Letters, March 4
Open letter to Allan Rock, President of the University of Ottawa
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED members of College and University Workers United (CUWU), know Denis Rancourt to be a dedicated educator and a fearless defender of justice. We know Denis Rancourt to stand for human rights and for students’ rights. We are thankful to count Denis Rancourt among the rare public intellectuals who do not compromise their principles when they become aware of institutional folly; but instead use their positions to expose and correct flawed practices.
We have examined the circumstances of Denis Rancourt’s sudden removal from the University of Ottawa. These extraordinary circumstances have included an unannounced laboratory lockout, illegitimate use of trespass legislation to handcuff and arrest the professor, illegal dismissal of his research associate of many years, denial of due process, extensive use of covert surveillance including voice recording talks on other campuses, intimidations of graduate students by threatening loss of scholarships, and many more violations of established labour norms in the academic environment.
We note that the dismissal was executed against a mid-career tenured professor of the highest academic rank, with an active and federally funded research group, having achieved international recognition for his scientific work in several areas, and having practised some of the most innovative advances in teaching in the country.
We note that less than a year before the dismissal Denis Rancourt won an Arbitration Award setting new precedents for academic freedom in Canada—a published legal study of which was entitled “Teaching Science through Social Activism is Protected by Academic Freedom, Arbitrator Rules.”
We have examined the accusations against Denis Rancourt, which he has made entirely public, and the university administration’s position, which it has made public in two press releases.
We conclude that the charges advanced against Denis Rancourt are a contrived pretext, that they are preposterous as reasons to summarily remove a tenured professor, and that, therefore, the real reasons must lie elsewhere.
We conclude that this was a political firing to remove a dissident academic who was also critical of the university administration and supportive of student efforts to reform the institution towards greater student power.
We protest the firing of Denis Rancourt by the administration at the University of Ottawa as a backward move that harms Canadian academia and the educational project in a free and democratic society. We ask that those most directly involved take an uncompromisingly critical look at the machinations of the university’s administration in this important case and not let justice be disregarded to this extent.
Martin Duckworth, Concordia University; Sumi Hasegawa, McGill University; Adrienne Hurley, McGill University; Sandra Jeppesen, Concordia University; Steven Jordan, McGill University; Denis Kosseim, André-Laurendeau; Thomas Lamarre, McGill University; Abby Lippman, McGill University; Ehab Lotayef, McGill University; Joy Moore, Dawson College Anthony Paré, McGill University; Eric Shragge, Concordia University
