The University of Ottawa withdrew two appendices from their report on academic freedom on Thursday, since they contained several technical, wording and translation errors.
Technical errors, such as forgetting to change the name of a specialist author or mismatching the translation, have been discovered in Appendices B and C, said the University’s Academic Freedom Committee. ‘Ottawa in a statement released Thursday.
These appendices contained a summary of the briefs, letters presented and interventions made to the Committee in connection with the consultation of the university community.
Several people, including members of the Committee on Academic Freedom, questioned some quotes and formulations of themes in Annex B. “One suggestion was that some people could still be identified by the context even if the Committee respected the rule of anonymity ”, could be read in the declaration.
After meeting to verify and make corrections, the Committee “quickly found that it was impossible to recognize or correct anything that was problematic. ”
The members therefore removed Appendices B and C from the University of Ottawa site, recalling that they still agree with the statements of the report on academic freedom published two weeks ago.
Factual errors
Last Monday, Jude Mary Cenat, a professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa and member of the Committee on Academic Freedom, announced that he no longer supported Annex B of the report of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the University of Ottawa.
“This appendix, in addition to containing factual errors on the briefs received by the commission, presents a partial and partial point of view,” he said in a statement on Twitter. To continue to be silent would go against my values for justice, fairness and truth. ”
On November 4, the former Supreme Court judge Michel Bastarache tabled his report on academic freedom, in which he notably recommends setting up a better complaints mechanism and opposes institutional censorship.