U of W employee calls for investigation into university's leadership under whistleblower legislation
The Free Press obtained a six-page submission to the Manitoba ombudsman about the publicly funded institution under president Todd Mondor.
It echoes concerns on campus about employee turnover, transparency about recent cost-cutting measures and new rules that censor protests and other activities at U of W.
The complaint was filed late last month. The ombudsman is assessing whether it requires further investigation.
'It might be unusual to have a whistleblower complaint, but that may be more reflective of the person who filed it rather than the culture at the U of W,' Mondor told the Free Press Monday in a rare interview.
Manitoba's whistleblower protection legislation facilitates the disclosure and investigation of significant and serious wrongdoing within public bodies.
It was created to protect employees who have evidence of unethical or illegal activities.
U of W's president defended his track record over the last three years — his five-year term began in April 2022 — at the helm of the school, saying he's tried to be as transparent and collaborative as possible.
Mondor said that ethos is why he has organized seven town halls during his tenure and made it well known the university is projecting a significant deficit for 2025-2026.
Senior administration has primarily attributed the financial crunch to an unfair provincial funding formula and a drop in first-year international student enrolment.
Mondor said the number of new international students this year dropped by 10 per cent compared to 2023-2024.
While he said that percentage is expected to triple next year, he did not have a rough estimate of how much U of W expects to be in the red in a year's time.
Public meeting minutes show he has told senate the shortfall could be between $4 million and $18 million.
The administration has announced numerous reductions to find cost savings.
Since the fall, they have included a hiring freeze, reduced discretionary spending and cancelling both an English-language program and the 2025 women's soccer season.
The university has not revealed how much each measure has saved, but it did not end the recent fiscal year with a deficit.
The whistleblower is calling for an investigation into spending on external consultants and management positions.
U of W recently contracted Higher Education Strategy Associates, a Toronto-based consulting firm, to study Manitoba's funding model for post-secondary education, conduct a campus space audit and develop its new strategic plan.
Mondor's administration has also hired Show and Tell Agency, a marketing firm headquartered in the Exchange District, to create a brand strategy.
'A university that is financially challenged should be very careful about which consultants it hires for anything — for strategic plans and, certainly, for branding exercises,' said Peter Miller, president of the faculty association, echoing the whistleblower's concerns about frivolous spending.
Miller said morale among his members is low and budget pressures are only one contributing factor. There has been a 'fundamental shift' in how his employer of nearly a decade operates, said the associate professor and chair of the classics department.
'Faculty are being consulted less and are playing a less-central role in the governance of the institution,' he said.
One example is the administration updating a policy on accessing buildings and posting it online without consulting academics who are contractually entitled to have input on changes to their workplace, Miller noted.
The changes require outdoor event organizers to obtain explicit pre-approval from the administration and ban visitors outside regular school hours 'unless authorized by security.' The updated policy explicitly prohibits camping on university grounds.
Those updates, as well as the drafting of an entirely new convocation policy that polices attire and activities, appear to respond to a recent wave of pro-Palestinian protests at universities in Winnipeg and across the country.
Protesters set up encampments both at the U of W and University of Manitoba, Mondor's previous employer, last spring. A medical school valedictorian at the U of M made headlines after he urged fellow graduates to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Kelly Gorkoff, a researcher who has worked at U of W for 18 years, said a lot of her colleagues are concerned about the state of transparency and 'the direction of the university.'
'I understand it's tough to be an administrator. I wouldn't want to do it, but I think they really need to consider what kind of university culture they want to manifest and to nurture. Universities have always been places of freedom of thinking, freedom of debate,' said the associate professor and chair of the criminal justice department.
Gorkoff said there is a disconnect between U of W leadership's concerns about the suppression of academic freedom south of the border and its actions.
As far as Miller is concerned, convocation is an extension of what happens in the classroom, so it should be a place for debate, discussion and dissent.
He called it striking that U of W administration has written a graduation policy that would bar an attendee from holding up a sign that says 'land back' or wearing a keffiyeh, a black-and-white headdress that is a symbol of the Palestinian liberation movement.
Asked about community concerns related to policy-making, Mondor said the university is formalizing existing practices and takes faculty input into consideration.
While indicating he is not leading the convocation policy process, the president said, 'We don't want to suppress anyone's individual right to do whatever the heck they want.'
'That's why it's not live,' he said, adding the draft may not be approved and not go into effect, after all.
Mondor was asked for but did not provide the total cost of recent external contracts. He did, however, defend them as one-off expenses that drew on administrative budgets.
U of W originally planned a public budget town hall this month. The university now plans to table its fiscal blueprint in early June.
The Manitoba government did not directly respond to a question about whether it was aware of a whistleblower report involving the school.
'The ombudsman is the appropriate channel to deal with and investigate these matters,' a spokesperson for the department of advanced education said in a statement.
The ombudsman's office indicated it cannot discuss specific inquiries or disclosures as they are treated confidentially.
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The time it takes to assess disclosures and conduct investigations varies based on available information and the volume of inquiries, said Amie Lesyk, communications officer for the ombudsman.
Jill Perron has been Manitoba's ombudsman since 2019.
Lesyk said the ombudsman receives an average of 25 whistleblower disclosures under Manitoba's Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act annually.
A report on 2023-2024 activity shows 23 disclosures of wrongdoing were submitted; 16 of them, two of which were acted on, were closed.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie MacintoshEducation reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.
Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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That means my children, I could never afford college or university for them,' she said. Joy Budd gained 6(2) status following the passing of Bill C-31 in 1985. However, her children and grandchildren currently lack status.(John Woods / Free Press) Budd lived for two years on the Cumberland House reserve when her kids were younger, but because they were non-status, they were not allowed to go to the treaty school. Her children are now 32 and 28 years old. Even though her son had children with a woman who has 6(2) status, his three children remain ineligible for status. Two have specific medical needs, but, because they are non-status, they aren't eligible for support from Jordan's Principle for medical appointments, she said, referring to the federal government's legal obligation to ensure First Nations children have access to proper health care, among other supports. 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Smaller, non-isolated communities with a higher rate of 'marrying out' were set to see the negative effects more quickly, some in a single generation, wrote Claudette Dumont-Smith, a special representative to the Crown-Indigenous relations minister. She recommended the federal government launch a consultation process over the cut-off, which began in late 2023. A committee of Indigenous organizations was appointed to advise on how to proceed. According to an initial report, these organizations emphasized the need for First Nations people to have support conducting geological research. The Assembly of First Nations Manitoba also suggested the creation of a records office that would allow people to trace how their family lost status. Indigenous Services has also published a fact-sheet for each First Nation detailing the number of members who hold 6(2) status. (In Manitoba, this group represents 15 to 45 per cent of First Nations' overall status membership — see data for each First Nation in a chart below.) The same disclaimer is found on each fact-sheet: 'even as your Nation's population grows over time, (your Nation's) total registered populations are likely to decrease in size,' however in a comment this week, an Indigenous Services' spokesperson said their latest projections show the status population continuing to grow until the end of the modelling period in 2066. Public-facing consultation events and engagement sessions have yet to begin, the spokesperson, Eric Head, confirmed. Minister of Indigenous Services Mandy Gull-Masty leaves a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Despite repeated requests, Gull-Masty was not made available for an interview by press time. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press files) Despite repeated requests, beginning a month ago, Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty was not made available for an interview by press time. Head said the department is committed to working with First Nations to address the cut-off, and added that the current consultation process is not focused on 'whether to address the issue, but on how to address the issue.' Claire Truesdale, a non-Indigenous lawyer who has helped around 50 people apply for status, believes more urgency is needed. She pointed to the fact the federal government has known for years — at least since the McIvor case in 2009 — how problematic the cut-off is. 'They've acknowledged that this is a problem but they have been incredibly slow to do anything about it,' she said. The government's stance — that there is not agreement among First Nations on how to proceed — is a poor reason for failing to act with urgency, she said. 'Kids are being excluded now,' she added. Drew Lafond, president of the national Indigenous Bar Association, said the question of Indian status has essentially become a 'red herring.' 'The debate over who is — and who is not — a status Indian, I think, ignores the fundamental, or foundational question of when did Indigenous peoples, if ever, relinquish their jurisdiction over determining who is and who is not a citizen of their nation?' Lafond said. 'To my knowledge, that has never taken place,' added the lawyer, who has long worked on issues surrounding status and citizenship, and is a member of Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, though he points out he maintains kinship relationships throughout Western Canada. A federal government that 'facilitates and authorizes' the disenrolment of Indigenous people without their consent is a violation of the human rights of Indigenous people, Lafond said, referencing Article 9 of the United Nations' Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states Indigenous people have the right to belong to their community or Nation in accordance with that group's traditions and customs. 'To say nothing of how ridiculous the formula has become over the years,' he added. In the past, the federal government has taken an ominous tone when discussing the possible effects of repealing the cut-off. During a Senate committee hearing in 2022, Christiane Fox, then a deputy minister with Indigenous Services, warned the move would lead to 250,000 more people with status, 'at minimum,' which, she added, 'will substantively impact the registration process and, of course, programs and services that are offered.' According to demographic projections by Statistics Canada, which had been produced just days before Fox's Senate appearance, the cut-off's repeal would lead to 173,000 extra registrants by 2041 in a medium-growth scenario. More recent modelling projects an even lower number: 121,800 extra registrants by 2046, according to Statistics Canada records obtained through an access-to-information request. What's clear from the records is that the federal department is closely tracking the financial implications of changing its registration criteria. (The Free Press filed a similar request with Indigenous Services nine months ago; after requesting a lengthy extension and failing to meet that deadline, the department has yet to provide the files.) The records give a sense of the possible population impacts facing First Nations — if changes are not made. In a medium-growth scenario, the annual rate of growth of the status population is projected to take a nosedive: from 2.05 per cent in 2021 to 0.05 in 2066. In a low-growth scenario, the growth rate is projected to 'turn negative' by 2055, indicating a decline in the overall population size. What's also clear from these records is that the federal department is closely tracking the financial implications of changing its registration criteria. In an email last fall, a project leader for Indigenous Service's registration reform team wrote: 'The team and I would like to begin costing out the differences in costing between keeping the registration provisions as is versus remedying the second-generation cut-off.' Seated in a Winnipeg hotel restaurant booth, Lou Moodie places a file on the table that speaks to his mission — it shows a family's successful journey in getting their child's status changed from 6(2) to 6(1). 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In this child's case, the process involved ordering a new long-form birth certificate — not a copy — with the father included; filling out a statutory declaration from Indigenous Services, which has to be signed by a notary; and then mailing the package with copies of the parents' ID, along with, Moodie suggests, a letter of intent, reiterating the father's information. It's easy to use the wrong form or miss a spot for an initial, which can lead to lengthy delays. One of Moodie's pieces of advice is to avoid using correction tape and instead, cross out and initial any mistakes. But in this case, just a few weeks later, a letter arrived saying the child's registration category code had been amended. Since his retirement two years ago, Moodie has been travelling to First Nations to train their staff on how to convert children with 6(2) status to 6(1), as well to register non-status kids, when possible, while running a TikTok channel, where, with his daughter's help, he's amassed roughly 10,000 followers. He's also been hosting two-day conferences, with help from his family, including his wife, Edna; his son, Lou, Jr.; and his 'Irish son' Garrett, whom he adopted as an adult. He has no funding source behind him, whether from the federal government or his First Nation, which is what he tells people irritated by the $800 cost of his conferences. With nearly 325,000 people holding 6(2) status in Canada, Moodie points out that this problem isn't a theoretical one, it's already here. Depending on with whom these people parent, 'That's 325,000 treaties gone — just like that,' Moodie says, snapping his fingers. But there's another reason for Moodie's urgency. 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- CTV News
Montreal group takes campaign to restore U.S. foreign aid to Times Square
Montreal-based eQualitie has partnered with the American branch of Transparency International to post a message, seen here in this handout photo on July 8, 2025, urging Americans to "support foreign aid" on a video billboard in New York's Times Square. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — Transparency International US (Mandatory Credit) A Montreal-based organization promoting democracy and digital rights is using a billboard in New York's iconic Times Square to urge Americans to resist cuts to U.S. foreign aid. 'A retreat by the United States will mean that the weight balances in favour of digital authoritarianism, and away from what are essentially Canadian values,' said Alex Dalessio, executive director of eQualitie. The organization works to advance digital security for civil society and media around the world, allowing people in oppressive states to circumvent censorship and surveillance to communicate securely. Dalessio's group has partnered with the American branch of Transparency International to post a 10-second message urging Americans to 'support foreign aid' on a video billboard in the heart of Manhattan over 90 days. 'Instability abroad puts American jobs and safety at risk,' the billboard message says, adding that foreign aid builds 'a stronger America.' The message will be displayed more than 11,000 times. Dalessio said the campaign isn't 'targeted' at the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and noted that European countries are also cutting back on foreign aid. His organization says it's politically neutral but wants Americans to think about the impacts of the U.S. pulling back from foreign aid after decades of funding development work that has helped spread democratic values around the world. 'Regardless of who made these changes to foreign aid, we would have made this message,' Dalessio said. 'The role of foreign aid, in the advancement of tools that support informed and educated democracies around the world, cannot be overstated.' Trump tasked billionaire Elon Musk with gutting the United States Agency for International Development earlier this year, slashing its workforce and eliminating 83 per cent of USAID's programs. The cuts have led to sudden halts in medical trials, hunger in refugee camps and cutbacks in access to HIV treatment and contraceptives in poorer countries. Dalessio said it's not clear yet what kind of impact those cuts have had on efforts to fight political repression abroad. Washington subsequently restored funding to some of the programs it had cut, while others went through what Dalessio described as 'significant' layoffs. 'We felt to some extent like there were a lot of articles about it, but there wasn't a lot of action being taken,' he said. Transparency International fights corruption abroad by assessing governance in various countries, while eQualitie works to empower those trying to build strong civil societies. Their work involves training locals to use technology to hold their governments to account and push back on repression. Dalessio said that repressive states have been using technology to surveil citizens and block their access to outside news 'as an extension of state power … to manage dissent, to direct election outcomes, or to influence the population at large.' 'This is certainly becoming normalized,' he added. 'We're seeing it in on every continent.' Dalessio said he hopes the U.S. reverses the cuts and that Canada joins its peers in 'leaning in and supporting some of these programs.' He argued that foreign aid spending could even count toward NATO's military spending target for defence-related infrastructure, since instability leads to costly conflict. NATO itself has said that hostile states are actively undermining democracies and neighbouring states. 'What's going on in the U.S. will have implications for democracy worldwide,' Dalessio said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2025.
