CAUT has established an ad hoc investigatory committee to examine allegations of improper procedural practices and restrictions on academic freedom within the faculty of arts at Laurentian University.

University of Manitoba professor Patricia Martens, who was battling mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer, has died at age 62. She was a distinguished profes­sor in the faculty of medicine and former director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.

After years of struggle for a union and 10 months of negotiations, including 12 hours of conciliation at the ministry of labour Dec. 10, post­doctoral fellows at the University of Toronto have ratified their first collective agreement by a margin of 72 per cent.

Administrators at the University of Saskatchewan have withdrawn appeal of Queen’s Bench Justice R.D. Laing’s 2014 ruling against presidential veto power over tenure.

The federal government released its latest science and technology strategy in December, with critics saying it’s just further evidence that Ottawa is out of touch with the real needs of the research community.

A new year always brings change, and 2015 is shaping up to offer more than its share of possibilities. Canadians will go to the polls for the sixth time since 2000 — and only the 42nd since Confederation. After five years of Conservative governments, there is much for us to reflect on as we consider the path we want to see our country taking in the years to come.

When the Canadian Institutes of Health Research was first established in 2000, the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples Health (IAPH) was one of its 13 research institutes. IAPH’s two scientific directors to date moved with creativity and conviction to tackle the need to prepare a cadre of mostly Aboriginal health researchers to reform in all aspects of the research process.

Since the federal Conservatives took office in 2006, they have made it clear that collaboration between federally-funded scientists and the private sector is their best answer to strengthening Canada’s position in the world of science, targeting new investments in science and tech­no­logy.

A post-secondary institution in Calgary has become the latest in Alberta to change its name to reflect its scope and ambitions: St. Mary’s University College is now St. Mary’s University.

With the country’s political parties gearing up for the federal election set for next year, Ca­nada’s scientists and researchers are putting what they say is the government’s dismal reco­rd in the spotlight.

This month marks a tragic milestone in the form of the 25th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre — the politically-motivated, targeted murder of 14 women at École Polytechnique by a self-avowed “anti­ feminist.” For many of us this was a formative event, highlighting the ongoing realities of violence against women in our society.

Despite a message from Concordia University president Alan Shepard that attempts to soothe fears of job cuts on campus, it remains unclear how the institution will cope with a dramatically shrinking budget.

An arbitrator has ruled on all but one of the outstanding issues left over from a three-week strike of academic staff at Mount Allison University in the winter of 2014.

Richard Stingle, who died Nov. 22 in his 89th year, will forever be remembered for his principled and courageous stand during the Harry Crowe case of 1958 at United College, Winnipeg (now the University of Winnipeg), where he’d accepted his first major academic job.

Academic union leaders say the number of academic staff in contract or casual positions is on the rise, a common thread that ran throughout a panel discussion sponsored by CAUT during its council meeting last month.

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.