1950:
A committee to establish a national organization for academic staff is formed at the meeting of the “Learned Societies” (now the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences) in Kingston, Ontario.
1951:
The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) is founded with six member associations and an elected executive committee. Membership is initially comprised only of full-time university faculty.
1953:
The first issue of the CAUT Bulletin is published. CAUT President Vernon C. Fowke writes: “The existence of the CAUT means that at long last Canadian University Teachers have a National Voice.”
Membership grows to 13 associations representing more than 1,200 individual members.
1958:
Harry Crowe Affair: the dismissal of a tenured associate professor at United College (now the University of Winnipeg) leads CAUT to establish its first committee of inquiry. Professors Vernon Fowke and Bora Laskin find that Crowe’s dismissal was contrary to the basic principle of academic freedom.
1959:
CAUT opens its first office in Ottawa and hires staff. J.H. Stewart Reid, who resigned his position at United College over the dismissal of Harry Crowe, is appointed Executive Secretary (now called Executive Director).
CAUT Council approves the first policy statement on academic freedom and establishes the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee.
1963:
CAUT president Bora Laskin and Prime Minister Lester Pearson reach an accord limiting security service surveillance and investigations on Canadian university campuses.
1964:
The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) is founded.
The Fédération des associations des professeurs des universités du Québec (FAPUQ) is founded, a precursor organization to the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d’université (FQPPU).
- CAUT assists financially and operationally with the founding of both organizations, with the primary aim of lobbying provincial governments.
The J.H. Stewart Reid Memorial Fellowship Fund is established to honour the memory of the first Executive Secretary of CAUT who passed away the previous year.
1965:
In a report commissioned by CAUT, Queen’s University law professor Daniel Soberman warns there is little legal protection for academic freedom and tenure in Canada. He concludes that associations could remedy this if they “bargain with the university administration to agree upon a uniform employment and tenure agreement... like a collective agreement in Canadian industry.”
1966:
The Duff-Berdahl Report on Canadian University Governance, formed by CAUT and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, is published. The report establishes the principle of shared or bicameral governance.
1968:
CAUT Council imposes censure against an institution for the first time. The censure of Simon Fraser University is lifted later the same year after the administration agrees to governance reforms.
1969:
CAUT Council imposes censure on the University of New Brunswick for terminating a tenured professor. The decision comes after a proposal by CAUT President C.B. Macpherson to have the matter adjudicated by an independent arbitrator is rebuffed by the administration.
1970:
The Association des ingénieurs-professeurs en sciences appliquées de l’Université de Sherbrooke becomes the first certified academic staff union in Canada.
CAUT incorporates under the Canada Corporations Act.
The College and Institutes Educators’ Association of BC (now the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC) and the Federation of New Brunswick Faculty Associations are founded.
1971:
CAUT Council establishes a Collective Bargaining Committee.
The Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia (CUFA-BC) is founded.
Academic staff at the Université du Québec à Montréal are the first to strike in Canada.
1972:
FAPUQ member associations leave CAUT following a failed attempt to make the organization a confederation of provincial associations.
1973:
The Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations (CAFA) is founded.
The first academic staff association outside Quebec certifies at Notre Dame University College in Nelson, British Columbia.
1974:
CAUT hires its first professional staff with collective bargaining expertise. Regional offices open in Halifax and Edmonton.
1976:
CAUT and the FAPUQ (now the FQPPU) sign an accord providing for cooperation between the two organizations.
CAUT and the Canadian Federation of Biological Societies create the National Consortium of Educational and Scientific Associations (now the Canadian Consortium for Research or CCR).
1977:
CAUT Council establishes the CAUT Defence Fund to provide strike/lock-out benefits for member unions. The initiative follows a bitter 4-month long strike at the Université Laval.
1979:
The CAUT Refugee Foundation is founded, initially to aid those fleeing Vietnam.
- The foundation has supported trade unionists, academics and their families in countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Argentina, Guatemala, Colombia, South Africa and Iran.
The CAUT Civil Liberties Defence Fund is established to advance and defend civil liberties and academic freedom.
1984:
CAUT unveils a proposal for a national Post-Secondary Education Act.
1986:
CAUT strikes a committee to review and make recommendations about the organization’s governance and structure. The report recommends establishing a “Collective Bargaining Cooperative" to allow certified associations who join to access enhanced bargaining support from CAUT.
1988:
The Learned Societies Conference, scheduled for Memorial University, is relocated because of CAUT’s censure of the institution. Memorial was censured in 1978 for refusing to re-appoint a professor of social work due to her political affiliation.
1991:
The Supreme Court of Canada rules on a case, brought by individual faculty backed by CAUT, challenging mandatory retirement. The court upholds the constitutionality of mandatory retirement but Justice La Forest, writing for the majority, asserts that academic freedom is necessary for the “free and fearless search for knowledge and the propagation of ideas” that is “essential to our continuance as a lively democracy.”
1992:
The Alberta Colleges and Institutes Faculties Association (ACIFA) is founded.
The Saskatchewan Association of University Teachers (now the Saskatchewan Organization of Faculty Associations, SOFA) is established.
1993:
Education International (EI) is founded as a global union federation. The organization, of which CAUT is a member, today represents 375 teacher and education worker organizations in 180 countries and territories.
1994:
The Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations (MOFA) is founded.
1997:
The UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel is adopted. CAUT Executive Director Don Savage and Pat Finn of the Carleton University Academic Staff Association were the principal drafters of the Recommendation.
The Nova Scotia Confederation of University Faculty Associations (now the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers) is founded.
2001:
The National Union of CAUT (NUCAUT) is founded and affiliates to the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).
The report of the CAUT Committee of Inquiry on the Case Involving Dr. Nancy Olivieri, the Hospital for Sick Children, the University of Toronto, and Apotex Inc. is published. The report attracts national interest for documenting serious violations of research ethics and academic freedom.
The Public Education Network - Réseau pour une éducation publique (PEN-RÉP) and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) are founded as national coalitions.
2003:
CAUT represents eight women academics challenging inequities in the Canada Research Chair Program. The effort results in a historic settlement agreement that requires the program to meet equity and diversity targets.
2008:
CAUT Council censures First Nations University of Canada over governance and academic freedom concerns. It is the first use of censure in 30 years and is lifted only after the university agrees to reforms that respect collegial governance.
2010:
The CAUT Equity Committee is established as a standing committee of Council.
2012:
CAUT criticizes the Association of Universities and Colleges Canada’s revised policy on academic freedom for ignoring intramural and extramural expression. Renewed efforts are launched to strengthen academic freedom language in collective agreements.
2016:
Advocacy organizations, including CAUT and the Canadian Federation of Students, win a 50% increase to Canada Student Grants.
2020:
CAUT Council censures the University of Toronto for cancelling a job offer to Dr. Valentina Azarova due to alleged donor pressure. The censure gains global attention and support. Six months later, CAUT's Council suspends the censure after the university re-offers the position to Dr. Azarova.
2021:
CAUT’s advocacy efforts lead to a $121.3 million federal investment in post-secondary minority-language education across Canada.
2024:
After pressure from CAUT and member associations, the federal government agrees to exclude public post-secondary institutions from corporate insolvency legislation.
The federal budget delivers on CAUT’s demand for an additional $1.8 billion over five years to fund core research through the three federal granting councils.
