From: ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Ray Dunn)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada,sci.research.careers
Subject: Montreal news of Fabrikant - 9
Date: 9 Oct 92 01:00:55 GMT
Organization: On the Brew.

Transcribed without permission from The West Island Suburban, Wed, Oct 8th.
1992, a free, home-delivered tabloid.  It has been involved in controversy
in the past for publishing extreme editorials.

QUOTE

Good Luck, you bloody scum, Fabrikant tells Suburban editor

By Christie McCormack
Editor

Valery Fabrikant, the University professor charged with the shooting deaths
of four of his Concordia colleagues and wounding a secretary, telephoned my
home Saturday night, calling me and Suburban reporter Terry Levine "scum"
several times in the course of a twenty minute conversation.

I called his wife on Friday, suggesting her husband would find as
sympathetic an ear as could be found in the media if he chose to call me.

My sympathies arise from a belief that there may be grounds for serious
inquiry into the charges he made against his colleagues in the university's
mechanical engineering department.

Fabrikant's discourse was level headed to begin with.  He reviewed his
experience in the department in which others were allegedly taking his
work, appending their names to it, and selling it to government agencies
through a private company of their own.

Asked what he had done to bring these charges forward, Fabrikant said he
had gone to the "executive-assistant to the rector," Catherine MacKenzie,
and she allegedly told him that he would have to substantiate the charges.

Concordia University said Monday that Dr.  MacKenzie had been transferred
to the art history department from her former position of vice-rector,
services and that she was never executive assistant to the rector.  She is
now on sabbatical.

University officials, Fabrikant said, "told me that when another person at
another university attempted to substantiate such charges, he was fired.  I
knew what they were telling me."

Said a Concordia spokeswoman:  "The inquiry into his charges has been put
off until the trial is over, but will resume at that time."

According to Fabrikant, he received a university merit award in 1989 to
silence his protests.

"That was the time they were offering me a carrot.  They played it that
way.  There always was a swing in mood in the administration.  They didn't
want me to blow the whistle, so sometimes they would award me and then they
would plan to fire me.

Fabrikant also said that his superiors in the department "blackmailed" him
into supplying them with papers.  "They would make it clear that if I
didn't supply them with so many papers, they would not renew my contract."

Asked if he had gone to the ombudsman, he said:  "The ombudsman's run by
the rector, I went to the rectors office."

Feeling guilty about not fully investigating his charges, I tried to
explain that The Suburban lacked the resources.  But Fabrikant was
unforgiving:  "You scum!  I talked to your Mr.  Levine and I gave him the
documents - documents!  Is he stupid or is he trying to protect the
university?"

No, I said, we needed corroboration, that a single accusation wasn't good
enough.

"But you had the documents!  Scum!  You journalists are the worst.  You
have to wait until people are killed or in jail before you show any
interest.  Because you did not do your job, you caused this - you bloody
scum!"

The documents were mere photocopies.

"Listen very attentively," he said, before outlining the alleged transfer
of money from one person to another in mechanical engineering to private
companies.

I told him it should be and should have been investigated, but without
expert assistance beyond his own, we were not competent to judge unless we
put a lot more time than we could afford.

"This is stupid!"  he snapped.  "Can you not see that there was a plain
conflict of interest here?  Could not Mr.  Levine see it, too?"

I asked him to be reasonable.  To make a comparison, I said that in the
master-apprentice relationship, this is how it traditionally works.  Only
the journeymen received real money.

"That's not true," he said.

Soon our discussion became irretrievably abrasive.  Do you have any
regrets, I asked.

"Is that, or is that not, a stupid question?"

It is the question many people would like asked and answered, I told him.

"That was not my question.  I asked if it were a stupid question?"

No, I said.

"Well, do you have any other question, other than the stupid one?"

No, I said.

"Good luck, you bloody scum," he said.

Goodbye, I said.

UNQUOTE
-- 
Ray Dunn at home        |  Beaconsfield, Quebec  |  Phone: (514) 630 3749
ray@philmtl.philips.ca  |  dunn@cam.org          |  uunet!sobeco!philmtl!ray
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada