Frémont began a five year term in 2020; originally meant to leave in June 2026, he’ll now be out of the role in June 2025. He cited personal reasons for the decision.
racism
Vigils were held in Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa to honour and demand justice for Hodan Hashi.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer in Black women in the United States.
While the racial slur itself was never used, L.D. said the discussion made them feel “extremely uncomfortable” and “unsafe.”
Lawsuit regarding Lieutenant-Duval’s use of ‘N-word’ in classroom continues as committee of arbiters meet.
The same people who said my name sounded like a taco and made Islamophobic comments back in middle school are now posting infographics—how ironic.
A recent study shows that most Canadians want hate speech removed and monitored on social media platforms.
The University of Ottawa announced on Thursday evening that it had appointed professor Boulou Ebanda de B’béri as the university’s first special advisor on anti-racism and inclusion.
“At times it’s overwhelming, but if it were not for my parents, my grandparents, their grandparents what they endured it wouldn’t be possible for me to be here,” said U of O alumni and Canada’s only Indigenous forensic pathologist Dr. Kona Williams.
“Academic freedom, which protects professors and researchers from sanctions when they dissent from prevailing opinions, has been seriously undermined by the authoritarian left. This was confirmed recently in a controversy concerning a University of Ottawa professor who spoke the ‘N-word’ in class,” writes Stuart Chambers, a professor at the school of sociology and anthropology at the University of Ottawa.
“What is happening at the University of Ottawa is not about white folk’s right to access reclaimed verbiage by communities outside of their own, nor about academic freedom, as we have been so led to believe. What we are collectively bearing witness to is about power; namely who can access it, and who must succumb to it,” writes Shadé Edwards, a second-year common law student at the University of Ottawa.
“It was very emotional for me as I had never before heard so much appreciation for non-Indigenous presence,” said Polish retiree Feliks Welfeld.
The University of Ottawa’s president and vice-chancellor Jacques Frémont responded early this morning to the recent incident of a professor uttering the ‘N-word’ in an online lecture. The professor had been suspended since early October, and a group of professors had written a letter denouncing her treatment at the hands of the U of O administration.
“How do we make progress from here at the University of Ottawa? If by terming it as a good crisis, Jacques Frémont is going to make transformational changes in the U of O landscape, I am all behind him, but if it is going to be talk, PR, and no action, then his legacy will be harshly judged by all generations,” writes Rony Fosting an international student at the University of Ottawa.
“How are you protecting me—how are you protecting us? I implore all of you to interrogate your activism: who have you been leaving behind? Who have you failed to hold space for? In your silence and complacency, whose lives have you decided no longer matter?,” writes Shadé Edwards a second-year law student at the University of Ottawa in the common law section.
If you are a settler in this country who has not yet seen the Netflix documentary There’s Something In the Water, you should stop reading and watch it immediately.
Millions of people have demanded that racial bigotry be extracted from important institutions like the police and health-care system, but how can we dismantle systematic racism in the long-term? Let’s look at our education systems.
Yvan Mongo, a Black hockey player on the University of Ottawa men’s hockey team, along with his head coach, Patrick Grandmaitre, has created a special club called “Mongo’s Brave Buddies” that aims to help young BIPOC hockey players.
A few months ago, I read former US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power’s memoir, The Education of an Idealist. In it, she asked a question that has stuck with me since: “What is the nature of individual responsibility in the face of injustice?” writes second-year University of Ottawa Law student Nemee Bedar in a letter to the editor.
University of Ottawa president Jacques Frémont has been reappointed for a second term, which means he’ll lead the school until July 2026. The decision was approved at a Board of Governors meeting on Monday evening.
The U of O should collect race-based data on its student population, improve training for Protection Services officers, and continue making changes to policies governing security on campus, according to the findings of an independent investigation launched after a Black student was carded and handcuffed by campus security in June 2019.
During the second town hall on anti-Black racism to take place this academic year, several Black graduate students spoke of the discrimination that they have faced on campus. Similar to the first town hall, many students called on the school to hire more professors of colour.
President Jacques Frémont responded to thousands of petitioners demanding the school improve its mental health services after four student deaths last year, and also gave an update on the school’s anti-racism campaigns after two Black students were carded on campus last year.
A town hall discussion on anti-Black racism on the U of O campus saw more than 30 Black students and staff share discriminatory incidents that they have experienced at the school. Speakers presented a number of different recommendations that the school implement, including hiring more Black professors and changing curriculum.
The University of Ottawa’s administration is now meeting two of the eight student demands outlined in an open letter on campus racism released last month, according to University of Ottawa Students’ Union executives: representation and consultation.
