OTTAWA, June 10, 2013 – An Ontario labour law arbitrator must decide whether former tenured full professor of physics, Denis Rancourt is a dedicated teacher and motivator of students or a dangerous individual who incites students to violence and is therefore unfit to be readmitted on the university campus.
Those are the opposing views argued, on the one hand, by the union of professors, and on the other hand, by the university administration.
The arbitrator has allowed an exceedingly broad umbrella of potential relevancy including critiques published on the professor’s blogs, hundreds of emails to student activists, hired student spy reports, invited academic lectures at conferences, published articles, and the alleged crimes of former students.
The OCLA is concerned that “violence and risk” have replaced yesterday’s morality and political opinion pretexts for silencing dissident professors and students.
Rancourt’s words are argued to cause violence. On June 11, the university will continue to attempt to establish a link between the professor and the 2010 Ottawa RBC “firebombing”.
When needed, simultaneous language translation is available on site. The final hearing dates are June 11, 12, 13, 14, 25, and 26 beginning at 9:30 a.m. at the Hotel Indigo Ottawa (Indigo Room), 123 Metcalfe Street, Ottawa.
About the Ontario Civil Liberties Association
OCLA is an organization formed to defend civil liberties at a time when fundamental freedoms are subjected to a systemic erosion in all spheres of social life. OCLA opposes institutional decisions that remove from the individual his or her personal liberty or exclude the individual from participation in the democratic functions of society.
Contact:
Joseph Hickey
Executive Director
Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) https://www.ocla.ca
613-252-6148 (c)
joseph.hickey@ocla.ca
Caroline Wang (French only)
Treasurer
Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) https://www.ocla.ca
514-632-8805 (c)
caroline.hy.wang@gmail.com
