Chair of UPEI's board of governors resigns after critical report, saying new leadership needed

The chair of the University of Prince Edward Island Board of Governors has resigned one week after an independent report outlined major problems at the campus over the past decade.

"I care deeply about the University of Prince Edward Island, the students, the faculty, and the staff," Pat Sinnott said in a letter distributed to the campus community Wednesday.

"That said, it is clear to me that, at this time, new leadership is needed to address challenging issues."

The letter, dated June 21, said Sinnott was "stepping aside, effective today."

Sinnott had been chair of the body that oversees the university's finances and administration since June 1, 2015. He had been a member of the board since October of 2009.

UPEI sent out a statement to faculty, staff and students just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday, saying the institution's board "is committed to refreshing its membership as per the recommendation in the Rubin Thomlinson report."

That statement also said the board's Andrew Bartlett, another long-standing member,had also "indicated he will step aside as a member."

With the departures of Bartlett and Sinnott, the 26-person board will have seven vacancies.The university's statement said the rest of the board members "will elect a new chair at a meeting in the coming days."

• Read the Rubin Thomlinson report summarizing the UPEI review

It added: "The UPEI Board of Governors will further undertake a governance review to ensure members receive appropriate information to make evidence-based decisions that are in the best interest of the University community and aligned with the university's values: academic freedom and rigour, accountability and integrity, excellence, inclusion, equity, and reconciliation."

Late Wednesday afternoon, the university's website was still listing Sinnott, described as a Toronto-based retired executive,as board chair. Sinnott's LinkedIn profile says he worked at Canadian Tire for 19 years leading up to December 2012, and at Ernst & Young for 12 years before that.

On board at key time

Sinnott and Bartlett were the only two members of the current board who were part of the body between 2013 and 2015, a period singled out by the Rubin Thomlinson report.

That's when two women accused former president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz of sexual harassment, sparking an investigation that included some members of the board of governors. The complaints were eventually settled, with the women signing non-disclosure agreements.

Sinnott told CBC News last week that the board members who participated in the investigation told the rest of the board there was no reason why the president's contract should not be renewed in 2015.

The board went on to extend Abd-El-Aziz's contract in 2018 and 2021 as well.

He eventually resigned in December 2021 after another complaint about his behaviour was filed. That led the university to commission an investigation by Rubin Thomlinson, a Toronto-based law firm that had previously conducted a workplace investigation at CBC News after the firing of radio host Jian Ghomeshi.

The UPEI investigation and report preparation took 18 months and is expected to cost the university an estimated $400,000.

Faculty union welcomes departures

The UPEI Faculty Association had been calling for Sinnott and Bartlett to step aside.

Executive director Margot Rejskind welcomed their resignations, but said it was "quite literally the least they could have done" in light of the content of the Rubin Thomlinson report.

"That culture of bullying, harassment, racism, misogyny and retaliation and fear it's real, it's ongoing, and you don't make a couple of little chess moves and make it go away," she said late Wednesday.

"There absolutely has to be a great deal more done."

Rejskind said the first step will be finding "a good credible chair who can take us on that path toward change."

Saying she had been aware of the extent of the issues at UPEI for some time, due to her union work, Rejskind said: "That report is awful. It is really terrible and yet there were no surprises there for me.