BURST
A former professor at Simon Fraser University has lost a B.C. labour relations case where he alleged his views on diversity, equity and inclusion cost him a tenure-track position.
Josh Gordon launched a complaint in October 2022 against the Faculty Association of Simon Fraser University in which he said the teachers’ union acted in bad faith by failing to represent him robustly in his complaint against the university for denying him tenure.
Gordon was a limited-term professor in SFU’s school of public policy from 2014 to 2021, and said in his complaint that his performance reviews were strong. However, in 2020, the university got an email signed by several of Gordon’s students complaining of “systemic racism” in the program.
“The faculty met to discuss the letter and I was the only person who voiced strong opposition to writing a conciliatory response,” Gordon said. “I viewed the letter as overwrought and unfounded, and the few oblique references to my teaching included in the letter were distorted and did not support the serious charges made by the students.”
When a tenure-track position became available in fall 2020, Gordon alleged, faculty crafted the position to include DEI considerations that served to exclude him. When he was shortlisted as one of three candidates, Gordon said those same faculty members organized in opposing him.
Though he later applied for and received some of those faculty members’ emails related to his candidacy through a freedom-of-information application, they were so heavily redacted he was unable to confirm his suspicions, and Gordon claimed the union didn’t try hard enough to obtain the unredacted originals.
The union said Gordon’s failure to land the job was not related to his political views and there were no obvious breaches to the collective agreement — which expressly refers to DEI principles as a consideration in hiring.
Gordon’s initial complaint argued the union’s representation was “arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith” in large part because it failed to gather all the relevant information.
He said the loss of his position damaged his career prospects and that having a limited-term position “for that long and not be given a tenure-track position is a major black mark on your record.”
Gordon’s research focused on B.C.’s housing market. He said that his public policy focus was encouraged by the department and that he was assured his work was strong.
SFU, for its part, said the dispute was strictly between Gordon and the faculty association. It said it complied with the FOI request and said Gordon’s personal information was not necessarily in all the documents SFU handed over.
The B.C. Labour Relations Board adjudicator, vice-chair David Duncan Chesman, offered Gordon, the union and SFU a resolution without going into a more detailed review late last year, but Gordon declined.
Chesman said the facts are not in dispute and that gives him the authority to decide on the allegation without the parties giving further evidence at a hearing.
He said the scope of Gordon’s allegation is limited to his original complaint that the union failed to obtain all the unredacted emails in his case, and that the union has already explained why it didn’t see that as needed.
The adjudicator said unions have “wide latitude” to decide how to proceed with a grievance and that it is not acting arbitrarily or in bad faith if it doesn’t use a strategy advocated by one employee.
The adjudicator also agreed with the union’s position that, had it gone ahead with a grievance based on Gordon’s claim that his political views were part of the decision, the grievance’s success would not have resulted in him getting the position because there were so many other factors involved in the decision.
Gordon said the union argument that redoing the hiring process would have resulted in the same outcome is based on a flawed assumption.
“Consider: If a faculty member alleged anti‐Indigenous racism in a hiring process which resulted in their effective disqualification, and that was found to be true, would the faculty association insist that the standard for a grievance was if the racist colleagues would alter their prejudices, given a second chance? That seems absurd.”
He also agreed with the union that DEI considerations have become a part of hiring at the university over the past few years and can’t be seen as “primarily or illegitimately targeting” Gordon.
Chesman also dismissed as “speculation” Gordon’s claim that the unredacted emails might have shown faculty misconduct.
Gordon now works as a housing data analyst with Statistics Canada and is a visiting professor at McMaster University in Hamilton.