President MacLauchlan holds belief in profits over people in his last year of autocratic rule

President Wade MacLauchlan signaled that he will not accept the HR commission ruling that declared mandatory retirement illegal.

UPEI is asking the PEI Supreme Court for a judicial review which is the first level of appeal. UPEI could appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada if their PEI court appeal does not succeed.

The process has taken five years so far. Additional appeals will frustrate justice. The professors are getting older. They might not be capable of teaching in 3-5 years as the case works its way through the courts. Additional legal costs will be a burden to the professors. UPEI will be spending public dollars to defend the indefensible.

MacLauchlan telegraphed his displeasure with the PEI Human Rights Commission in a letter posted on the UPEI website.

“As we move toward that future, the following actions or considerations will help to ensure that we retain the greatest possible range of options for our long-term achievement as a University:

Review the decision of the PEI Human Rights Commission on the merits, notably as regards two issues: (a) the Commission’s holding regarding the UPEI Pension Plan and the Commission’s interpretation…”

In the typical attack by big business on human rights, UPEI says it just can’t afford to grant human rights to aging professors.

“Those reasons are related to the university having a bona fide pension plan, which the university does, as well as the Supreme Court ruling back in the early 1990s that allowed mandatory retirement to exist based on the need for academic renewal,” said Bradshaw. “If the panel’s decision is found to be binding on us then it has long-term financial implications as well as, again, it will impact the university’s ability to have renewal in both our faculty complement and eventually academic programing.” CBC

The courts have already ruled that economic necessity is no reason the deny human rights. That is the only argument UPEI uses in its defense.

If UPEI has professors who are not doing their jobs according to qualitative standards, there should be a mechanism to deal with that. Simply retiring people at 65 is against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms since the only determinant of dismissal is age.

A UPEI student summed it up in his comment “As a student of UPEI i am ashamed that our President Wade McLaughlin will project such an uncivil and negative image upon our University. As a student of political studies, I am told not to accept such ignorant policies and to preserve our civil rights, yet my University is doing the opposite.

He must believe that he is higher than our constitution to appeal such a simply protected civil right. Wade McLaughlin please retire, before you waste our money, and have to raise our tuition (yet again) to fight a case that our charter will never allow. Accept the civil laws of Canada, and save us students on footing the bill.” CBC

The process of establishing human rights in Canada is daunting. The Professors are essentially on their own pursuing an well-endowed former employer. The scales of justice are weighed in favor of UPEI who have the money to frustrate their rights for a long time.

Islanders with disabilities are accustomed to UPEI’s human rights abuse. MacLauchlan took away accessible parking almost two years ago and substituted parking that is too far for the disabled to walk. Despite law on their side, disabled students and employees have not been able to change the stubborn insistence on disability discrimination.