University of Toronto partners with "notorious" bio-chem-nuke warmaking Pentagon and CIA contractor Battelle Memorial Institute. Their additional partner is MaRS(Medical and Related Sciences, biotech-nano hub). This is a part of the ever pervasive public-private partnership, which is really about privatizing higher education, research and healthcare. There is a very real danger that this partnership through MaRS will become a hub for research and development of bio-chem weaponry. We can stop this from happening with strong collective struggle at both the local and international levels. *These partnerships undermine democracy and there is little oversight, accountability or ethics. Please join us in any way that you can.

RAISE AWARENESS
among university governing members, politicians, students and community members about moral, ethical and human rights concerns of unregulated international research partnerships between University of Toronto (other universities) and military-industrial-biopharma complex.

Join us for info picket and vigil at corner of University Ave. and College Street in Toronto, March 7, 2006. Pickets ongoing. Please contact us for more information  PAML4PEACE@GMAIL.COM 416 760 6107. See summary of recent actions at the end of the report.

I

UofT – military –corporate partnerships and lack of ethics and accountability
Revised version, February 25, 2006

Military is in transformation. Transformation means transferring much of its operation to private corporations - privatization. It is one of the biggest if not the biggest enterprise enveloping the Earth and its peoples on Earth as well as in Space. Efficiency, speed and cost reduction of its reproduction and deployment are inevitable in light of its proportions. According to *Boston Consulting Group’s Mahlon Apgar and his buddy John M. Keane,1 both high ranking U.S. veterans, military is about ‘tooth’ as well as the ‘tail.’

*[BCG is involved in privatization of energy and power, health and education, outsourcing and offshoring, privatization of water, welfare and military (housing, healthcare, food services, maintenance etc). BCG is a pro-bono consulting partner for the Toronto Region Research Alliance/ MaRS (Medical and Related Sciences),UofT. Boston Consulting spin doctors have rounded up presidents of our universities, hospitals and mayors of cities in the Golden Horseshoe Region in one basket called the board of directors of Toronto Region Research Alliance (TRRA) co-chaired by the guy who pulls the stings by name of John Evans and his buddy CEO of the Royal Bank. Driving force behind TRRA (www.trra.ca) is privatization of our higher education, research and healthcare. How come our high elected and non-elected public officials have joined this cause? They are all being led by senior partner for Boston Consulting Group David Pecaut, who chairs the Toronto City Summit Alliance out of which TRRA originated. John Evans often thanks Pecaut for his leadership. Boston Consulting besides specializing in privatization often uses the concept of perception management which means in this instance that they bring on board many major charities such as the chairperson of the United Way of Greater Toronto, Maytree Foundation, CEO of St. Christopher House, executive director of Native Child and Family Services, the president of Jamaican Canadian Association and of course dominating is who’s who of corporate Canada and former and present leading politicians as well as heads of all the universities and colleges in the area.

** Mahlon Apgar is a director of Boston Consulting Group. He was assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment from 1998-2001 and developed DoD’s (Pentagon) largest privatization programs. John Keane is a retired general who was the Army’s vice chief of staff – its ‘chief operating officer’ from 1999 to 2003. Earlier, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division.
***MaRS is a giant biotech hub which helps facilitate the privatization of research, education and healthcare and also giant white elephant for public tax payer monies from all three levels of government and lacks accountability and ethics – please note that Premier Dalton McGuinty has made the unusual appointment of himself as Minister of Research and his first public speech was at MaRS www.marsdd.com
 http://www.mri.gov.on.ca/english/about/PremiersVision.asp ].

The tooth, Apgar and Keane explain, is weapons and twenty or so major Department of Defense contractors. But the tooth cannot exist without the tail. The tail is “the complex, costly chain of goods, services and facilities that sustains combatants, support personnel and military families” (45). The tail refers to “ [c]ivilians [who] are replacing military personnel in many noncombat roles” (p.46). “[I]t is in the tail that most companies will find their prospects” (p.45). As a result, “the narrow band of major defense contractors will broaden to include numerous service integrators, supply networks and vendors” (p.47). Apgar and Keane list “suppliers providing nonwarfighting goods and services” (p.48) to the military : professional business services, IT/telecom, housing, health care, property maintenance, utilities, transportation services, equipment maintenance and food services and suppliers. Privatizing noncombat military functions creates a huge market where “[b]udget horizons are longer, encouraging firms to dedicate high talent teams and invest in facilities and equipment to meet specific military needs” (p47).

Military transformation means erasing the boundaries between military sphere and civilian sphere. It means that the civilian environment becomes consumed by the military one. To meet the needs of practicality, civilian standards in goods production become military standards as well. As explained by Boston Consulting, “[t]he only difference between commercial and military backhoes is camouflage paint…” (p.52). For example, UofT’s vice president research and associate provost, John Challis, states on June 27, 2005 in the report to Governing Council on military research at the university, “Often military funding sources will fund non-military research…At the same time, research funded by non-military sources may have broader applications. Any attempt to restrict the sources of funding for research undertaken at the university is a form of censorship and an attack on freedom of academic inquiry.” Along the same lines, Vivek Goel, UofT’s provost states on May 3, 2005 in UofT Bulletin, “Research that would be funded by military in academic settings normally has broad applications, well beyond the military.”

“Nothing is more important to the integrity of the universities than a rigorously enforced divorce from war-oriented research and all connected enterprises” – Hanna Arendt

Goel and Challis both sit on the board of directors of UofT’s Innovations Foundation which works to privatize and commercialize research and has physically moved its offices into the MaRs complex.

To make things perfectly clear, University of Toronto’s and MaRS integral partner is Ohio, U.S. based Battelle Memorial Institute. Battelle is in charge of Chemical and Biological Defense Information Analysis Center. Its motto is “Bringing the Chemical and Biological Defense and Homeland Security Communities together.” It is under contract (outsourced/privatized) to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) -  http://www.cbiac.apgea.army.mil/

[ See article composite story on Battelle and tracing anthrax strain during anthrax scare in U.S. 2001  http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2002/31 .

Also see story on Ilse Treurnicht, president and CEO of MaRS who previously was president and CEO of Primaxis Technologies Ventures Inc. Not only did Treurnicht partner with Battelle in 2001. Battelle and DuPont were the major investors in Primaxis  http://www.futureforum.ca/about_speakers.htm
 http://www.batelle.org/news/02/02-12-02optimer.stm

Also see article on ExxonMobil disputes article in Journal Science: over ExxonValdez oil spill in Alaska using Battelle Institute scientists  http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Newsroom/Newsreleases/xom_nr_171203.asp

See article and letter posted by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) PETA urges president Bush to go behind the scenes at animal labs at Battelle Memorial Institute - gruesome experimental tests are done on dogs, cats, primates, pigs etc with chemicals, pesticides and chemical/biological warfare agents. http:///www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=6066 ]

‘The Battelle people are up here quite often,’ said Ross McGregor (president and CEO of Toronto Region Research Alliance, co-chair is John Evans who is also chair of MaRS). “At the peak is UofT where an NRC –led Centre for Biomedical Innovation could collaborate with Battelle. David Naylor, president of UofT, says that UofT has been talking to Battelle for two years. Naylor states, ‘Battelle does contract research and manages research for many institutions often in partnership with universities. They know how to do it.’” Naylor is very excited about the partnership with Battelle – www.trra.ca/PDF/TheStar20051220-1.html. Ilse Treurnicht is the president and CEO of MaRS and wife to UofT president David Naylor. Treurnicht was appointed by John Evans, president emeritus of UofT, founding director of the population program at the World Bank, former chair of the Rockefeller Foundation, former chair of TorStar (TorStar owns Toronto Star) and former chair of Alcan Aluminum and chair of NPS Allelix. He is also known as the father of biotech in Canada. Evans, Treurnicht and Naylor belong to Rhodes Scholar Society. Many key top administrators at UofT sit on the board of MaRS.

*Battelle has 19000 staff and a 3 billion R&D budget annually. Battelle manages nuclear submarines and plants, Level 3&4 biocontainment labs, aerospace research, biotech research … and works with many hi-tech hubs. Battelle was also part of the Manhattan Project. Martin Toomajian, Battell’s vice president and manager for chemical and environmental technologies states “we will also work with Dow, Dupont, Bayer and Monsanto to support the research they are doing, as well as help small businesses in the region with their research needs (Battelle Institute Finds Home)  http://wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=8341&printview=1

Battelle’s military and intelligence capabilities (partnerships) become significant in its prime role with MaRS, UofT and Toronto Region Research Alliance. The framework in which this becomes apparent is the proposed North American Armed Forces and Intelligence integration. We have pointed out that *John Manley is vice chair of MaRS, (former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, head of public security and anti-terrorism) and chaired the Commission for Council on Foreign Relations (U.S.) on Deep Integration and Convergence with the U.S. Vice Chair was the head of *Canadian Council of Chief Executives. * John Manley is on the Board of Directors of Nortel Networks and John Evans is on Board of Directors of MDS Technologies. Both companies have recently been embroiled in mismanagement, scandal and lack of Ethics. How does it bode for MaRS? They are its Chair and Vice-Chair.
* The Globe and Mail (February 21, 2006 : A1) reports that the Canada’s CEOs are pushing for “setting up Commercialization Partnership Board, led by business to review and recommend programs for commercializing (privatizing) research. “

Also the first and largest biotech umbrella organization known as BIO (1993) centered in Washington, D.C. was founded by Carl Feldbaum (the father of biotech) - who previously was the Inspector General for Defense Intelligence at the Pentagon. At U.S. biotech hubs, there is proliferation of research and development of biotech weapons. Why would Toronto’s *MaRS,UofT be any different?

*In U.S. President George Bush’s most recent State of the Union address, he extorts – “Americans are Addicted to Oil.” Has he taken up the mantle of Green Peace? No, as a good Oilman, he never asks people to conserve. What he is talking about is a seachange- a switch to genetically modified biofuels. What this really means is that prime Agricultural Land will be used to feed machines (genetically modified biofuels), not people or animals. The implications will be global. And the MaRS complex plays a key role here through its MaRS Landing (includes the Blue Chip Cluster – University of Guelph & Waterloo long doing work on genetically modified biofuels).
See:  http://www.oilendgame.com Http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1659036,60.html
 http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/pressreleases/gen/2005/202_alliancebackersnrenn%20final.pdf

Supporting killing or what they call “defense” becomes a job of regular everyday people because institutions they work for, be it soon-to-be privatized or private, are transforming in order to meet the competitive challenge of tapping into demands of an overarching and all-absorbing military market. Our personal need and will to stay clean of killing and protest it is facing a major challenge. Our bare existence feeds off of it in the integrated military system. It is a paradox, a very real one, a chilling one.

The higher education system and healthcare in Canada, even though considered public, are also deep in transformation/privatization. They want to be a part of the growing tail of the beast. This means that enormous public funds are used to selectively build narrowly focused hi-tech equipped high-end infrastructures and create teams of workers which consist of what they see as the “best minds”2 in the world usually in service of “technology transfer to and collaborative research”3 with corporations and militaries.

Some of UofT’s partners for example are: war departments such as DND and DoD and their contractors, Barrick Gold Corp, Bombardier, IBM Canada, [GlaxoSmithKlein Inc (molecular & medical genetics & proteins), Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Aventis Pasteur (HIV, cancer vaccines), Affinium Pharmaceuticals (molecular and medical genetics & proteins], [Axela Biosensors, 3I Implant Innovations, Cangene Corp., Bone Tec Corp., Schering-Plough (genes), InSCeption Biosciences, MerkFrost, Neurochem, Novartis Pharma, Performance Plants, NPS Allelix, Texas Instruments, MD Robotics, Heinz etc. (Ibid)

The reality of public asset transfer into private hands by a few chosen “great minds” translates into elimination of majority from access to resources and therefore elimination from acknowledged venues for participation in diversified knowledge production. It leads to marginalization of majority of academics and their contributions. For example, the Office of the Vice President, Research and Associate Provost of University of Toronto, “Canada’s leading research-intensive university” (p2), reveal in their RAP Annual Report 2005 that UofT has only 129 great minds and that majority of these great minds come from abroad (p.15). The concept of a great mind signifies the concentration of awards and nominations. It also represents a putdown and inferiority for the rest, which ultimately reflects on access to funding and privileges. For example, Canada Research Chairs is a program created to streamline public monies into the “salary SUPPORT [caps added] to outstanding faculty” (p.16). Most of these OUTSTANDING research CHAIRS on our public welfare are concentrated (224 out of 267) in medical and related sciences (granted by Canadian Institutes of Health Research) and engineering (granted by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada).

- NSERC/Barrick/Placer Dome/Franco Nevada Chair in Rock Dynamics and Fragmentation is Dr. Bibhu Mohanty. On their behalf, he is developing “innovative” blasting technology.

- NSERC/Performance Plants Chair in Plant Biology is Dr. Peter McCourt. On their behalf, he is finding genes and re-engineering them into industry-desired characteristics.

In a larger picture, the public monies from the whole Canada are poured through government research granting agencies primarily into the University of Toronto (RAP Annual Report 2005, p.7). Ranking of “excellence in research” and deciding what research counts results in most of Canadian public monies being granted to mostly male researchers over 45 years of age in health and engineering faculties at University of Toronto. Indeed, the three top UofT administrators (president, provost, vice-provost research) come from Faculty of Medicine. When you hear their advocacy cries for investment in Canada’s higher education infrastructure, know that this is UofT asking for more money for its biomedical complex. Through funding decisions, few great minds have been manufactured into the most precious knowledge producers, and therefore into those most deserving of SUPPORT by our collective public monies. Public investment into this kind of “excellence” in the context of corporate management, does not bring returns to the public sphere – only more costs.
Academic freedom does not exist in this type of environment, which has become managed primarily by the Ministry of Industry. Ministry of Industry decides which research is important and this serves as matrix for deciding who does NOT get research funding. This leads to manufacturing of certain type of knowledge which becomes dominant because it is allowed to grow off our public welfare without constraints of public decision making, and which in turn becomes considered valid and valuable. And when we ask, “Valuable for who?” the answer comes if we trace the feeding chain upstream from Canadian Ministry of Industry into the global military, pharmaceutical, food and biofuels/energy market. Ethics and Human Rights become “regulatory purgatory”4 to escape from and collective voices of dissent something to thoroughly demean and even better, swiftly get rid off. Serving military industrial complex results in application of military regime onto the public sphere. We come to live in a military state: either serve it or die.

Contrary to public image of universities starved of public funds, and therefore in need of privatization, only 10% of university funding comes from corporations. 70% of university funding comes from the government with remaining 20% being scooped from foundations, societies, associations, international sources including the U.S. National Institutes of Health and institutions – plus student tuition.
Government funding is selectively distributed through the following agencies Tri-Council (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council & Canadian Institutes for Health Research), GRIP (Canada Research Chairs program, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, the Ontario Innovation Trust, The Ontario Genomics Institute, and the Premier’s Research Excellence Awards), and other government funding (Networks of Centres of Excellence, the Provincial Centres of Excellence, Health Canada, Public Works & Government Services Canada and several other agencies) - RAP Annual Report 2005, p.6.

In addition to funding direct costs, our government funds university’s indirect costs. The “permanent Indirect Costs program [was established] in 2003/04” (p.12). UofT’s direct costs in 2003/04 absorbed $623 millions (this includes nine affiliated research hospitals).

Corporate funding has created “endowed chairs.” These are professors who use collectively and publicly funded infrastructure and services to advance goals of private corporations. There are 281 endowed chairs at UofT and affiliated hospitals. If their concentration is in health and engineering, then we may assume that Big Pharma, mining companies, corporate agriculture, pesticide and biotech industry and militaries are on our public welfare – through these “great” minds. Apgar’s and Keane’s words come to mind, “ Civilians are replacing military personnel in noncombat roles.” University concept of “chairs” may be a venue for this process. For example:

- Teck Corp (Canadian mining company) gives $1M accompanied with matching donation to have UofT’s Dr. Bernd Milkereit study the use of vibration for identifying mineral deposits.
- AstraZeneca’s Dr. Ulrich Krull in biotechnology develops biosensors for gene screening, and Mark Lautens in organic synthesis uses metal catalyzed reactions to prepare anti-depressants.
- Celestica’s 3M professor chairs work on “Materials for Microelectronics” “Electromagnetic Design” (improving design of electronic circuits) and “Advanced Manufacturing Logistics” (improve inventory management).
- Rotman Family Foundation, University Health Network and Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation created a $5M Sandra Rotman Chair in Health Sector Strategy. This chair by name of Brian R. Golden is cross-appointed between Rotman School of Business and Health Policy Dept. of Faculty of Medicine.

The Office of the Vice President, Research and Associate Provost states in their 2004/05 report that “the government research INFRASTRUCTURE [caps added] programs [constitute] … the most significant factor in the acceleration of growth in university research funding” (p.11).

Since UofT has “moved into MaRS” (Medical and Related Sciences) (p.2), and since familial relationship between UofT’s president and his wife join UofT and MaRS, his wife being MaRS CEO, and since the board chair of MaRS is the UofT’s president emeritus, UofT’s funding is augmented by MaRS funding it receives from all three levels of government. Cash-strapped city of Toronto donated millions of public monies to this biotechnology and nanotechnology promoting agency which is hardly known or discussed in public, while its people are begging for some money for food (Toronto Disaster Relief Committee during Advisory Committee on Homeless and Socially Isolated Persons, January 16, 2006).

In addition, this year, UofT is crying for more than 2 billion in public funding for infrastructure and indirect costs (RAP report 2005, p.32). UofT wants Tri-Council to receive additional $35 million so it can pour most of its budget increase into UofT. UofT is advocating for $500 million transfer into Canada Foundation for Innovation (John Evans, chair). Canada Foundation for Innovation is known for funding “$3.8 million state-of-the-art research laboratory at the University of Nairobi”5 to facilitate research into AIDS resistant sex slaves. After 20 years of research exploitation of sex slaves, with millions pouring into researchers pockets from Canada Medical Research Council, the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, a recently Canadian-won grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, The European Economic Council, Britain Wellcome Trust, Kenyan nurses and counselors comment, ‘These women [SEX SLAVES], they are still in these small rooms … With no sex workers [SLAVES] what would happen to their [CANADIAN]research (“Sex Slaves for Science.” The Globe and Mail. Saturday January 7, 2006. F5). Our public money is used for the imperialist goals of mining the blood of the most exploited women in the world. How can this be for the benefit of humanity? This is what UofT supports through its “research advocacy!?”


Social responsibility of universities and Research Impact – University of Toronto

University of Toronto does not have ethics guidelines for types and lines of research and research partnerships. Consequences of UofT’s research are not included into metrics of research acceptability.

Vivek Goel, Provost/University of Toronto says:

“Because of the range of research funded by military sources, it would be imprudent and inappropriate for the University to constrain ‘military’ research. It would be impossible to define which lines of inquiry had military applications. (p2)
Source:
The Governing Council. Report Number 388 of the Executive Committee (May 18, 2005)

David Naylor, President/University of Toronto says:

“… individual faculty members must remain free to go where their curiosity led them and to pursue fundamental scholarship.” (p.5)
Source:
The Governing Council. Report Number 135 of the Academic Board (May 5, 2005)

University of Toronto’s Policy on Ethical Conduct in Research (approved by the Governing Council of the University of Toronto, March 28, 1991) says that:

“It is neither possible nor desirable to foresee or to define what constitutes ethical conduct in all circumstances. The policy leaves many such matters untouched: It does not, for example, apply to the question of whether a certain kind or line of research is itself ethical.”

UofT’s research ethics office does not ponder questions whether it is ethical to work with militaries, military contractors, mining industries, Big Pharma. In fact, these industries are UofT’s major partners.

Research Impact is NEVER addressed by University of Toronto’s research Ethics Office and is NEVER meant be addressed.

Working with and subsidizing Big Pharma, militaries and mining companies helps improve means by which these industries kill better. And killing goes simultaneously here at home and abroad.

Here at home, we have witnessed simultaneous rise of Science Empire in Toronto’s Inner City and Poverty. Why would UofT, our public institution of higher learning, allow itself to grow off our poverty? All three levels of government have subsidized newly built huge hi-tech science buildings strung along University and College area. Billions of public monies is building these huge infrastructures to HOUSE SCIENCE. Every minute of every day, media in cahoots with this science is beaming hype of how we are plagued with cancer, AIDS, bird flu, diabetes, obesity, aging, suggesting that science will bring health and longevity. This is all happening in the context of people dying on the streets from homelessness and starvation. Where has science/medicine been for Aboriginal Peoples? Don’t believe the hype. “The word itself, ‘research,’ is probably one of the dirtiest words in the Indigenous world’s vocabulary (Smith, L.T. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 1999).

Hitler was crazy about health. He was vegetarian, non-smoker and Nazi Germany had the best cancer research in the world. They created the first War on cancer. This, however, did not stop them from burning, freezing and disfiguring bodies of the weak. It was a major input into their scientific development. The U.S. could not wait to absorb many of Nazi scientists into their own scientific/military headquarters. Ethics and Human Rights matter greatly!

Government has not built housing for our people. Government has not paid people’s food bill. How can UofT ask this government to subsidize over 70% of its direct and indirect costs of research and 100% of its infrastructure in light of this deadly social imbalance? It is NOT ETHICAL TO GROW OFF POVERTY OF your fellow citizens!!!

We can talk about ethics at UofT only when UofT becomes a force of social change towards elimination of imbalances of power and funding. So far, people have only witnessed their grabbing of our collective means for survival. Their grabbing our housing money shows who they are. Their helping militaries and mines to kill and mine better shows who they are. If you are looking for the face of UofT, you will find it in Toronto’s poor and in the misery and death of millions around the world.

HEALING INJUSTICES HEALS PEOPLE.

(This report is prepared by Ivona Vujica, Coordinator, People Against Militarization of Life (Int'l), formerly People Against Militarization of OISE  PAML4PEACE@GMAIL.COM
416 760 6107)

II

“Doing Good Science today involves a principled vigilance for consequences, an awareness of the impact of scientific discovery on society, on the environment, on nature…The good scientist attempts to publicize by any means possible the social and environmental consequences of potentially dangerous knowledge.” (p.461-462)
Cornwell, John. (2003). Hitler’s Scientists. New York: Penguin Books


Large Picture:
Higher education and its public funding in Canada are increasingly under direction of global military-industrial-biopharma complex and its sense of what counts in economics of knowledge and health. According to Japanese academic and activist professor Kinhide Mushakoji, we are in the “latest stage of the evolution of a global fascist culture with the logic of Empire at its roots … the real people who are being targeted are the poor, weak and unrepresented.”

“Star Wars” Comes to the University of Toronto.” UTFA Newsbulletin. June 24, 2000
“Compendium of OMAF Funded Life Science Research.” Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, 2004
“Biotech Lobby Got Millions From Ottawa: Public Cash Used to Alter Image.” Montreal Gazette. Feb 28, 2000
“Canada’s Top Scientists Attack Ottawa’s Funding Strategy.” Vancouver Sun. June 25, 2005

Research funding formula encourages “collaborative research” for the sake of “technology transfers” and “commercialization of research.” Collaborative research and technology transfer mean that getting funding increasingly hinges on the ability to attract and work with corporations, known as matching funds.

Researchers are encouraged to license “their” findings and create their own companies called spin-offs (only if infrastructure, equipment and their direct and indirect research costs hadn’t been paid from public pocket!). These people are called entrepreneur researchers. Also corporations are given rights to license publicly funded research “products” (commercialization), develop them further and lock them into intellectual property laws (away from public knowledge or affordability).
“2004-2005 Report, 2005-2006 Plans” UofT Office of the Vice-President, Research and Associate Provost
“Creating knowledge delivering results – technology transfer at UofT (2004/05)” UofT Office of the Vice-President, Research and Associate Provost

Public university becomes treated as private property: students pay high tuitions even though their grandparents and parents already paid for “public education.”
Public investment is poured into private products that public which already paid for in turn has to pay for again. With tuition and commercialized research, the public ends up paying quadruple. They pay for:
1. University infrastructure and direct and indirect costs of its research - “more than $11B of Canadian taxpayer dollars [invested] during the past eight years” (“BIOTECanada Concerned about an innovation disconnect.” BIOTECanada. February 24, 2005  http://www.biotech.ca/EN/nrFeb2405.html).
2. Commodified research products
3. Access to education
4. Tremendous work done by people of conscience to challenge corruption is paid from their own pocket. Indeed, public funding of grassroots organizations should become a priority in its rationing. How can public education or public healthcare function in public interest when there are no adequately publicly funded grassroots to keep them in check?

Canadian public is on the losing end because most tax payers dollars which should be going into publicly funded and operated education or healthcare system are sucked into propping the growth of the new biotech economy. The U.S. government has gone a step further by “using worker pension funds to finance startups in the biosciences market by investing in ‘private venture capital funds’” –  http://www.labdesignnews.com/LaboratoryDesign/LD0503FEAT_3.asp

Working with corporations has become a central governing principle for UofT and other Canadian universities. As a result, higher education as our public good suffers multiple losses, one of them being the loss of academic freedom:

1. Industry (not public interest) figures prominently in setting direction of flow of public money and thereby deciding types of research that gets done. Heads of corporations sit on governing councils of universities and our university heads serve as industry consultants and collaborators. Student members at UofT’s governing council are selectively allowed to speak. For example, Oriel Varga, a student representative on UofT’s Governing Council in 2004/05, was not allowed to speak when trying to advocate against military/corporate influence prominent at the university.

2. University policies and practices are conveniently not updated to screen new corporate research developments for ethics. For example, corporate research partnerships at UofT do not even enter the ethics research formula. University ends up following rules of corporations because it has none of its own to govern public-private partnerships. University starts behaving like a third world country, abandoning human rights and public good for the sake of attracting foreign investment - even though most of its funding comes from the public pocket. Compare governance at UofT to governance of China, for example. UofT policies are blind to Human Rights abuses prominent in the operation of many corporations that university partners with. UofT provost says that “it would be imprudent and inappropriate for the University to constrain ‘military’ research” (The Governing Council. Report Number 388 of the Executive Committee May 18, 2005. P.2). UofT president says that “… individual faculty members must remain free to go where their curiosity led them and to pursue fundamental scholarship.” (The Governing Council. Report Number 135 of the Academic Board. May 5, 2005. P.5). UofT’s Policy on Ethical Conduct in Research says that “It is neither possible nor desirable to foresee or to define what constitutes ethical conduct in all circumstances.” This reality is reminiscent of a statement made by Boston Consulting Group’s Mahlon Apgar and his buddy John M. Keane, both high ranking U.S. veterans. According to their “New Business with the Military” of Harvard Business Review (Sept 2004), “ [c]ivilians are replacing military personnel in many noncombat roles” p.46. Military does not have to come to children’s classes as long as researchers from our education departments do it for them - in their “civilian” capacity!

[*BCG is involved in privatization of energy and power, health and education, outsourcing and offshoring, privatization of water, welfare and military (housing, healthcare, food services, maintenance etc). BCG is a pro-bono consulting partner for the Toronto Research Alliance/ MaRS (Medical and Related Sciences),UofT.
** Mahlon Apgar is a director of Boston Consulting Group. He was assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment from 1998-2001 and developed DoD’s (Pentagon) largest privatization programs. John Keane is a retired general who was the Army’s vice chief of staff – its ‘chief operating officer’ from 1999 to 2003. Earlier, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division].


3. Unethical research climate at universities is supported by governmental decisions. For example, in the U.S. the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act compounded by Better Pharmaceuticals for Children Act gives pharmaceutical companies 6-month patent extensions if they test their patented drugs on children. Vera H. Sharav of Alliance for Human Research Protection says that “the Congress failed to balance financial incentives with improved safeguard to protect children …from the increased financial pressure to make use of them” p.51 (“Conflicts of Interest in Biomedical Research Harm Children With and Without Disabilities.” Journal of Disability Policy Studies. Summer 2004, 15, 1). According to the same source, Nuremberg Code (1947), the Declaration of Helsinki (1964), and the Convention on the Best Interest of the Child were invoked in the Maryland Court of Appeals in Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger Institute, 2001 against researchers and their funders for using the blood of children of African American mothers on welfare to measure lead abatement (p.52). The court said that the research was inappropriate. In case of UofT almost no research is inappropriate and every research is appropriate. UofT simply has no policies for types and lines of research. Its policy on Ethical Conduct in Research “does not, for example, apply to the question of whether a certain kind or line of research is itself ethical.” Lack of ethics policies and their enforcement at UofT serves as an incentive for corporations and militaries. Such incentive is a short-cut to human rights abuses by our doctors. Why would UofT enable this?

4. The public is eliminated from decision-making and influence within universities or university funding structures. The public is not actively informed as to what is going on: what research is being done at university and with whom, why it is done and what consequences of such research we can expect on local and global peoples. Through universities, the public ends up investing money into corporations. Despite marginalization of democratic participation, it is the public that gets implicated in human rights abuses. After all more than 70% of university funding is public.

5. Many researchers with publicly sound research intentions do not get an opportunity (funding) to conduct their research mostly because they could not secure matching funding from corporations. Thus funding formula tailors which research gets done. Research of importance to corporations gets done because such research is encouraged through funding formulas. This leads to marginalization and elimination of research which benefits people. This also eliminates diversity in knowledge production as only certain knowledge is encouraged.

6. Publicly funded researchers (with corporate-serving incentives) lose a sense of responsibility to public because they are encouraged to “collaborate” with corporations according to corporate contracts. Signing corporate contracts in public-private partnership, researchers sign away their responsibility to publicize the truth about harmful consequences of research to public, and find themselves in hell if they act in public interest: refer to the case of UofT’s Dr. Nancy Oliveri.

7. Canadian public research funding bodies start funding research abroad (India, China, Africa) which is prohibited according to existing ethics rules in Canada. For example, “Sex Slaves for Science” an article featured in The Globe on January 7, 2006 said that Canada Foundation for Innovation, headed by John Evans, is funding state-of-the-art laboratory in Kenya to facilitate a 20-year-old research into AIDS-resistant sex slaves. Public money is used to facilitate human rights abuses through research abroad.

8. Public money begins to be used to facilitate dreams of an elite circle consisting of heads of universities, hospitals and their corporate/military friends. One product of such conflict of interest is MaRS. MaRS is a newly built structure on University and College, backed by government/military/industrial interests in privatizing our higher education, research and healthcare. It is being subsidized by all three levels of government (our public taxpayer money), and lacks accountability and ethics. John Evans is also MaRS chair. He is also former chair of TorStar, UofT president emeritus, Rockefeller former chair, World Bank’s former founding chair of population program as well as chair of NPS Allelix… MaRS has been receiving for the last few years pro-bono consulting from Boston Consulting Group mentioned above (“Presentation by John Evans, Co-Chair, Toronto Region Research Alliance.” Investing in Learning Communities Conference. Toronto, Nov 25, 2003).

What happened at OISE in 2004/05?
Research partnership between Institute for Knowledge Innovation and Technology, (9th floor of Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), Atlantis Systems International (ASI)and Department of National Defense (in research called Beyond Best Practice: Research-Based Innovation in Learning and Knowledge Work) was challenged by OISE Faculty Council, Transformative Research Centre (7th floor of OISE), Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies/OISE, TA union Local 3907, Graduate Student Association/OISE, Association of Part-Time Students (APUS), Student Administrative Council (SAC), initially informal and as of August 2005 formal support by Canadian Federation of Students (ON), Council of Canadians (TO), individual students from OISE, UofT, Ryerson and York University, student groups such as Students for Peace in Iraq, anti-corporate working group of UofT’s Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG), individual faculty from OISE and UofT, McMaster University, UofT’s Science for Peace and many more.
People who coordinated the movement went under the name of People Against Militarization of OISE (PAMO). They developed strong relationship with grassroots groups from our community Peace Movement such as Raging Grannies, Homes Not Bombs and Coalition Against War and Racism. These groups provided their expertise in grassroots organizing and with song ushered four of PAMO’ s protests and twelve vigils.
In addition to taking our message to streets, PAMO filed a complaint against Atlantis Systems International with Ontario Securities Commission on suspicion of insider trading. The complaint derived from our knowledge of conflicts of interest raised through the partnership between IKIT and ASI because Blake Melnick acted as both Head of Public Relations for IKIT and one of its founding members and Principal Knowledge Officer of Atlantis. Atlantis also widely publicized the nonexistant partnership with IKIT/OISE/UofT on their website and websites of other military contractors. We noted a spike in ASI’s shares on TSX chart from September 2004, which coincided with their announcement of the partnership. One of the effects of the article about the controversy written by NOW Magazine’s Paul Weinberg (February 2005) resulted in an editorial in which a reader said that the partnership encouraged him to buy Atlantis stocks. We wondered about ghost partnership with OISE bumping Atlantis profit and OISE/UofT going along with it.

Why protest these partnerships?
1. 90% of Atlantis revenues derive from military contracts with forces of countries such as U.S. and Saudi Arabia. According to the U.N., the United States is implicated in illegal war and war crimes against humanity. Why would OISE want to partner with Atlantis? The dean of OISE said because Atlantis is publicly traded company. This was publicized as the worst quote of the year 2005 in the NOW Magazine. The head of this research partnership, Dr. Scardamalia, claimed that Atlantis is only about training and maintenance. If we wanted to challenge them, why don’t we go and challenge military food suppliers as well, they asked.
2. Military must stay out of education. Once military/military contractors are involved in research, it gets classified away from public knowledge or oversight and thus may easily become purveyor of human rights abuses. This means that military/military contractors affect ethics of research and dictate its direction. It also means that publicly funded research is used for undeclared purposes. For example, children in four elementary schools in Toronto who participated as research subjects in Beyond Best Practice research, have never been informed by researchers about the newly added research partner, what Atlantis was about (military contractor), that it was joining the research two years after the research had been approved without any need to go through ethical review itself, and that its presence meant diversion of research uses from civilian to military. By embracing Atlantis and disregarding responsibility to inform those children, OISE, UofT were involved in negligence and violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a copy of which people of conscience presented to the dean of OISE and Dr. Scardamalia in February 2005.
3. Since UofT has neither ethical guidelines for research partnerships nor for types and lines of research (researchers are given freedom to go wherever their curiosity led them), Atlantis Systems was able to announce on their website that they partnered with OISE’s IKIT even though the dean of OISE maintained (and still does) that there is no partnership. Atlantis never had to pass through ethical review. Without any oversight, it was able to join research two years after the research was approved.
4. In a nutshell, we protested USES OF RESEARCH AND CONSEQUENCES OF RESEARCH paid for by public monies (Beyond Best Practice received the biggest SSHRC grant in the history of OISE) at our public university through a partnership with a military contractor and the military (DND).

How did administration react?
1. Administration and its collaborators such as proponents of these research partnerships in OISE research used a concoction of intimidation, threats and control of public information boards (especially at OISE’s ground floor). We quickly complained about initial reactive conduct by OISE security staff to the dean of OISE, and we exposed in front of everybody during our first protest on January 11, 2005 a letter of threat we received from Dr. Michael Ferrari (one of the researchers in the project) in which he was warning us against taking the word to the street. We forwarded his letter to UofT’s president, which resulted in president’s Memo to UofT’s deans and directors, reminding them of the freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly among other policies that UofT is officially signatory to. Dr. Carl Bereiter, a co-applicant in Dr. Scardamalia’s research, slurred PAMO coordinator “vampire.” The complaint was lodged with the dean of OISE, but it was in vain. The dean of OISE supported research partnership and was on Dr. Bereiter’s side. We took complaint further to the UofT’s Ombudsman office and Anti-Racism office only to discover that Faculty Code of Conduct does not exist at UofT and that there is little anyone can do within UofT to challenge assaults on part of professors. This protectionism reflected in Dr. Bereiter’s and Dr. Ferrari’s behavior. Dr.Bereiter’s slur was publicly denounced by APUS and Local 3907.
2. During two faculty council meetings at OISE, a statement by UofT provost was distributed in which protesters were painted as liars and intimidators of Dr. Scardamalia. Protesters were described as people who were hindering legitimate research which benefits public education. The statement conveyed the message about glorious IKIT, its research, Atlantis (training simulations), and lunatic protesters. Provost statements NEVER touched on the real issue: research PARTNERSHIPS and the lack of regulation thereof. Provost claimed that what was going on fell within UofT’s policies while all along knowing that there were no policies to guide partnerships and types and lines of research.
3. UofT’s Bulletin featured an article by Jessica Whiteside in which protesters were described as few nutty students. This portrayal was countered in Bulletin’s editorials written by two professors from OISE’s Adult Education Dept.
4. UofT administration clamped down on protest swiftly embarking on misinformation campaign. However Atlantis got to keep the false statement about partnering with OISE, UofT for several months after the protests started (OISE dean knowing all along that there were no partnerships).
5. Police in great numbers were present during protests and vigils. Police kept an eye on people of conscience while protecting those who partner with military contractor.

How did we open the dialogue with UofT administration?

1. Homes Not Bombs informed OISE faculty about OISE partnering with military contractor.
2. Professors composed and signed a petition against partnering with militaries and military contractors to which OISE dean responded: these are your beliefs, but not UofT’s policies - she said this even though she knew that university had no guidelines for partnerships and types and lines of research.
3. Professors invited Blake Melnick, a founding member of IKIT and the Principal Knowledge Officer of Atlantis to a specially organized meeting. Professors remained disillusioned saying that Blake was talking in vague terms even claiming that Atlantis intended to minimize its involvement with military (while Atlantis website publicized quite the opposite information bragging about its being one of the top 100 military contractors according to the Fortune Magazine).
4. PAMO compiled information on Atlantis (this was greatly aided by research done by Homes Not Bombs and their “OISE Goes to War” article, Sept. 24, 2004) and organized public information sessions at OISE.
5. Graduate Student Association invited Dr. Scardamalia and Dr. Bereiter to a public forum where they were challenged with a lot of unsettling questions they could not answer. GSA issued a statement against partnerships.
6. Students connected with grassroots anti-war groups and collaborated in organizing protests and vigils – taking the word to the streets.
7. Professors led by strong and determined Voice of Dr. Bonnie Burstow shut down the Faculty Council Meeting in December 2004 until OISE administration agreed to put the issue of partnerships between IKIT/Atlantis and DND on the agenda (about an hour after agitation started).
8. PAMO issued a statement during the same Faculty Council Meeting warning Dr. Scardamalia and OISE,UofT admin that without moratorium on the partnerships, the issue would be widely publicized with unions, media, lawyers, parents etc. Dr. Scardamalia and dean Gaskell announced a moratorium in the middle of December 2004.
9. Despite “moratorium,” the situation was confusing since Atlantis still advertised partnerships on its website and UofT provost claimed that everything was fine since nothing contradicted UofT policies. Students continued with vigils and protests.
10. PAMO obtained a copy of the “Beyond Best Practice…” research proposal which listed many co-applicants, collaborators and partners – they were from Asia, North America and the EU. PAMO informed them about the current controversy over partnerships between IKIT, DND and Atlantis.
11. PAMO filed a complaint against IKIT/Atlantis partnership with Ontario Securities Commission, suspecting insider trading after discovering a spike in Atlantis stocks at the time of partnership announcement.
12. PAMO presented the issue in front of Association for Part-Time Students and TA union Local 3907. APUS wrote a letter to OISE dean and Local 3907 wrote an article in their newsletter. PAMO received their full support.
13. Centre for Anti-Racism Integrative Studies posted PAMO’s description of the situation on their website, and issued an official statement against the partnership.
14. Director of Transformative Learning Centre wrote his (TLC) position statement and made it available through e-networks.
15. PAMO delivered information packages to Minister of Education, Gerard Kennedy, provincial opposition leader Howard Hampton, federal NDP leader Jack Layton, NDP MPP Trinity Spadina Rosario Marchese, Ms. Jane Jacobs, Peter Rosenthal, Naomi Klein, Dr. David Noble (York University), Dr. John Armitage (Northumbria University, UK) and received messages of support including Dr. Henry Giroux (McMaster University), Project Ploughshare from Ottawa and our fellow student activists from University of California Davis.
16. PAMO asked for speaking rights at UofT’s Governing Council meetings and never received it.
17. Student member of Governing Council presented two PAMO’s motions which asked UofT to develop ethical guidelines for types and lines of research and research partnerships in light of human rights and international law; and to reveal donations and investments. Both motions were struck down by the Executive Committee of UofT’s Governing Council.
18. PAMO’s additional two motions were presented in front of Canadian Federation of Students (ON). One motion asked CFS to undertake anti-corporatization campaign and the other one asked CFS to establish human rights monitoring offices at each university across Ontario. CFS adopted the motions in August 2005. Please inquire with CFS (ON) about developments on this.
19. PAMO spread their word at a couple of conferences after being invited by Ryerson Students in 2005 and McGill’s Education Graduate Student Society in 2006. Their message was carried by local newspapers such as Annex Echo, Annex Gleaner, NOW Magazine, academic journal, The Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies 27 p.1-21, CKLN radio station in Toronto, Vancouver’s Co-op radio and multiple e-venues.
20. OISE formed a Subcommittee on Partnerships which issued a report in September 2005 and UofT is in process of reviewing all research policies with points of reference being established by UofT’s top administrators excluding professors, students and wider community.
21. PAMO transformed into People Against Militarization of Life (PAML) and continues information pickets and vigils at UofT and UofT Governing Council to raise awareness of the need to develop ethical guidelines in light of consequences of research (partnerships) on local and global communities.


“… good science actually encourages democracy.” (p.463)
Cornwell, John. (2003). Hitler’s Scientists. New York: Penguin Books


This report is prepared by Ivona Vujica, Coordinator, People Against Militarization of Life (Int'l) PAML4PEACE@GMAIL.COM 416 760 6107

Nazis entered her school
and shot her dead
decades later
her spirit lit the campaign for military free OISE
and we won

this was a Year of Dragon, 2005

1 “New Business with the New Military” Harvard Business Review. September 2004
2 Office of the Vice-President, Research and Associate Provost: 2004-2005 Report, 2005-2006 Plans” University of Toronto
3 “Creating knowledge delivering results – technology transfer at UofT” (2004/05)
4 “Escaping Regulatory Purgatory” The Boston Consulting Group

*See book by Lewis Pinault (2000) “Consulting Demons: Inside the Unscrupulous World of Global Corporate Consulting” – one of Fortune’s best business books , it tells the inside story of how giant consulting companies often end up taking control of projects and processes of the non-profits and/or for-profits. Pinault worked for Boston Consulting Group for 12 years and was a full partner.

See book “War Against The Weak” by Edwin Black - about the history of eugenics and rise of new eugenics.

Summary of recent actions:

Varsity news (UofT): “President Naylor gets pranked: anti-military group crashes presidential lecture in brief publicity stunt”
 http://www.thevarsity.ca/media/paper285/news/2006/02/16/News/President.Naylor.Gets.Pranked-1617127.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.thevarsity.ca

Summary of Successful INFO PICKET & VIGIL @ UofT on February 9, 2006

See pictures:  http://johnb.smugmug.com/gallery/1204722

1. UofT – Battelle connection.
Community members, students and professors came together today to raise awareness about and challenge partnerships between UofT, Big Pharma and military contractors.
Their concerns were clearly stated on a huge banner reading, “Big Pharma and Pentagon to manage research at UofT. STOP NOW.” They pointed out UofT president David Naylor’s excitement over partnering with the top Pentagon contractor working on bio-chemical and nuclear defense by name of Battelle Memorial Institute. (www.trra.ca/PDF/TheStar20051220-1.html ;  http://www.cbiac.apgea.army.mil/).
Their partnership would unfold in a yet to build $10M biomedical research facility which would be located in MaRS with an annual operating budget of $45M (Toronto Star, Dec. 12, 2005, Ian Urquhart states UofT partners with Battelle---UT asks for no correction). Picketers wondered why public funding is used to subsidize Pentagon and Big Pharma and the further erosion of Academic Freedom.

2. Privatization and Commercialization of Research.
They noted to passers-by that UofT is a public university, that the public is heavily subsidizing its infrastructure, equipment, direct and indirect research costs, but that most of this subsidy is being transferred into research for corporations and militaries. They explained to students that university should be free, but that it isn’t because corporations absorb public money that should really subsidize public education.

3. False Myth of being underfunded and in need of corporate sponsorship
They also busted a false myth that universities partner with corporations to make up for decrease in public funding. False! Over 70% of funding UofT receives is from the public pocket. Only 10% comes from corporations. This makes sense. Corporations go where they can live off working people’s money. The more public money is dished out, the bigger chance that you’d attract them!

4. Boston Consulting
Well, that’s the line of Boston Consulting spin doctors who have rounded up presidents of our universities, hospitals and mayors of cities in the Golden Horseshoe region in one basket called the board of directors of Toronto Region Research Alliance (TRRA) co-chaired by the guy who pulls the strings by name of John Evans and his buddy CEO of the Royal Bank. Driving force behind TRRA (www.trra.ca) is privatization of our higher education, research and healthcare. How come our high elected and nonelected public officials have joined this cause? They are all being led by senior partner for Boston Consulting Group David Pecaut who chairs the Toronto City Summit Alliance out of which TRRA originated. John Evans often thanks Pecaut for his leadership. Boston Consulting besides specializing in privatization often uses the concept of perception management which means in this instance that they bring on board many major charities such as the chairperson of the United Way of Greater Toronto, Maytree Foundation, CEO of St. Christopher House, executive director of Native Child and Family Services, the president of Jamaican Canadian Association and of course dominating is who’s who of corporate Canada and former and present leading politicians as well as heads of all the universities and colleges in the area.

5. Funding formula for research, academic freedom and research ethics
We pointed out that the public funding formula for research dissolves academic freedom into the freedom for corporations and militaries by forcing researchers to seek and do work of value for corporations. This is compounded by the lack of ethics guidelines for research partnerships and types and lines of research at UofT. The basic question that should be tackled in a democratic way is whether it is ethical to be working with corporations and militaries at all at our public universities.

6. The context in which we live
1. the deep integration with the United States, the North American Military and Intelligence integration
2. illegal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and involvement of many military forces in crimes against humanity.
3. Neoconservative governments in U.S. and Canada
4. Canadian military abandonment of its humanitarian missions with general Hillier saying that “our soldiers job is to kill.”

7. Consequences
In light of the context we live in, we said that Consequences of research should seriously figure in deciding whether research is ethical or not. One of our placards asked, “What are the Consequences of your research? How about Ethics? Another one asked to “View Ethics of research in light of its consequences.”

8. No jobs unless you’re happy to be right in there with them
Expanding military reach into our civilian lives with our public money leaves many UofT graduates without jobs in the new war-biotech economy. They lose both money they invested in their education as well as skills they gained through education. Highly educated and indebted are slated for de-skilling and OSAP slavery.

9. Withering of academic community
We felt that university abandoned academic & wider community and that a corporate-administrative elite is setting points of reference in university decision-making processes.

10. Love letter for UofT
As a result, we wrote a Love Letter to UofT saying, “UofT, your academic and wider community want you back so badly! Wither corporations and take us back.”
We understood that “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that” (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.).

11. Integrity of the University
We pointed out Hannah Arendt words that “Nothing is more important to the integrity of universities then a rigorously enforced divorce from war oriented research and ALL connected enterprises.” These words are the best gift we could give to UofT today. Chilling weather and frostbites could not stop us from calling UofT to re-establish:
1. integrity of its scientific research and dignity of its researchers
2. academic freedom (funding) for its researchers to go everywhere but up the alley of human rights abusers
3. its integrity as a public institution that can look the public in the eye

12. Our roundabout
After hour and a half of picketing in front of Robarts Library, Harbord & St. George intersection and marching to and around the King’s Circle, passing by the Faculty of Medicine, we ended up in front of the Governing Council building and headed in for the Governing Council meeting.

13. Our experience at UofT Governing Council – February 9, 2006
We noted changes from the last time we visited the Governing Council in June 2005.
Last time, we were able to bring in our placards and a banner as long as they were packed and folded. This time we were ordered to leave them at the reception desk downstairs before proceeding upstairs to the Governing Council chambers. As a result, we could not hold our banner in the hallway for all the governing council members to see our message. To be able to do this is very important for us because UofT’s Governing Council does not allow us to speak ever during their meetings. Now the possibility of holding our banner in the hallway, without causing disruption or blocking passageways, has been taken away as well.

Another thing is that their secret meeting (in camera) used to be at the beginning of the governing council meeting. Now it has moved to the end and it lasts considerably longer. So today, the governing council meeting was very short, maybe about 30 minutes and then, the public was ordered out. We spent about an hour or so waiting for in camera meeting to finish so that we could give our flyers to the members that we missed earlier, and talk to them. We persevered and finally caught up with some of them.

We asked them if ethics for research partnerships could be put on the agenda.

One member said that this issue was dealt with last year and that it was solved. We reminded this member that this was the case of OISE, but that UofT still does not have ethical guidelines either for research partnerships or types or line of research. He said that he could not do anything and that we should talk to the main guy, pointing to president David Naylor by making an appointment with him.

Another member said that even if we got the issue on the agenda the students and the staff members are so underrepresented at the Governing Council that their full support through a vote would be insignificant.

Another member said that he personally liked David Naylor, but that he respected our work. We pointed out that we were not there to challenge David Naylor personally, that he may be a very nice guy, but that the issue of privatization/commercialization of research and lack of ethical guidelines should be addressed in a democratic manner.

All members took our flyers politely. Only provost Vivek Goel refused it.

This report prepared by Ivona Vujica, Coordinator People Agaisnt Miltiarization of Life (Int'l)  paml4peace@gmail.com

The struggle is ongoing…

e-mail:: PAML4PEACE@GMAIL.COM phone:: 416 760 6107

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