CAUT has created an investigatory committee to look into allegations of mistreatment of a clinical faculty member in the department of family medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Rhonda Love, an associate professor of public health sciences at the University of Toronto, and Len Findlay, a professor of English at the University of Saskatchewan, have been asked to look into the circumstances and justification for the termination of Dr. Carmel Martin’s employment contract; her removal as principal investigator, co-principal investigator and co-investigator from a number of research projects in which she had played a pivotal role; questions about her authorship rights in these projects; subsequent limitations on her right to communicate with colleagues at the Ottawa-based C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre and Élisabeth Bruyère Research Institute; and her allegations of research misconduct by various of her former colleagues.

Love is the former chair of CAUT’s Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, and Findlay sits on the committee. The two investigators will submit their final report to CAUT.

“According to our procedures, CAUT will then attempt to resolve any outstanding issues among the parties,” said CAUT executive director James Turk.

Turk said he hoped the committee would be able to complete its investigation within the next few months.