatening Gashoka -- Richard Dearden of the large corporate law firm Gowlings.  University president Allan Rock testified under oath that his funding of the lawsuit against Rancourt is without a spending limit, “without a cap.”

Gashoka made public the threat that she received, and she publicly called upon Rock to “Please confirm that the University of Ottawa will not be funding a defamation lawsuit against me [her].”

In this writer’s opinion, it is morally wrong for the University of Ottawa and St. Lewis to try to silence Gashoka.  Using public funds and student tuition money to fund repressive litigation against her would be ironic, as the university claims to promote discourse and debate on matters of public interest.

Gashoka has the right to interpret the facts any way that she wants in this or any other matter of public importance.  Public controversy and debate on societal issues can be a rough trade and can involve terms that sting, but the law accommodates its requirements.  St. Lewis should not expect to be immune from criticism for the role that she played.

I call on president Allan Rock to state publicly, without further delay, that the university will not fund a lawsuit against Hazel Gashoka for her video, and to clarify the university’s criteria for funding lawsuits against its critics.

See all related posts HERE.

Rancourt wrongful dismissal hearings::: Full disclosure is required

(see video commentary below)

In the matter of the on-going binding arbitration tribunal into the wrongful dismissal case of physics professor Denis Rancourt, the University of Ottawa has made a legal undertaking to disclose everything that is "arguably relevant" to all the issues before the arbitrator.

The union (APUO) has established in the tribunal that the issues include that the firing was made in bad faith, under a false pretext, with the goal of silencing and removing Rancourt.

In the words of renowned academic workplace researcher Professor Kenneth Westhues, the Rancourt firing was an "administrative mobbing."

The University provided its disclosures six months after the May 2, 2011, start of the hearings.

These University disclosures were reported by the union to the tribunal on November 1, 2011, as being "superficial" and "incomplete", in what can only be characterized as an understatement.

Hired-lawyer Lynn Harnden for the University on November 1, 2011, undertook to "verify" the completeness of the University's disclosures, which contain virtually no documents about any of the particulars of bad faith which the union has submitted.

The latter union-advanced particulars include:

• The University's 2006-2008 covert information-gathering campaign against Rancourt and other University employees and students
  

• The University's 2007 unjustified barring of Rancourt from all first-year-level courses

• The University's 2008 unjustified barring of Rancourt from all teaching

• The University's November-2008 lock-out of Rancourt and all his graduate students from their laboratory and the removal of essential laboratory materials

• The University's December-2008 banning of Rancourt from campus except with police escort, including his campus radio show and his cinema discussion series
  

• The University's 2009 refusals to consider duly submitted documents in its decision to fire Rancourt

• The University's 2011 funding of a private lawsuit against Rancourt, now used as evidence for "post-dismissal conduct to support the decision to dismiss"
  

Such apparent disregard of an undertaking to disclose, if not corrected, is an egregious breach of natural justice. For the arbitration to be allowed to proceed under these conditions, if not substantively corrected, would be a fatal flaw in the tribunal process.

Here is professor Rancourt's reaction in a video interview made on November 1, 2011:

Message to U of O:
Full disclosure is required

All posts about the wrongful dismissal hearings: HERE.

See hearings schedule and reports: HERE.

Chronology of wrongful-dismissal background events: HERE.

.

Rancourt wrongful dismissal hearings::: Invitation to students to engage with institutions

"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."
-- Michel Foucault, debating Chomsky, 1971.

In this video, fired physics professor Denis Rancourt invites students do consider Foucault's position and to positively engage with the powerful institutions that constrain education and their lives:



All posts about the wrongful dismissal hearings: HERE.

See hearings schedule and reports: HERE.

Chronology of wrongful-dismissal background events: HERE.

.

Rancourt wrongful dismissal case::: University's opening arguments expected on October 12th

The case of the University of Ottawa's wrongful dismissal of tenured physics professor Denis Rancourt is now in binding arbitration in labour-law-tribunal hearings.

The public hearings will be on-going well into 2012 and the hearing schedule of dates and places is posted HERE.

The second hearing date is October 12, 2011, at which the University is expected to make its opening arguments characterizing Rancourt's actions both as a professor in his teaching and in what the University has called "post-dismissal behaviour":

Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Conference Centre, 200 Coventry Road, Ottawa
9:30 am start

-open to the public and to the media-
-cameras-allowed-

Rancourt was fired in 2009 under the pretext of fraudulent grading in one course, for attributing high grades to all 23 students in an advanced (final-year and graduate) physics course.

President Allan Rock has publicly broadcast (university press releases and emails to community members) that he endorses the decision to fire Rancourt

--the first-ever firing of a tenured professor in Canada over a question of teaching methods.

• Rancourt's chronology of the academic freedom conflict since 2005 is posted HERE.

• The main TV report (TVO, The Agenda, April 2009) is HERE.
  

• Compilations of links to past media reports and media commentary are HERE, HERE and HERE.

• A video report of Rancourt's press conference statement at the start of the hearings (May 2, 2011) is HERE.

• All UofOWatch posts about the hearings are HERE.

A video of commentators at the first day of hearings (May 2, 2011) is here:

University's lawyer Lynn Harnden wants to ban the reasons for a ban in hearings of the Rancourt dismissal case -- video

Have you ever noticed that every time a lawyer makes an argument for some crazy thing he always starts by saying that he doesn't want the crazy thing?

In this video, University of Ottawa's hired lawyer Lynn Harnden provides a brilliant example, at the May 2, 2011, first day of labour arbitration hearings into the wrongful dismissal case of Denis Rancourt.

Lawyering 101: "He doesn't want a publication ban on the hearings."

Just a ban until the hearings are done and a decision is rendered, two years or more say, since he agrees this is of public interest... ah humm. Oh, and he doesn't want to show his arguments as to why such an "enriched exclusion" is necessary...

This passes for reasonable arguments in this world.



See another video of Lynn Harnden in action HERE.

See all UofOWatch posts about the arbitration hearings HERE.

See links and details about the arbitration hearings at academicfreedom.ca HERE.

Science dean Andre E. Lalonde's office barricade rescinded

Science dean Andre E. Lalonde was recently replaced by interim dean Steve F. Perry.

Lalonde had installed a sophisticated protection against walk-in students or staff members at the dean's office.

Recall this video:



Well now the locks are gone and sanity has returned. Fear has been replaced with an open-door concept. What a novel idea for a university faculty.

Here is the memo:

Subject: Open door at the Office of the Dean
From: "Louise Hotte"
Date: Mon, 19 September, 2011 2:24 pm
To: science graduate students
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone,

It is with pleasure that I announce that the entrance door to the Office of the Dean has been unlocked as of now, no need to ring the doorbell anymore. It will be my pleasure to welcome you as usual.

Thank you
Louise
Louise Hotte
Secrétaire du doyen / Secretary to the Dean
Faculté des sciences / Faculty of Science
Pavillon Marion / Marion Hall
140 Louis Pasteur
Tél: 613-562-5985
Télécopieur: 613-562-5193.

Global News Reporter's File::: State of academic freedom in Canada's capital -- video

The Press-TV Global News report of September 8, 2011 (4:30pm GMT) contained this segment about the state academic freedom in Canada, and in Canada's capital Ottawa in particular.

The Press TV video report features:

• James Turk (Executive Director, Canadian Association of University Teachers),
• Yavar Hameed (human rights lawyer),
• Joseph Hickey (student representative on the Senate, University of Ottawa),
• Ian Bron (Managing Director, Canadians for Accountability),
• Denis Rancourt (wrongfully dismissed Full Professor with tenure, University of Ottawa), and
• activist students being wrongfully arrested for free expression on the campus of Carleton University (Ottawa).

Labour law tribunal hearings into the wrongful dismissal of Denis Rancourt are on-going and can be followed HERE.

Original Link:
Press TV Global News Reporter's File of September 8, 2011

Related posts:
Israel lobby influence at the University of Ottawa (all UofOWatch posts)

Related analysis:
The Canadian Zionism Question
All "Israel" posts at Activist Teacher blog

Natural justice as foreign concept::: U of O's dismissal of Denis Rancourt (Video)

"The employer will be relying upon post-dismissal conduct and events... first of all to support the decision to dismiss..."
-- Lynn Harnden, hired lawyer for U of O

"The state will be relying upon post-incarceration conduct of the prisoner... first of all to support the sentence of guilty..."
-- Crown prosecutor on appeal, Fascist dystopia

You decide.

This is a video extract from the first day (May 2, 2011) of binding arbitration hearings in the academic freedom case of tenured physics professor Denis Rancourt at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

The hearing dates are scheduled well into 2012.

Links to key relevant background are HERE.

Read THIS chronology!
.

U of O branding war continues -- Elections 2011 video

"Get Out of My Office 2011"

The film makers asks:

"What if University of Ottawa President Allan Rock addressed everybody the way he did his students?

Audio from Rock's 2008 tirade against student Marc Kelly."

BACKGROUND POSTS:
Branding war installments
U of O's Rock actuates a complete exile of math student Marc Kelly
All posts about student Marc Kelly

Student Appeal Centre fights for student rights at U of O -- videos

These videos present the Student Appeal Centre (SAC) of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) regarding its work fighting systemic racism and denials of individual students' rights.

SAC blog: HERE

RELATED POSTS:
U of O Senate repudiates human rights motion
U of O students::: What can you do about this? -- Malfeasance in Medicine
March 9th Faculty of Medicine malfeasance press conference -- video report
Three medical doctors jointly file human rights complaints against the University of Ottawa and several officials

Reality VS the U of O manufactured corporate image -- video

[Video production: Physics graduate student and university senate member Joseph Hickey.]

RELATED POSTS:
Video report of the full March 9th press conference
Vicious reprisals in the Faculty of Medicine::: U of O damage-control spin insufficient
Three medical doctors jointly file human rights complaints against the University of Ottawa and several officials
NEURO LEAK emails here: http://academicfreedom.ca/doctors/

March 9th Faculty of Medicine malfeasance press conference -- video report

RELATED POSTS:

Vicious reprisals in the Faculty of Medicine::: U of O damage-control spin insufficient

Three medical doctors jointly file human rights complaints against the University of Ottawa and several officials

NEURO LEAK emails here: http://academicfreedom.ca/doctors/

Student press conference (video) leads to settlement with researcher summarily fired by UofO

M.-Z. Dang, J. Hickey, S. Kelly vs. University of Ottawa

The above is from the August 2009 media reports. The newly released video is embedded below.

In late 2008 and early 2009 University of Ottawa researcher Dr. Mei-Zhen Dang was summarily fired and graduate students were threatened with loss of their Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) scholarships in preparation for the Allan Rock administration’s March 2009 political firing of their supervisor tenured physics professor Denis Rancourt.

The video of their successful February 24, 2009, press conference in Tabaret Hall (U of O main administration building) has recently been released on YouTube (embedded below).

Dr. Mei-Zhen Dang, a long-time (more than 12 years) research associate and environmental analysis expert in Rancourt’s physics laboratory was summarily fired. She was locked out of both the laboratory and her office overnight and her pay was arbitrarily stopped by the dean of the Faculty of Science André E. Lalonde without any notification or explanation.

The joint lawsuit led to a significant cash settlement for Dang and a letter of apology from the university.

Meanwhile the hired university corporate lawyer (Lynn Harnden of the Emond Harnden firm) informed physics graduate student claimants Joseph Hickey and Sean Kelly that if the University of Ottawa won its jurisdictional motion to strike the action, the students would be made liable for the university’s legal fees.

The students dropped their participation in the lawsuit and Hickey pursued an internal (Policy 110) complaint supported by the graduate student association (GSAED) which the University of Ottawa via VP-Governance Diane Davidson has refused to hear to this day.

The media reported the late August 2009 Dang settlement victory and the alleged bullying of the students in some detail at the time:

Fired University of Ottawa researcher wins settlement
The Ottawa Citizen, August 25, 2009

Fallout from prof’s firing leaves students in the cold
One researcher settles with U of O, but others say administration bullied them into dropping claims after award-winning lab was shut
By Tim Shufelt, The Ottawa Citizen, August 26, 2009

Here is the newly released two-part YouTube video of the February 24, 2009 press conference:

BACKGROUND ON THE RANCOURT ACADEMIC FREEDOM CASE:
rancourt.academicfreedom.ca