The Tricultural Committee for University Education at Sudbury issued a statement on Dec. 14, expressing to Dr. Robert Haché and the board of governors that “they have a right to know,” about the documents Laurentian University has deemed privileged.
The university’s governance is refusing to provide documents to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk. The Ontario Legislature issued a speaker’s warrant on Dec. 9 which compels the university to supply the province with privileged documents it has been refusing thus far.
The Tricultural Committee stated in their release that the motion from the Ontario Legislature marks a turning point in the story that has been unfolding since Feb. 1, when Laurentian placed itself under the protection of the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act.
“Since then, Laurentian has been spending tens of millions of dollars of public funds and student tuition on legal fees,” it reads. “The complete secrecy and silence surrounding these proceedings, a process which has drastic consequences for both the institution and the communities it serves, has led to this rare and unanimous call by all parties in the Ontario Legislature.”
Their immediate question, “What do Laurentian’s Administrators and Board of Governors have to hide that is so terrible?”
The Tricultural Committee states that it strongly supports the Ontario Legislature’s demand that Laurentian hand over all requested documents. The community, employees, and students have the right to know what happened.
“The painful spectacle we witness daily confirms the Tricultural Committee’s N’Swakamok Reconciliation Declaration: For an Equal and Truthful Trilateral Path to University Restoration at Sudbury,” the release states.
Also as part of their statement, The Tricultural Committee demands that:
• The Province of Ontario, in cooperation with the Federal government, bring the CCAA process to a close by providing emergency financial commitments to claimants.
• Laurentian University President Robert Haché and every member of the Board of Governors resign. If they do not resign, the province should remove them.
• Following these resignations, Laurentian University should be placed in the hands of publicly appointed trustees for a limited period until more open and collegial policies are adopted.
• The misleadership and failures of Laurentian’s Board of Governors to act on behalf of Laurentian as a public university must be subject to a public enquiry, and those responsible must be held accountable.
The Tricultural Committee’s release states that it believes that “there is a future for university education in Northern Ontario, one that is based on the development of new independent Indigenous, Franco Ontarian, and Anglophone universities, each with equal rights, operating collegially, and working mutually for the common good of the peoples and land of the region.”
