CAUT Academic Freedom Fund

Statement from CAUT website

• CAUT Council established the CAUT Academic Freedom Fund to aid local associations and CAUT in vigorous defence of academic freedom. The Fund is a "catastrophic insurance" plan to guarantee sufficient resources for any local association or CAUT to sustain defence of academic freedom when a case takes extraordinary resources.

$1,055,985 pledged to date, goal is $1,500,0002

Dr. Gabrielle Horne

• In late 2002, the Chief of Medicine, who was also the Chair of the Department of Medicine at Dalhousie revoked her hospital privileges, thus stopping her research

• It was alleged that she was not collegial and was endangering patient safety

• This treatment continued, and included the university rescinding her Dalhousie Clinical Scholar Award

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From the Department of Medicine’s web page today

Dr. Gabrielle Horne holds a PhD in physiology, is a multiple peer review grant recipient and has an interest in interventricular septal mechanics and cardiac imaging. She is supervisor to several graduate and elective students in her fields of interest.

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Dr. Nancy Olivieri

The case of University of Toronto clinician, Dr. Nancy Olivieri, gained attention when her research at the Hospital for Sick Children led her to believe that a new drug treatment posed dangers to some patients. It is alleged that the hospital and the university failed to come to her defence when Apotex, co-sponsor of the research, objected to her publishing her findings. It is further alleged that hospital and university officials and representatives of Apotex variously subjected her to workplace and other harassment.

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From the CAUT website• Apotex Inc.: A Corporation Above the Courts? (Jan 2009)• Apotex Inc. v. Olivieri: An Attack on Academic Freedom Dec 2008)• The Olivieri Case: Context and Significance (Dec 2005)• The Olivieri Case: Context and Reflections (Ecclectica, Dec 2005)• Review of Miriam Shuchman, The Drug Trial. Nancy Olivieri and the

Science Scandal that Rocked the Hospital for Sick Children by David Healy (Oct 2005)

• Supplement to the Report to the Committee of Inquiry (Jan 2002)• College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Vindicates Olivieri

(Jan 2002)• Summary of the Report (Oct 2001)• The Olivieri Report (Oct 2001)

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What is Dr. Oliveriti doing now?

She is still at the University of Toronto and has become a respected defender of academic freedom.

http://www.uhnresearch.ca/researchers/profile.php?lookup=4539

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxIaQXSWs6E

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Dr. Mary Bryson• After having been given responsibility for developing a new

online course, UBC professor Mary Bryson received an e-mail from the administrator overseeing the program asking her to sign a contract transferring rights to "course materials" to the university. The contract required that Bryson acknowledge the university could use the materials without attributing authorship and could revise and modify them or use them in a different context, without the author's consent. The contract further outlined that the university, not Bryson, would decide which materials were ultimately used in the course.

• The Bryson arbitration decision is a landmark in the struggle to insure that faculty, not administrators, determine the content of courses.

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University of Ottawa custody and control

• The University asked all faculty to turn over every document in their possession, wherever they were stored, related to a FOIP request received by the university

• The University was prepared to search faculty members’ e-mail accounts

• The Association grieved and it went to arbitration, where Mariette Pilon, CAUT legal counsel, represented the Association

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University of Ottawa custody and control

• The Association won and the arbitrator included their proposed framework for documents that the University has in its custody and control in the award

• Includes documents related to administrative duties, university committee documents, and final exams

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Executive Motions

1.That the MRFA donate $5,000 to the CAUT Academic Freedom fund from this year’s budget.

2.That the MRFA commit to donating $1,000 per year in each of the next five years.

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Rationale for the Amounts• The average donation per member at institutions

of comparable size is $24.00• Multiplying this by our number of full-time

members yields $10,000 • We cut this in half since we are not an individual

member; we are part of a federated membership• We decided to propose contributing the

remaining half over the next five years to show our commitment to CAUT

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