The federal government's copyright consultations rolled into Ottawa April 11 for an all-day session on proposed legislation to amend the Copyright Act. The forum, which attracted more than 100 individuals and groups, was part of a series of cross-Canada meetings organized by the federal departments of Industry and Heritage. Prompted by an array of controversial proposals, the consultation provided an opportunity for Canada's educational and library communities, among others, to pointedly put their views to departmental officials.

The government of Manitoba announced it is extending its freeze on university and tuition fees for another year.

There's a lot of mythology out there about sessionals. People think that there aren't really that many sessionals, when actually, on our campus, they exist in their hundreds. Just about 25 per cent of the faculty association, more than 450 of our colleagues, holds sessional appointments. In some faculties almost half of the courses are taught by sessionals. In many departments the undergraduate curriculum would fall apart if it weren't for the core of sessionals who staff these programs. And the number of sessionals has been growing, even though the administration and the faculty association agreed several years ago to a limited set of conditions in which sessionals could properly be employed (the so-called "a-j rules" in Article 23 of the collective agreement).

Post-secondary educators in British Columbia are taking their fight against the provincial government's controversial Bill 28 to the B.C. Supreme Court. At a news conference on April 3, representatives of the College Institute Educators' Association of B.C. and the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union charged the Public Education Flexibility and Choice Act violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it gives college presidents the right to ignore collective agreements which were negotiated in good faith.

The strike by members of the Dalhousie Faculty Association ended March 28 after a 92 per cent ratification vote for a new collective agreement. The strike by professors, librarians, counsellors and instructors began March 4 over complement, wages and fairness.

Plans by University College of Cape Breton administrators to cut programs and eliminate positions were put on hold when UCCB's board of governors voted last month to delay a controversial new budget.

A leave to appeal application by two Trent University professors, supported by CAUT, over the closure of two colleges has been turned down by the Supreme Court of Canada, ending a lengthy dispute over university governance

Our universities and colleges are facing enormous challenges threatening their ability to serve the public interest.

Faculty members at the University of Saskatchewan have voted to rejoin CAUT, after an absence of seven years.

CAUT, the College Institute Educators' Association of B.C., the Vancouver Community College Faculty Association and the Capilano College Faculty Association opened two days of hearings on the future of post-secondary education in Vancouver, March 17, with a keynote address by former New Democratic Party leader Ed Broadbent.

Universities and colleges in Canada must do more to encourage participation from disadvantaged groups, according to participants in a set of public hearings organized by CAUT last month in Winnipeg.

A lack of federal funding means that up to 2,000 First Nations people in Saskatchewan who want to attend a college or university are being denied access, according to the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

CAUT and the Laurentian University Faculty Association organized a day-long series of hearings in Sudbury Feb. 28 that focussed on the future of post-secondary education in the community.

More than 100 people crowded into the Driftwood Community Centre in Toronto on March 7 to attend a forum on public education organized by CAUT, the York University Faculty Association, and Toronto's Jane-Finch Community.

Many thanks to Paul Handford for a profound analysis of the flaws of the merit pay system (commentary, Bulletin, March 2002). He is quite right that this system is anti-collegial, demoralizing, wasteful on time, energy and resources, and makes almost everyone unhappy.

The Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo reached an agreement with the university over compensation on Feb

The academic community has a new, affordable, alternative to costly commercial publishers

Canada hosted the third Education International conference on higher education and research in March. Thirty-seven national associations from 27 countries attended the three-day meeting sponsored by the Fédération québecoise des professeures et professurs d'université, the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et enseignants du Québec and CAUT.

For the third year in a row, Missing Pieces examines the state of higher education in each province and provides an analysis of trends, priorities and policies taking place in universities and colleges across the country. How much access do students have to faculty? How has lack of government funding contributed to corporate dollars and corporate influence in education? What is the state of academic freedom on university and college campuses? To what extent are governments committed to keeping tuition fees affordable and education accessible? This report is compulsory reading for anyone interested in the debates on higher education and how they are affecting the quality, accessibility, equity and public accountability of our educational institutions.

In Water Wars, Vandana Shiva uses her remarkable knowledge of science and society to analyze the historical erosion of communal water rights. Examining the international water trade, damming, mining, and aquafarming, Shiva exposes the destruction of the earth and the disenfranchisement of the world's poor as they are stripped of rights to a precious common resource. While draught and desertification are intensifying around the world, corporations are aggressively converting free-flowing water into bottled profits. The water wars of the twenty-first century may match - or even surpass - the oil wars of the twentieth. Water Wars shines a light on activists who are fighting corporate maneuvers to convert this life-sustaining resource into more gold for the elites, calls for a movement to preserve water access for all, and offers a blueprint for global resistance based on examples of successful campaigns.