Former professor using Freedom of Information to ‘air grievances’ with TRU

A former Thompson Rivers University professor who made once made international attention for his research into “predatory publishing” continues his fight for information years later. But, the province’s privacy regulator said his actions have shifted away from “any legitimate interest” in that research.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner’s office has reviewed dozens of former professor Derek Pyne’s Freedom of Information requests to the university and last month it found his efforts were excessive and abused the process.

It’ June decision also found Pyne’s efforts were more about his personal grievances with the university and its employees, “wasting” the privacy regulator’s time and resources in the process.

An adjudicator found Pyne used Freedom of Information processes to “excessively harass the university, air grievances about the underlying dispute, engage in name calling and make intemperate allegations of perjury, negligence, incompetence and unlawful conduct.”

All six of his outstanding information requests were cancelled, but the adjudicator stopped short of barring his ability to file more, despite the university’s request.

Pyne was fired from the university after multiple written warnings, two suspensions and a temporary ban from campus. Though the economics professor contends it was due to his research into his own colleagues’ use of academic publishers he deemed “predatory” and his efforts to expose “dishonesty and corruption” at TRU, the university said it was because of harassment and “demeaning personal attacks” against staff, according to the decision.

In 2017, he published his research into the university’s business school faculty, arguing their work was routinely being published with predatory journals, which take payment from the authors themselves for publication rather than subscribers.

The payment model itself, however, doesn’t mean a publication is illegitimate and while Pyne took aim at his own colleagues for getting work published in questionable journals, his research was also challenged by TRU professors as exaggerating the issue.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers concluded Pyne’s academic freedom was breached, but TRU didn’t take part in the investigation and the association didn’t account for the university’s four workplace harassment investigations into Pyne’s conduct.

While Pyne may continue his efforts to get records from TRU to research, he had already filed dozens of Freedom of Information requests in a five-year period ending last spring, according to the decision.

Throughout privacy regulator hearings in recent years, he has accused university lawyers of perjury and “berated” university staff involved with his dispute. In an email to the university he also called one of its lawyers a “shyster.”

The regulator’s decision was meant to give Pyne a “fresh start” so he may “behave appropriately” if he files more Freedom of Information requests.