Thank you so much for the capsule — almost bullet-point-styled — “A Brief History of CAUT” in the March-April (2026) Bulletin, pp. 4-6. A proud, 75-year history was quite ably presented, with the significant years properly highlighted. Even so, as someone who worked alongside Canada’s second Black Member of Parliament, Dr. Howard D. McCurdy (1932-2018), and who edited the 2023-issued autobiography of the microbiologist, civil and human rights activist, and two-term MP (1984-1993), I’d like to note that McCurdy was the CAUT President (elected in 1967) who oversaw the CAUT Council decision to censure Simon Fraser University in 1968. Being also a founder of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, McCurdy understood — in his very bones — the awesome relationship between academic freedom and the rights and freedoms that buoy civil society change-makers.
Dr. George Elliott Clarke, OC, ONS, FRCGS, PhD, E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature, University of Toronto
