Press Release on legal action re l’UQAM suppression

Press Release

For immediate release

 

2007-10-31

 

            A legal action against the Université du Québec à Montréal (l’UQAM) has being initiated by Abraham Weizfeld, doctoral student with the Department of Political Science. He was expelled without the right of appeal when he was about to proceed to the Defence hearing for his Thesis. The University Ombudsman, Me. Pierre-Paul Lavoie after an enquiry submitted a seven-page advisory recognizing that the administrative procedures had not been respected and that errors had been committed against Mr. Abraham Weisfeld. This report has been ignored by the University’s non-academic Administration.

            All available avenues of appeal and defence have been sought within the University itself resulting only in his exclusion. The only alternative remains of resorting to a judicial review at the Cour Supérieur du Québec in order to oblige the University Administration to respect its own regulations in this affair in defence of his rights.

Abraham Weizfeld is known for his commitment in defence of the Palestinians during many years in Toronto, Ottawa and now Montréal.

His Thesis is entitled: Nation, Society and The State: the reconciliation of Palestinian and Jewish Nationhood. He is also the Co-Founder of the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians; a cross- Canada anti-occupation organization composed of numerous academics and recently denied affiliation with the Canadian Jewish Congress.

            It is possible that pressure was exerted by the pro-Israel State lobby which seeks to suppress any and all critical work that refers to the Zionist movements’ practices with respect to the Palestinian People, especially when it arises from a Jewish source. Weizfeld is himself also a second-generation Holocaust survivor.

 

Further information available from :

 

Me. Patrice Blais

Legal representative

514.504.89.06

avocat@patriceblais.com

513.211.76.92 cellulaire

Abraham Weizfeld B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D. cand.

514.284.66.42

saalaha@fokus.name

Prof. Lawrence Olivier

Thesis director

Olivier.lawrence@uqam.ca