in the spirit of openness: million dollar baby?

the author of this blog post is allegedly being sued for one million dollars:

http://uofowatch.blogspot.com/2011/02/did-professor-joanne-st-lewis-act-as.html

i'm reproducing it here because a million dollars is worth some debate, right?

so debate it.

"U OF O WATCH: U of O's Rock actuates a complete exile of math student Marc Kelly"

this is crazyness... now marc kelly isn't allowed to even communicate with members of the university of ottawa community?

U OF O WATCH: U of O's Rock actuates a complete exile of math student Marc Kelly

"Hemlock or exile?

Those were the only two choices provided by former Minister of Justice now university president Allan Rock......But now exile - a complete ban on associating or communicating with all 50,000 members of the university community."

allan rock, you are a douchebag. if i wasn't so sick i'd write something longer but right now "douchebag" will have to do.

"bring the doubters on, they don't matter at all"

yesterday marc kelly gave a talk at the university of ottawa about his experience of being banned and trespassed from campus and being unable to complete his final three courses required for his degree.

according to the ottawa citizen(FINALLY some press):

"[Marc Kelly] was a research assistant to Denis Rancourt, a professor who was suspended -- and later fired -- by the university in December 2008 after he gave grades of A+ to every student in an advanced physics course.Around the same time, Kelly was arrested at a university senate meeting while attempting to videotape the proceedings. He was charged criminally with disturbing the peace and barred from campus, but those charges were dropped in December 2009. In February, he was arrested on campus and charged with trespassing. He will appear in court June 2."

u of o watch reported that 200 students showed up to see kelly talk yesterday and even though allan rock was "out of town" the press+high attendance= pressure to let kelly finish his degree.

also, in other news, why are university presidents always out of town????

i think allan rock needs to pop in the new justin bieber album, chill the fuck out, and drop all of this marc kelly nonsense. seriously, we're with marc kelly.

hans gets it right(as usual)!

guest blogger hans with another brilliant piece:

Drat. U of Ottawa gets it right for once

I never thought a university provost would be on my shortlist of favourite people of the week. But, after Francois Houle wrote a letter to American conservative hate-monger Ann Coulter this week warning her not to engage in hate speech during her visit to the University of Ottawa campus, I must admit that for once, the University of Ottawa seems to have done something right (for a list of everything that it’s done wrong, check out this gem of a website ).

To be honest, I think the letter’s hilarious. Houle writes to Coulter: “I would...like to inform you, or perhaps remind you, that our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or "free speech") in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States...You will realize that Canadian law puts reasonable limits on the freedom of expression. For example, promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges...Hopefully, you will understand and agree that what may, at first glance, seem like unnecessary restrictions to freedom of expression do, in fact, lead not only to a more civilized discussion, but to a more meaningful, reasoned and intelligent one as well. I hope you will enjoy your stay in our beautiful country...”

Forget ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ – this guy needs to be outfitted with a reality TV show *stat*. His letter basically boils down to “So Ann...we’re a bit different than you...we don’t tolerate hate...you might think this makes us bad but it actually makes us more intelligent and civilized than you...have a lovely visit.” That sort of material shouldn’t be wasted in the ivory tower – this dude could make Nigel Lythgoe cry.

Unfortunately, Canadian media commentators don’t seem to agree. The furious outcry from media commentators in both countries has been overwhelming. I’m not surprised the American media doesn’t agree with Houle, but the Canadians? That’s what surprises me. Instead of being proud that somebody has actually pointed out that our definitions of ‘free speech’ ARE different from country to country (go read the Charter of Rights if you disagree), they act like they’re ashamed of it. Forget that it’s the law, what are you ashamed of?

Yeah, I understand that defending free speech is everybody’s favourite pastime these days. It’s easy and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and self-righteous inside. Sort of like all those heroic “give me liberty or give me death” types in the movies, risking danger and persecution for their beliefs.

But the fact is, these defenders of free speech *don’t* face danger and persecution for their beliefs. They’re white, predominantly male, and – since spouting opinions in the media is lucrative business these days – pretty well off in the pocketbook. The ones who face danger and persecution are the ones Ann Coulter is bashing. Muslims, gays, and all those other people who don’t fit her image of the perfect American. (and for all those ‘gimme liberty or gimme death’ types, where were you when American media networks refused to air tampon ads for using the word vagina? Would you prefer a country where it’s illegal to talk about the human body but legal to call for the deaths of all Muslims, or one where we can talk about the human body but not espouse murder and genocide? I know what my choice would be...)

Now Ann Coulter says she’s being discriminated against and having her rights suspended because she’s a conservative. She’s not. Canada tolerates plenty of Conservatives that nobody likes. We even let one be prime minister. Coulter is having her rights suspended because she calls on her public to murder Muslims and beat up people for their sexuality.

The fact is, commentators shouldn’t be so quick to defend Ann Coulter’s right to hate speech until they’ve had the experience of turning on the radio or television, and hearing somebody say to a public audience that they’re worthless, less than human and ought to be killed. Because that’s precisely what Ann Coulter does. Sound like a joke? Well that’s exactly how genocide has been launched in countless countries around the world, time and time again. Check here for a chilling example).

The truth of the matter is that hate crimes, murder and genocide don’t begin with somebody going on the radio and saying “Ok, bring out your guns and shoot your neighbours.” They begin with HUMOR. They begin with making fun of people. And they’re facilitated by people who help it along by saying “oh, lighten up” instead of by saying “give it up, murder ain’t funny.” They begin with Ann Coulter yelling at Muslims in her audience to “go ride a camel” back to where they came from – and hundreds of audience members LAUGHING because they’re too cowardly and lack the courage to do anything else. Seeing somebody of her stature make fun of Muslims (or gays, or French-Canadians, or whoever) teaches other people that they can make fun of them too, and become popular for it. Making fun of people teaches us that we don’t have to respect them. That we don’t have to treat them the same. That we can make jokes about them to their face, like Ann Coulter does. And if we can do that, then maybe we can trip them up on the way to the water cooler. And then maybe spray-point jokes and slurs on their cars. And then maybe if we’re having a bad day, burn down their houses and take their possessions. Hatred grows incrementally. But it grows quickly. Just ask anybody who grew up in Nazi Germany and saw their country go from a modern, constitutional European democracy to a genocidal fascist police state in UNDER. FIVE. YEARS. Doesn’t take long when you let your guard down.

And in North America, we’re starting to let that guard down. In the wake of media hate-mongers like Ann Coulter, there’s been a 10% rise in hate crimes in the United States in the past five years. A 2007 report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs reported 2430 victims of anti-LBGTQ violence in the US in that year: a 25% INCREASE from the previous year. Murders of LBGTQ persons – committed as hate crimes – DOUBLED (from 10 to 21). In other words, we’re sliding down a dark path backwards, and we’re sliding quick. Given a choice being letting Ann Coulter speak to a public audience, and saving even one of those 21 lives, which would you choose?

You wanna be *really* courageous and “liberty or death”? Then consider that maybe it’s not free speech that needs defending so much as the fellow human beings whose lives are threatened at the hands of those who abuse it.

Free speech and free expression? Yeah, I believe in those things. As an anarchist punk, I was raised on them. I believe in graffiti on private property, loud music after midnight and drinking in public. I even believe in pirating music and smoking around children. But I draw the line at words that are designed to hate and kill.

we're with wolfe.

i really didn't want to talk about the ann coulter controversy here, because i think ann coulter is probably the most ignorant person who ever lived and giving her any kind of attention is just validating her and fueling her fire, causing her to be even more inflammatory.

i will, however, point out a comment made by the phantom observer about the whole ann coulter/university of ottawa thing.

awhile ago seamus wolfe, the president of the u of o student's federation, tried to get the university to book coulter's "lecture" somewhere off campus because she practises hate speech and a university isn't the place to spew the garbage that comes out of her mouth.

wolfe stated that “the federation does not support Ann Coulter speaking on our campus. We’re trying to work with the administration to see if we can ask her to do her speaking event somewhere else.”

the phantom observer wrote :
"Mr. Wolfe apparently believes that Ms. Coulter practices hate speech. The closest I’ve seen her get to what I’d call hate speech are arguments for Middle East profiling at airports. And keeping Muslims from boarding an aircraft isn’t quite in the same league as sending a Jew to a concentration camp. "

right, because violating the human rights of people based on their religion(which is, by the way, fucking illegal) isn't "hate speech" because they aren't being sent to concentration camps.

phantom observer is clearly in the same league as ann coulter: so stupid it's embarassing.

integrity?? what?? what's that?

more on the fulcrum/frank appleyard/allan rock debacle!! this shit is so messed up.

apparently the newest issue of the fulcrum came out today and the paper didn't even cover its own scandal!! talk about missing a sweet, sweet opportunity to have the inside scoop!!

but, they also tried to cover their asses on this whole "we work for allan rock" thing by including this:

it's kind of hard to read, but basically it says that they found a typo in their consitution and so their disgraced and so their business manager, frank appleyard, is in technical breach of the constitution.

but here's the best part:

"In an effort to clarify its [conflict of interest] policy, the Society is in the process of making amendments to the Constitution..."

what the motherfucking fuck yo!? they're CHANGING the constitution so that this dickface doesn't get into trouble?! after he obviously broke the rules, reported biased news, and took orders from university administrators instead of acting with any journalistic integrity?!

they got it right at u of o watch then they wrote:

"Why not just state that Appleyard had a peanut butter stain on his copy of the Constitution when he accepted the job under Rock while he was Business Manager of the Fulcrum and that Rock forgot that he was no longer a Liberal MP."

it's true. they should have gone a more honest route to subverting the rules. this is ridiculous and hilarious, what a joke the fulcrum has become.

you can read more on uofowatch

allan rock... you in trouuuuble.

we've written about allan rock a few times and about the denis rancourt saga at the university of ottawa.

well this week on uofowatch blog they've disclosed even MORE crazy information.

according to uofowatch:

"The Ombudsman of the Fulcrum Publishing Society (FPS), Mr. Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, has released a damning interim report about journalistic and editorial mistreatment of former physics professor Denis Rancourt by the student newspaper The Fulcrum. reported breaches of professional journalistic ethics by staff and journalists at The Fulcrum (U of O student newspaper) regarding Fulcrum staff and journalist treatment of former U of O physics professor Denis Rancourt."

very well documented, the two posts (which you can read here and here) have apparently upset the staffer in question who is now threatening to sue professor rancourt (you can read that one here).

what is actually ridiculous is not that the indiscretion happened in the first place, because student newspapers and politics are seedy dealings always, but that this frank appleyard character is even considering suing professor rancourt. a fulcrum journalist was hired to SPY on professor rancourt and now this dude is acting like somehow being a student journalist automatically makes his character impeccable? someone we're all supposed to be like "what?! a student newspaper has bias practises and shitty ethics? well i never!!"

you can read the actual report on bias here and decide for yourself, but it just sounds to me like this is another instance of the university of ottawa getting caught doing something really stupid that they can't hide anymore.

and you know what, they can say whatever they want about professor rancourt, but really they're just pissed off that he makes them work for it.

put down your chalk or we'll shoot!

tuesday was chalking day at the university of ottawa and despite the best efforts of president rock and his thugs, the day was a great success!!!

the great thing about a chalking day is that it makes the university's intentions so transparent. why would they send security officers to crack down on students with sidewalk chalk??

why is it silly to be tough on chalking/chalkers? three obvious reasons:

1. chalk eventually is erased by the outdoor elements
2. it's a creative way for students to engage with their campus
3. it brightens up an ugly blank cement facade.

so a university president who decides that chalking is not alright, clearly has some serious ulterior motives. chalking day is fun. it makes politics fun and it makes university fun.
so allan rock, you should back off, because your obvious student/prof/fun busting motivation is like a bad thong and we can all see it.

below is a letter sent from the organizers of chalking day to president allan rock. the best part about this letter is the invitation to allan to come add his own message to the chalkboard.

it always baffles me as to why university administrators don't battle students with kindness rather than heavy handedness. so instead of sending hired goons to threaten and discourage chalking, why didn't allan rock himself show up, ask for a piece of chalk, and write a goddamned message and support a great idea? don't they understand that calling the police provokes students while going to participate in chalking day could foster actual conversation??

so enjoy the wonderfully crafted letter below. maybe those of us at york university should take the chalking day cue and organize our own beautification of campus soon, because everyone knows york ain't nothin' but ugly concrete.


Mr. Rock,

Members of the same U of O "Protection" force that yesterday facilitated an illegal police intrusion into the Student Appeals Centre (SAC) office and the violent arrests of student Marc Kelly and SFUO President Seamus Wolfe came uninvited and disrupted the student-organized Chalking Day event at the Morisset cement poster backing walls.

Please back off Mr. Rock.

There was absolutely no "Protection" need that required a muscular intervention and disruption of our event. Student participants were harassed by Protection agents and their pictures were taken without their permission.

Despite your unfortunate intervention, the event was a success. Over 30 students contributed to filling the backing walls with colourful political messages of all types. We recommend that you read these messages Mr. Rock.

The "Protection" officers displayed disturbing unprofessional behaviour. They openly threatened the ludicrous criminal charge of "damaging University property" but then proceeded to watch and not even warn most students who contributed to the chalking. They threatened criminal charges backed by their photos but did not intervene or call Ottawa Police to stop the alleged dreadful "damage to property".

Political and informative messages in chalk on a campus wall is not a criminal offence. Drop the guns and handcuffs, Mr. Rock. Send your "Protection" agents to actually protect. For example, they could protect freedom of expression.

We ask you not to remove any of the student participants' messages, and to respect Chalking Day. The "Protection" officers did explain your logic of hiring an expensive removal crew in order to demonstrate "damage" and assign it a monetary value, but don't go there Mr. Rock. Don't go there. Don't spend our tuition money to remove our free expression. Your officers and lawyers have better things to do.

Consider instead adding your own message to the wall, about one of your human rights projects in Africa, say.

Also, we welcome your suggestions about parts of the chalking that could be removed. In this case we would do ourselves (using water and a brush).

Sincerely,

Student Chalkers of the University of Ottawa (SCUO)

chalk away!

from U of O watch, uottawa chalking day!

"The event is scheduled for February 3, 2010, 1pm, at the display walls, south outside walls of the Morisset Library. CHALK WILL BE PROVIDED.

The Rock administration has been very protective of the cement display backing walls that it reserves for its corporate propaganda posters. It has gone as far as characterizing student messages on these backing walls as "damage to property" and has had its own students arrested and criminally charged.

The Rock administration is also developing a "donor recognition policy" so that corporate buddies can put their names on the walls for money but don't you try that with some spontaneous free expression...

Free expression under Rock is a dangerous thing.

Beware potential joy chalkers. "

the university of ottawa: it's kind of like the borg.. only less sexy.

Sometimes when you're a student and you stand up for what you believe in while simultaneously insisting on transparency and accountability within your institution, you get suspended/expelled/arrested/charged/deregistered from school/told to change universities.

Such is the case of Marc Kelly vs. the University of Ottawa(and Allan Rock, presiding douchebag extrordinaire).

Originally, Marc was expelled from a physics project course by the u of o faculty of science after a "behind closed door" decision, who argued that his project was not physics. this led to a broader discrimination case. since November 2008 Marc Kelly has been arrested and re-arrested, then arrested again.

Marc was recently asked to leave the University of Ottawa and finish his degree elsewhere. even though the Crown decided to drop all charges against Marc he was denied registration at the University of Ottawa and banned from campus. he was arrested this week on campus, buying tea.

Below is a video of his recent arrest and you can read, in detail, about Marc/academic freedom/the University of Ottawa here--> u of o watch.

Getting arrested in January and being forced down into the snow, not so much fun.

"facebook you're the one, you make spying so much fun!"

well this is just embarrassing.

the latest news in the denis rancourt saga is the uncovering of some extremely seedy student involvement.

in other words, spies!!!

in these blogs (here) we wrote about the involvement of maureen robinson, a student who was being paid by the university legal counsel to spy on professor rancourt.
(anyone who knows anything about universities and their legal counsel isn't going to be surprised here. consider how much york university recently spent on "top notch" legal counsel will mcdowell in their battle against professor david noble--a figure that the university refuses to disclose.)

what we didn't realize then was the lengths to which ms. robinson was going to get her "information" on dr. rancourt.

according to ottawa independent media ms. robinson engaged in the following methods for her "job":

• she recorded(covertly) conversations of others. she created a FAKE facebook identity(Nathalie Page) to covertly join activist student events and discussion groups.
• she used this fake account to make enquiries about protest events.
• she created a fake gmail account(based on her fake facebook account) to make enquiries.
• made false pretence enquiries to outside editors of blogs and outside conference organizers.
• sent approximately 100 emails back and forth between herself and university legal counsel.

so first of all, facebook has a policy about making fake accounts in its facebook statement of rights and responsibilities. in fact, they have policies about a lot of the shit this student did.

(from the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities)

"3. Safety
We do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee it. We need your help to do that, which includes the following commitments:
10. You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory. "

AND

"4. Registration and Account Security
Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account:

1. You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission. "

toss in that maureen robinson is a student journalist and you have one sick and twisted plot against a professor.

it's too bad that ms. robinson didn't decide to put her reporting skills to good use. instead, she will forever go down in university politics history as a mole, a snitch, as an affront to the institution of student journalism, used as a pawn by a university that clearly doesn't give a shit what happens to her.

it's sad kind of, to think of what universities have done to students. but who knows, maybe ms. robinson's major aspiration in life was to become a spy.. in which case, she should reconsider because she really isn't very good at it.

more here: "between a rock and a... well, you know." yayacanada
full text of professor rancourt's grievance: http://rancourt.academicfreedom.ca/Data/Documents/grievances/G-25-grievance-covert-surveillance-Nov-22-2009.pdf

universities are crazy!

the university of ottawa is actually way worse than you think it is.

denis rancourt, activist teacher extraordinaire, has uncovered documents establishing that the university collected information about him and other CUPE members(including students).

apparently the university legal counsel hired a student-maureen robinson, to act as an "agent of legal counsel" to basically spy on rancourt from 2006 to 2008.

you can see rancourt's grievance HERE.

it's actually amazing what university's spend time and money on. i'm sure that any student at ottawa u would be interested to know how much of their tuition money is going towards the covert surveillance of their professors and fellow students.

also, what a seedy way to earn your degree--by being a stooge for the administration.

potential werewolves or doppelgangers

someone commented on the previous post about denis rancourt being fired from the university of ottawa so i checked out their blog.

compelling. the argument is that denis rancourt and allan rock are actually the same person.

potentially this is true, however, i have met denis rancourt and he's almost ten years younger than allan rock and quite a bit taller.

as well, allan rock was born in ottawa and denis was born in north bay. i'm not even going to get started on the differences between northern and southern ontarians.

http://rockourtwatch.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

all in all, a good read. thanks rockourt watch!

"your soul for a place in the sun"...

there was a really great interview with denis rancourt on rabble.ca yesterday(listen to it here!). denis was fired from the university of ottawa for giving away too many high grades(according to the university). he was a tenured professor and his firing raises a lot of important questions about what tenure even means right now and whether or not it's providing the kind of security needed for academics to be free of reprisal for political or pedagogical 'deviations'.

"Denis Rancourt was fired in March ostensibly for his practice of refusing to grade students in his classes. He explains what he believes is the politics behind his dismissal"





a statement from denis:

"Most students agree to give up their independence of thought and enquiry and to serve the insane system of due dates and senseless assignments in exchange for the certificate (the degree). Most students give up four vital years of their lives in order to be certified persistently obedient. This certificate, in turn, gives students access to a privileged position in the wage hierarchy and professional social status. It’s a trade. But the certificate is not just a certificate. It requires survival and that, in turn, requires both adopting the ideology of the profession (for professional, science, and engineering degrees) and self-indoctrination to drive out the natural impulse to learn (often called setting priorities or time management). Your soul for a place in the sun."1


sign the petition: http://rancourt.academicfreedom.ca/component/petitions/?view=petition&id=4