McGill University law graduates will receive incomplete diplomas on Wednesday due to the failure so far of negotiations between the establishment and the union representing the faculty’s professors. The latter calls on Quebec to ask it to respect the freedom of education of its members, but the government refuses to interfere in this labor conflict, we learned The duty.
Due to the presence of a pro-Palestine encampment on McGill grounds in downtown Montreal, the establishment’s law school graduation ceremony will take place at the Bell Center on Wednesday afternoon. The diploma they will receive, however, will not include grades recorded for the winter 2024 term. Law professors have not been able to correct their students’ exams in recent weeks due to the indefinite general strike that they will receive. They started on April 24 because they are struggling to sign their first collective agreement with McGill.
A situation which causes the McGill Association of Law Professors (AMPD), which represents around fifty professors at the establishment, to say that these diplomas are “invalid” and that by distributing them, “McGill is violating its own statutes and regulations. “We never imagined that we would have to fight so that diplomas are only issued if the academic conditions are met, but this is where we are,” continues an open letter written by the union and sent to the Duty.
In an interview, AMPD secretary and chief negotiator Richard Janda said the union gave McGill University management ample time to avoid such a scenario. The union had in fact warned the establishment’s administration on April 9 that a strike would begin on April 24 if the two parties did not reach an agreement in principle. However, since the start of the strike, “no meeting” has taken place between the union and the university to try to resolve this impasse, with management preferring to ignore the existence of this strike and award incomplete diplomas to its students. , deplores Mr. Janda.
“In doing so, the University intends to circumvent the exercise of judgment of its professors in order to confer fictitious diplomas by unilateral decree,” deplores the AMPD in a letter sent last week to the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, that The duty was able to consult.
However, this way of doing things goes against respect for the freedom of education provided for in the Law on academic freedom in universities, adopted two years ago, since law professors at McGill did not have the possibility of determining themselves the list of graduates for the convocation of degrees, believes the AMPD. However, this is a responsibility that falls to them in the university regulations, argues the union.
“What the university did, objectively, was to demonstrate that, according to them, they are capable of acting as if the teachers were not on strike,” summarizes Professor Janda. A situation which also concerns law students at the university, including its valedictorian, Nicolas Kamran.
“What disconcerts students is the notion that the university seems to disregard its own internal statutes and regulations regarding the approval of its students’ results,” notes Mr. Kamran, who asks the establishment to do “everything what is in its power to ensure that it will not have any negative impacts or effects” on graduates.
An “investigation” requested
In their letter to Minister Pascale Déry, the members of the AMPD office urge the latter to use the powers at her disposal under this law to “investigate” this way of proceeding by McGill and force the establishment to “take the necessary corrective measures” in order to ensure respect for the “freedom of education” of its members.
The union is also asking that the university’s policy on freedom of teaching be modified to provide recourse for professors who feel their freedom has been violated, which does not currently exist.
Quebec refuses any interference
“If professors have reason to believe that their right to academic freedom is not respected, they can file a complaint with the establishment committee in accordance with article 4 of the Law,” responds the firm. by Pascale Déry in a short written statement. “For the rest, the minister will not interfere in a labor dispute. »
Contacted by The duty, McGill University directed us to its website, which was updated Monday to inform law students about the aftershocks of the ongoing labor dispute over graduation. It indicates in particular that the “final grades” of graduates will be added to their diplomas at the end of the current strike. The University also specifies that the next negotiation session with the AMPD will take place on June 7.
Reached by email, the Bar of Quebec and that of Ontario indicated that McGill law graduates could register for the admission exams for these organizations despite their incomplete diploma. “The issuance of permits will take place when McGill has sent the final transcripts,” however, specifies the communications manager of the Law Society of Ontario, Amy Lewis.