At a conference hosted by the University of Ottawa last month, human rights activist Monia Mazigh received a standing ovation for her heartfelt call to action on the 10th anniversary of a public inquiry into the illegal rendition and torture of her husband, Maher Arar.

Most academics today have little dif­fi­culty explaining academic freedom in broad terms. It is the right to pursue unfettered intellectual inquiry, regardless of its challenge to orthodoxy or autho­rity, without fear of reprisal. In fact, CAUT’s policy statement on academic freedom is salutary in this regard.

In 2010, the federal government eliminated the mandatory long-form census, yet another blow to the place of scientific evidence in public policy making. Census data provides evidence that allows us to make informed decisions about social services, to address employment and labour market needs, to make business investment decisions and to plan for the future.

Every day it seems we are faced with more threats to the integrity of a post-secondary education system that so many of us have given so much to build and maintain over the years, and which has done so much to benefit the society we all live in.

Proposed changes to the University of New Brunswick Act are sweeping and will radically alter the face of Canada’s oldest English-language university, while granting unpre­cedented powers to the institution’s board of governors, according to critics.

Recent protests across US colleges and universities to “UnKoch my Campus” have drawn renewed attention to the issue of corporatization of higher education.

CAUT member associations held a coordinated campaign this year to advance a decade of grassroots organizing around Fair Employment Week to highlight and counter the overuse and exploitation of contract academic staff.

A coalition of university teachers, students and support staff in Nova Scotia are seeking equal standing in upcoming deliberations that will set the course for post-secondary education in the province for years to come.