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Canadian Association of University Teachers
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CAUT’s national Council begins censure of the University of Manitoba and Winnipeg Regional Health Authority
(Ottawa – April 27, 2010) Delegates to the national Council of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) meeting in Ottawa have voted unanimously to begin the process of censuring the University of Manitoba and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA).
The vote came after delegates discussed the findings of an ad-hoc committee of inquiry into the case of Dr. Larry Reynolds, which concluded that the University of Manitoba and the WRHA terminated his position without just cause or due process.
“To date we’ve not had much cooperation in our efforts to resolve Dr. Reynold’s case, so our Council has decided to begin the process of censure of the administrations of both the university and the WRHA,” said CAUT executive director James L. Turk.
“We wrote to both parties yesterday to inform them of Council’s decision, to urge them once again to work with us to find a resolution that is acceptable to all parties, and to offer to meet again to explore options or take whatever other action we can to assist,” said Turk. “Our objective is to ensure that Dr. Reynolds is treated appropriately and in our view that means being restored to the position he held before these inappropriate actions were taken –that of a tenured, geographically full time, full professor of medicine.”
If the issue isn’t resolved before CAUT’s November 26 to 28 council meeting, delegates have decided that censure will be imposed, meaning CAUT will begin actively discouraging academic staff in Canada and internationally from accepting appointments or invitations to participate in academic conferences at both the university and the WRHA.
“Censure is a very serious and rarely used tool,” said Turk. “CAUT hasn’t had to censure a major research university since the case of Marlene Webber at Memorial University in 1979.”
The just-released report of the CAUT Ad Hoc Investigatory Committee into the situation of Dr. Larry Reynolds at the University of Manitoba is available here. CAUT is the national voice of more than 65,000 academic staff at 122 universities and colleges across Canada.
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