Jacques Frémont, recteur de l’Université d’Ottawa, a refusé de s’engager à mener une enquête interne approfondie ou d’envisager des réformes politiques à la suite d’un cas grave de violation des droits de la personne allégué par un ancien chercheur postdoctoral et diplômé du programme de doctorat en DTI de l’Université d’Ottawa, impliquant le déni des droits à un traitement égal et équitable.
Jacques Frémont, University of Ottawa President, refused to commit to a thorough internal investigation or to consider policy reforms in the wake of a severe case of human rights violation claims by a former postdoctoral research fellow and graduate of the PhD in DTI uOttawa Program involving the denial of rights to equal and fair treatment.
Jacques Frémont
“Dear Mr. Abu-Shaqra,” wrote the office of the University of Ottawa President Jacques Frémont on Sep. 3, 2021, in an email reply to Abu-Shaqra, who holds a PhD degree from uOttawa engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). “Your correspondence has been sent to the Human Rights Office which has the mandate to receive and address such complaints and questions.”
Abu-Shaqra wrote the following letter to University of Ottawa President Jacques Frémont on September 1, 2021, urging him to “send a clear message to the world,” that what happened to him “does not represent the University of Ottawa or its values.”
Read the letter: Letter to uOttawa President Jacques Frémont. You may also be interested in How to end supervisor bullying at uOttawa.
Abu-Shaqra took his case to the public and has posted documentation on SupervisorBullying.com to prove that the University of Ottawa has violated his rights to equal and fair treatment, on par with other PhD graduates of the University.
He is denied any academic support such as reference letters from his former PhD thesis advisory committee members because he made public what his former MA, PhD, and postdoctoral fellowship supervisor did.
Immediately after a short postdoctoral fellowship that was cut short due to a lack of university funding, Professor Rocci Luppicini abruptly cut him off from any academic support while sabotaging his Mitacs Canadian Science Policy Fellowship (February 2021) application, the documents posted online show (see Mitacs CSPF Jan-Feb 2021, application support requests and Related content below).
“I have done absolutely nothing wrong. I urge you to investigate this point so that the world knows the facts,” wrote Abu-Shaqra in his letter to the University of Ottawa President Jacques Frémont.
“I urge you to conduct an internal investigation of the causes and propriety of what happened to me, and how to prevent it from happening in the future.”
Abu-Shaqra added, “I do not really want to personalize my grievances. In my view, primarily, I am a victim of faulty policy.”
“I felt and still feel that if a complaint to the HRO were a sufficient deterrent, it would have dissuaded Professor Luppicini from bullying me. I am not some kind of toy he can dispose of on a whim. I am a Canadian citizen and a human being. I have rights. And they include the right to tell my story.”
The office of the University of Ottawa President Jacques Frémont said in its terse email reply of Sep. 3, 2021, to Abu-Shaqra that the claims have been forwarded to the University of Ottawa’s HRO “which has the mandate to receive and address such complaints and questions pursuant to Policy 67a – Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.”
Jacques Frémont net worth: according to SunshinelistStats and ontariosunshinelist Jacques Frémont net worth is $399,616.08 in annual salary (2021) in addition to benefits ($14,400.00 in 2021).
Jacques Frémont email address: according to the University of Ottawa’s directory the email address of Jacques Frémont is [email protected].
Jacques Frémont – letter from postdoc fellow Baha Abu-Shaqra
September 1, 2021
Jacques Frémont
University of Ottawa President and Vice-Chancellor
Office of the President
[email protected]
550 Cumberland (212)
Ottawa ON K1N 6N5
Dear Sir,
It is an honour to write to you.
On June 17, 2020, I received your letter congratulating me for obtaining my PhD from the University of Ottawa.
You asked me to use my “intellect to change the world” and to “change our country and the world for the better” for myself and “for all of us.” In closing you said I should come back to my alma mater to share my stories of “success and resilience, so that future generations of students may be inspired” to follow my path.
Here I am more than a year later. I regret to say that the University of Ottawa has stolen my joy. I did not get a chance to celebrate my academic achievements or to reap the fruits of my hard work as a graduate student for close to a decade at the University of Ottawa.
I began my graduate studies at the University of Ottawa in the fall of 2012 in the Department of Communication, Faculty of Arts. I graduated from the PhD in DTI Program in fall 2019. Professor Rocci Luppicini, Department of Communication, University of Ottawa, was my academic supervisor in the MA in Communication program and I continued on with him into the PhD studies in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Faculty of Engineering, from 2015 – 2019.
Ever since obtaining my PhD degree from the University in April 2020 I have been suffering humiliation and psychological and financial stress at the hands of University faculty. The University has made it extremely difficult for me to find a good job, let alone to use my intellect to change the world.
I have been cut off from support, reference letters and collaboration on publications off my PhD thesis work, ever since I graduated by University faculty who are in a position to help me, those I worked closely with and trusted and respected, Professor Rocci Luppicini, Professor Liam Peyton, and Professor Andre Vellino (André Vellino). This cruel treatment severely limits my chances of becoming a university professor and applying to postdoctoral opportunities.
Yet I have done nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong.
Some background
Brace yourself for some disturbing news–a severe case of human rights violations (the right to equal and fair treatment) involving a ruthless assault on my life-long academic career and livelihood, initially by one professor, my former MA/PhD/postdoctoral fellowship supervisor Professor Rocci Luppicini, then when I talked about my case in public posts on Facebook and LinkedIn, those who could have helped, Professor Liam Peyton and Professor Andre Vellino, joined forces against me.
It became apparent that Professor Rocci Luppicini had cut me off from any support in February 2021 when he ignored my email requests for a reference letter for a Mitacs Canadian Science Policy Fellowship application (please see “Table: Grievance issues summary” for documentation). (How I know uOttawa Professor Rocci Luppicini.)
Professor Liam Peyton did not reply to my email of May 20, 2021, and two follow-up emails, dated June 22, 2021, and July 4, 2021, requesting support in reference letters and collaboration on publications off my PhD thesis work. [ … redacted sentence containing names of person(s) that need not be made public … ] (please see “Emails to Professor Peyton beginning May 20, 2021”). (How I know Professor Liam Peyton.)
I requested support from Professor Andre Vellino (reference letters and collaboration on publications off my PhD thesis work) in an email dated June 22, 2021. He replied on June 24, 2021, advising me to not talk about my grievance in public, and basically to get over it because that sort of thing happens, and said he does not want to help because he does not want to get involved in this issue. What a bizarre email that was! (Please see “Response from Professor Vellino 24 June 2021”). (How I know Professor Andre Vellino.)
Denying me reference letters to apply for research/academic jobs including postdoctoral fellowship opportunities and collaboration on publications off my PhD work, is a direct, personal, and brutal attack on me and my livelihood and my future and my hopes and dreams–denying me the right to reap the fruits of my hard work over the past decade or so at the University of Ottawa (though my academic career extends longer/beyond this).
It is an assault on my rights to equal and fair treatment, like all other PhD students/graduates.
But it is more than this.
The brutality can be seen in the details, e.g., by cutting me off from any support, Professor Rocci Luppicini deprived me of the opportunity of a tenure-track professorship at the Department of Communication, a Mitacs science policy fellowship, and an academic career, any time soon anyway.
I want someone to step up and tell me, how is this OK?
Past grievance submission
In my letter to the University’s Dean of the Faculty of Arts dated June 10, 2021, I argued that “Policy 110 – Policy on Treatment of Graduate Students on Non-Academic and Non-Employment Issues (Under Revision)” applies to me/my grievance. I argued that my rights within Policy 110 under the following provisions were violated under a pattern of bullying/arrested development by my former supervisor Professor Rocci Luppicini:
• harassment and intimidation (section 5, workplace harassment, e.g., trying to fail me the fall 2019 term);
• fair and equitable treatment (section 6);
• intellectual property (section 7); and
• academic misconduct or fraud (section 8).
In alignment with the reply of June 17, 2021, from the office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, I am reorganizing my grievance arguments as human rights issues (workplace harassment) and professional conduct issues (Research Integrity). Hence I would like to combine sections/points 5 and 6 under workplace harassment as human rights issues, and to combine sections/points 7 and 8 as professional conduct issues (Research Integrity).
Table: Grievance issues summary
| Breach | Incident | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Human rights Workplace harassment Human Rights Office (HRO) [email protected] Instructions: https://www.uottawa.ca/respect/en/complaints Procedure 36-1 – Complaints of Harassment/Discrimination initiated by students developed pursuant to the University’s Policy No. 67a on the Prevention of Harassment and/or Discrimination. | Arrested development: 1) In the fall term of 2019 Professor Rocci Luppicini wanted to fail me the term. Professor Rocci Luppicini wrote explicit directions to the thesis evaluation committee members to reject the manuscript as not being ready for evaluation, while pretending that I had a choice in the manner. Relevant documents: My PhD thesis submission email timeline DTI uOttawa My PhD thesis completion timeline DTI uOttawa 2) Professor Rocci Luppicini never gave me teaching opportunities/experience from 2012 – 2015 (as my MA thesis supervisor), and from 2015 – 2019 (as my PhD thesis supervisor). 3) In February 2021 Professor Rocci Luppicini abruptly stopped responding to my emails. I was at this time in the midst of applying for the Mitacs Canadian Science Policy Fellowship and asked Professor Rocci Luppicini for a reference letter but he never replied to successive email requests. He had cut me off abruptly at this point but left me sharing drafts of the application anyway. Relevant documents: Mitacs CSPF Jan-Feb 2021, application support requests 4) By cutting me off from support, Professor Rocci Luppicini deprived me of a tenure-track professorship opportunity at the Department of Communication in the University of Ottawa, as shown in my postdoctoral fellowship application package: Individual Development Plan and Appendices and Tables. Relevant documents: My postdoc application Individual Development Plan Appendices and Tables Individual Development Plan 5) I need letters of support (e.g., for application to a University of Toronto postdoctoral fellowship opportunity at IHPST (I had secured the support of a supervising university professor there for fall 2021 applications). 6) By cutting me off from academic support, I have no collaboration on publications after working with Professor Rocci Luppicini from 2012 – 2015 (as my MA thesis supervisor), and from 2015 – 2019 (as my PhD thesis supervisor) which makes it very difficult for me to pursue a research or an academic career. | Also University Policy 110 concerning workplace harassment sections/points 5 and 6. |
| 2. Professional ethics Professional ethics Office of Research Ethics and Integrity Director of the Office of Research Integrity and Ethics Instructions: https://research.uottawa.ca/ethics/research-integrity | 1) Professor Rocci Luppicini pressuring me to be first author on the major publications of the PhD thesis work (and succeeding, see my postdoctoral fellowship application), though his contribution to the intellectual development of the PhD thesis does not justify it. I am an independent researcher and he is a constructivist teach. 2) My work on Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model [ … redacted at least until addressed/decided on by University administrators … ] | University Policy 110 sections/points 7 and 8. Article 10 Professional ethics of the APUO collective agreement 2018-2021 Section 10.3. Fairness and ethical behavior : 10.3.1. In their actions affecting students, colleagues, or other scholars, as well as any employees of the Employer, Members and representatives of the Employer shall observe commonly accepted norms of fairness and ethical Behavior; 10.3.3. shall give proper recognition to any reliance on the ideas, work, or assistance of students and shall, where appropriate, obtain prior permission for the use of work done or results obtained by students. Responsible conduct of research (Research Integrity) under University Policy 115 and Procedure 29-2. |
The (in)actions by professors Luppicini, Peyton, and Vellino constitute a serial offense on my academic career and have caused me psychological damage (e.g., [ … sensitive/personal information redacted … ]).
I have every right to tell my story.
I felt and still feel that if a complaint to the HRO were a sufficient deterrent, it would have dissuaded Professor Luppicini from bullying me. I am not some kind of toy he can dispose of on a whim. I am a Canadian citizen and a human being. I have rights. And they include the right to tell my story.
What if Professor Rocci Luppicini did it again, bullied someone else again? What’s to stop him?
By the way, initially I only wrote about what happened to me to friends on Facebook and connections on LinkedIn. I later on switched to full-on public posts when professors Liam Peyton and Andre Vellino joined forces against me. I offered to shut down the public disclosure of my grievance twice. I have tried on two occasions to resolve this issue amicably, first in my email to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts of June 10, 2021, and again on Canada Day 2021.
My attempts were ignored.
I have a right to equal treatment and any denial of this right has to be justified on moral grounds, not just in reference or appeal to what is good for business.
The actions of Professor Rocci Luppicini and the ensuing measures to subjugate and suppress my voice have made a mockery of the Canadian higher education system.
Fairness, transparency and accountability are core Canadian values.
Nothing can make up for the lost time and psychological damage I have endured.
I deeply resent how I was treated at the hands of people I respected and trusted. I deeply resent how they wasted my time with seeming impunity.
This was not some bad luck.
Without a proportionate penalty against Professor Rocci Luppicni, the message that the University sends to the world, to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, is that you are at the mercy of the whim of your supervisor; you had better shut up and obey.
I urge you to send a clear message to the world, that what happened to me does not represent the University of Ottawa or its values.
I urge you to conduct an internal investigation of the causes and propriety of what happened to me, and how to prevent it from happening in the future.
I request that you reconsider the idea that Policy 110 does not apply to me (how come, from what I have gathered, “Procedure 36-1 – Complaints of Harassment/Discrimination initiated by students” applies to me?).
I have done absolutely nothing wrong. I urge you to investigate this point so that the world knows the facts.
How can I help?
I do not really want to personalize my grievances.
In my view, primarily, I am a victim of faulty policy. I humbly offer the following ideas to you for consideration to improve University policy governing supervisor-student power relations (to improve fairness and efficiency).
1) Extending the applicability of the provisions of Policy 110 to university alumni for up to 10 years. Human rights are timeless. Even if five years have passed on an incident, justice must still be served.
2) Two supervisors are required to give a verdict (recommendation) on moving the PhD thesis manuscript forward to the written evaluation.
3) Reference letters should be regulated and standardized or formalized. Reference letters should not be used by supervising university professors as some kind of bargaining chip or as a way to intimidate or coerce or subjugate or extort or humiliate graduate students. I have no rights after all these years (to a document stating the hard facts of my long-running professional relationship with Professor Rocci Luppicini).
4) Establish an amnesty office designated specifically to handle claims of supervisor-student disputes pertaining to intellectual work/issues of authorship and workplace bullying/harassment.
5) Postdoctoral fellowships with the same PhD supervising professor should be discouraged because it can create a form of professional “dependency” and create unspoken and sometimes unfair expectations.
These were some ideas and I would be happy to offer my help in any way if you need it.
Thank you for your time.
Have a great day, Sir.
Sincerely,
Baha Abu-Shaqra, PhD
Postdoctoral research fellow
Department of Communication/ISSP
University of Ottawa
https://www.linkedin.com/in/DTI-Techs
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