Report finds Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier universities unjustly dismissed
Balsillie School director over his defence of academic autonomy

OTTAWA, Oct. 29 /CNW/ - An investigation has concluded that the director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) was unjustly fired because he objected to inappropriate pressure by the school's principal private partner, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

The investigation, commissioned by the Canadian Association of University Teachers and undertaken by University of Saskatchewan professor and academic freedom expert Len Findlay, found that Dr. Ramesh Thakur's dismissal was the consequence of "a serious lapse of judgement and loss of commitment to institutional autonomy, academic integrity, due process, and natural justice" by the administrations of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier universities.

The BSIA was established as a partnership between the two universities and CIGI, BlackBerry entrepreneur Jim Balsillie's private think tank. Balsillie channelled $33 million through CIGI to the universities to set up the institute. Dr. Thakur, an internationally renowned scholar and former senior vice-rector of the United Nations University (and assistant UN Secretary-General), was appointed in September 2008 for a two-year term as its inaugural director.

In March 2009, Dr. Thakur was offered and accepted a three-year extension, until August 2013, of his contract as director. When CIGI's board asserted a stronger role in the governance of the school, Dr. Thakur objected, citing threats to institutional autonomy, intellectual freedom and academic integrity. Several months after raising those concerns, Dr. Thakur was dismissed.

"Dr. Thakur was unfairly treated... [and] had every right to expect support from the Presidents of UW and WLU…when he sounded the alarm on CIGI's proposals," Findlay wrote in his report. "Insofar as his academic freedom depended on the protections of institutional autonomy, it became increasingly vulnerable to threats from the outside and complicity on the inside."

The report calls on the universities and CIGI to apologize publicly to Dr. Thakur for his dismissal and calls for changes to the BSIA's governance structure to ensure that the universities have independent control over BSIA's academic mission. That, the report says, means developing clear and comprehensive guidelines for dealing with current or potential donors to safeguard the academic autonomy and integrity of all university-associated institutes, centres or schools.

The full investigation report is available on CAUT's web site.

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