Google’s long journey to the courthouse began in 2004 when the corporation started digitizing the collections of several major U.S. university libraries.

An open letter entitled “Encouraging charitable giving while reducing the deficit: facilitating gifts of private company shares and real estate” was published as a full-page ad in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Teaching graduate students is an important — and typically rewarding — part of our mission as academic researchers. Each of us shares the goal of creating the “stimulating environment for training” that NSERC vice-president Isabelle Blain described in a letter published in the November issue of the Bulletin. But what should we do when the steps we are asked to take in pursuit of this goal are counterproductive?

In response to the commentary, “Time to Revisit NSERC Grant Rules” in the March 2011 issue of the CAUT Bulletin, we would like to clarify some of the points raised by Dr. John Murimboh.

We are pleased Penni Stewart (President’s Column, Bulletin, March 2011) has brought attention to the importance of research integrity in Canadian universities. We have been investigating this topic for almost two years and have discovered that research fraud and misconduct are worldwide problems.

We have learned a lot about minority government over the past few years. Conventional wisdom characterizes minority governments as consensus seekers, prevented by Parliament from doing anything too outrageous.

Canadian air passengers now require approval of American authorities to board most planes leaving from Canadian airports. In March, Bill C-42 was signed into law. It allows Canadian airlines to comply with U.S. government demands for passenger records of everyone boarding any flights in Canada that will fly through U.S.

Members of the University of Winnipeg Faculty Association have voted in favour of a new, three-year contract. It includes a salary increase over the life of the agreement, pension contribution increases and improvements to salary ranges and professional development accounts.

With the three federal opposition parties voting no-confidence in the ruling Conservative government in March, Canadians will head to the polls with post-secondary education shaping up as an important election issue.

In an era of wage restraint, aca­demic staff at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario have ratified a first collective agreement that locks in salary increases for 30 fac­ulty members and the university librarian.

Following months of difficult negotiations, the University of Prince Edward Island Faculty Association and employer have reached a tentative agreement after a pro­vincial conciliator was appointed to assist the parties at the union’s request.

Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario, has been added to CAUT’s list of universities and colleges that subject academic staff to a faith test.

Post-Secondary Funding:In New Brunswick’s budget, the newly-elected Conservative government, partially spared post-secondary education from austerity measures imposed on government programs to help reduce the provincial deficit.

Academic freedom is a value at the heart of the academic enterprise. Some invoke it as a shield in defence of unpopular but important scholarly activity while others may occasionally unsheath it as a sword to swing at various targets.

What do we know about the possible poisons that industrial technologies leave in our air and water? How reliable is the science that federal regulators and legislators use to protect the public from dangerous products?

Amy Gajda. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009; 360 pp; ISBN: 978-0-67403-567-6, cloth $35 usd.

What can we learn when we follow people over the years and across the course of their professional lives? The author asks this question specifically about scientists and answers it here by tracking 55 physicists through different stages of their careers.

Based on years of observation at a large state university, Wannabe U tracks the dispiriting consequences of trading in traditional educational values for loyalty to the market.