Green versus U of W: The gloves are off

Back in January, I told my readers that I had been expelled from the teacher certification program at the University of Winnipeg. Over the next two months, I attempted to fight my expulsion. The University set up a kangaroo court to hear my final appeal, which was rejected in the end.

Last week, I filed a Statement of Claim at the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench claiming damages from the University of Winnipeg and various individuals who were involved in removing me from the program. I have just learned that the existence of my lawsuit is likely to be announced in the media very soon. So the fight goes public.

People in my situation have tried to sue many universities in the past, and the courts are not in general sympathetic to us. The university will undoubtedly attempt to have my claim dismissed outright before even going to trial, and they might succeed. Anything can happen when you go before a judge. On the other hand, I know what they did to me, and they know what they did, and I can tell you that they don't want to have to defend their actions in either the media or in court.

While I was still fighting my expulsion through the internal process, I was posting information on my other blogsite, "Due Process, Natural Justice and the University of Winnipeg". At that time, I didn't want to give away anything to the university that might compromise my position in any subsequent litigation, so I was only posting information that they already knew. At some point, I decided that it might not be in my best interest to have that information public, so I removed my posts. Tomorrow the fight becomes public, so I have restored all my old posts. To get the whole story, you have to start at the very oldest post and click through them one by one.

And that's where we stand as of today. I think I have a pretty good case against the university, but the judicial process can drag on for years, and even a huge settlement at the end can never make right what was taken away from me. I was a good teacher. I only spent a few weeks in the classroom but I knew that was where I belonged, and the kids knew it too. But my name has been blackened by the University and their collaborators, and now I have virtually no chance of getting back into the teaching profession.

I will be keeping my readers up to date on the fight as it develops from now on. You can follow my exploits on my "Due Process..." blog. In the meantime, I need to support myself for the duration of the fight, and I am therefore accepting private students. I have created a teaching blogsite called "Math with Marty" where I have started posting free on-line lesson modules for the high school math and science curriculum. If you like the on-line lessons, you will love the live in-person version.