This site is a static archive. Visit the current IWW website at iww.org ▸
Skip to main content

GDC Local 6 Rallies for Professor Rancourt's Reinstatement

The University of Ottawa fired Denis Rancourt, a physics professor, renowned researcher, and IWW member on March 31, 2009, while he was speaking at an academic freedom conference in New York City.

The university sought to dismiss him on the basis that he had awarded high grades to a graduate level physics class, which Rancourt says he did in order to remove competition and performance as they are obstacles to learning. The university claimed that Rancourt’s marking damaged the institution’s credibility as an academic institution.

Rancourt has said that the university’s board fired him before an April 1 deadline to submit a legal brief in his defense and that it ignored his submission of his students’ exams as proof that he was evaluating students properly. The university disregarded the union’s collective agreement and the grievance procedure by firing Rancourt without allowing him due process in his defense.

The Association of Professors (APUO), a registered trade union that represents university faculty, has announced it will launch an inquiry and it will likely appeal the firing in court.

The IWW General Defense Committee Local 6 is calling for all workers –especially education workers— to take a stand for Denis Rancourt.

Send a message protesting this unfair and unreasonable firing to University of Ottawa President Allan Rock [email protected] and send a copy to the chair of the defense committee [email protected].

Rancourt’s defense committee is also asking people to sign its online petition http://rancourt.academicfreedom.ca/petitions/online-petition.html to reinstate Denis Rancourt