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So he started talking about guns. In January 1989, in the course of scouting the possibility of a transfer to another department with Catherine MacKenzie, executive assistant to the rector, he said he realized the only way to get what you want in North America is to buy a gun and shoot a lot of people. His comments frightened her and she reported them to Grendon Haines, the university’s conflict-resolution specialist. Haines had no actual powers, but he spoke to Fabrikant several times over the next couple of months. Fabrikant led him to believe that he already had a gun — he didn’t — and boasted that he planned to shoot Swamy, the Sankars, and others. He even talked about taking the rector, Patrick Kenniff, hostage. Haines had never heard anyone talk the way Fabrikant did, and was alarmed. He reported back to MacKenzie who for a time had Fabrikant followed and security guards watching the homes of Kenniff and Dean Swamy. Haines says he told Kenniff about the threats and the surveillance. Kenniff denies he knew about them until Fabrikant’s trial.
MacKenzie and Haines consulted two psychiatrists. One said he thought a man such as they described was potentially dangerous and could become violent. The second psychiatrist, Warren Steiner, a frequent consultant to the university, said such a man’s aggressive anti-social behaviour revealed a personality disorder. He needed to be told firmly, in writing, what the university’s limits were and that his threats and blackmail would no longer be tolerated. Steiner advised them to tell the man to get help. Because no one was keeping an accurate record of what was going on, it’s not clear what happened next. What is clear is that no one sent Fabrikant any such letter.
Early that fall, Rose Sheinin had become Concordia’s vice-rector academic. Sheinin had been a distinguished cancer researcher at the University of Toronto but she had little experience in administration at this level. Still, it didn’t take her long to notice that the orderly pyramid she was used to at the University of Toronto didn’t exist at Concordia and she said so — loudly and repeatedly — something that didn’t endear her to her new colleagues. She was accused of being a U. of T. snob.
In December, 1989, Fabrikant, whose salary had now risen to $54,340, began inquiring about the three new tenure-track positions that would become available if Actions Structurantes evaluated CONCAVE’s programme favourably. Nine times out of ten, a tenure track position guarantees subsequent tenure. He visited Sam Osman, his chair, and begged him for one of the jobs. He’d already sent out 700 applications for other positions, he said. If he didn’t get one of the new jobs, he might have to solve things “the American way.” He gestured as if firing a gun. Osman was used to his grandiloquence by now — most people in the faculty were — and didn’t take the threat seriously. He promised to help Fabrikant get one of the jobs.
In January 1990, Grendon Haines reported to Sheinin that Fabrikant had asked him to tell her that if she didn’t do what he wanted, she’d get the same kind of treatment others had had. That was the first she’d heard of Fabrikant. She immediately informed Security of the threat but took no other action.
In February, the mechanical-engineering department personnel committee tried — unsuccessfully this time — to promote Fabrikant from the rank of “research associate professor” to “research professor.” The dossier supporting the recommendation for promotion contained favourable student evaluations of Fabrikant’s courses; a number of his publications, including his first book, which had recently been published; evidence that he’d been successful in obtaining grants and supervising graduate students; and letters of support Osman had solicited from recognized experts in Fabrikant’s field. One described him as being among “the top ten international researchers in [his] area.” Another said, “The scope of his research is astounding ... . His solutions are both simple and remarkably accurate.” The engineering faculty’s personnel committee unanimously approved the departmental recommendation. They had no reason not to. But the administration, in the person of Sheinin, turned it down on the ground that there was no such formal rank.
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n the spring of 1990, Actions Structurantes gave the go-ahead for the three new tenure-track positions. In September, Osman recommended that Fabrikant be given one of them. He noted Fabrikant’s impressive research record and his favourable student evaluations. Sheshadri Sankar said he would support the appointment with the understanding that Fabrikant’s research would be in a field relevant to CONCAVE. The departmental personnel committee approved the recommendation.
Dr. Fabrikant's Solution, continued >
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