The Truthiness of Bruce Feldthusen

For the past year I've been critiquing the actions of Bruce Feldthusen, the Dean of Common Law at the University of Ottawa. My ongoing commentary has centred around the explosive growth that the school has undergone during the tenure of Feldthusen and his public statements about the articling crisis in Ontario. This will be my last article on Feldthusen as his term as Dean ends in July. 

I want to draw your attention to an interview (read Part 1 and Part 2) that Feldthusen recently gave to Inter Pares, the law student newspaper at the University of Ottawa. Simply put, Feldthusen engages in some of the most cynical, divisive commentary that I've ever seen from a university administrator. Throughout the interview he freely attacks lawyers, the law society, other law schools, and sadly his own students.

Bruce Feldthusen

I'm not going to engage in a point by point critique of Feldthusen's comments as it would be somewhat pointless and time-consuming. I will say thought that his comments seem par for the course in that he shifts blame, engages in an attempt at revisionist history, and denies any role in creating the articling crisis in Ontario. He covers a lot of ground in the interview such as tuition, the Legal Practice Program, the enrolment levels, international legal education, and the state of the profession.

One point that I will raise is that this interview may be the closest anyone ever gets to an explanation about why the law school brazenly increased enrolment to excessively high levels. Some difficult questions need to be answered about the role of the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities in allowing the enrolment to increase and whether the proximity of influential members of the Liberal Party of Canada within the University of Ottawa administration gave Feldthusen the political cover to boost enrolment numbers to unsustainable levels.

The only legacy that Feldthusen will be leaving is a black mark on the legal education in Ontario and that of being a key player in tanking the labour market (and economic prospects) for countless young lawyers. The arrogance emanating from Fauteux Hall as of late has been shocking and the faster leadership arrives the better off faculty, students, alumni, and Ontario's legal profession will be. On a side note, the situation in the law faculty has degraded to the point that precariously employed students working as research assistants at the law school are being openly attacked by Feldthusen for exercising their rights under their collective agreement which seems to be odd behaviour coming from a law school striving to be known as a leader in "social justice".

For my previous articles discussing Feldthusen and the situation at the University of Ottawa see: here, here, here, and here.  Since Feldthusen has denied any responsibility for the articling crisis I leave you with this banger from Shaggy (which actually spawned a legal defense):