The Canadian Human Rights Commission has mediated a settlement of a discrimination complaint by eight senior female professors against the billion-dollar Canada Research Chairs program. The program, which was designed to support world-class academic research in Canada, said it would work with universities to set concrete equity targets for women, members of visible minority groups, aboriginal peoples, and people with disabilities.
However, a statement issued by the professors notes that since it took three and a half years to reach an agreement, most of the 2,000 chairs have already been filled, so the settlement in fact will apply only to the renewal of chairs. The Canadian Association of University Teachers said today’s agreement had broken new ground.
