Thread by @JeffreyASachs

I want to highlight two critical responses to the Cromwell Report, which cleared senior UofT admins of any wrongdoing in Azarova Affair. Valentina Azarova, you may recall, was in final talks to accept a directorship position when a donor intervened over her pro-Palestinian views.

The first is from Vincent Wong, who had served on the hiring committee and subsequently resigned in protest. The entire thing is a must-read and I won't single out any one passage. Not only is it a damning indictment of Cromwell, but of UofT Law.

opiniojuris.org/2021/04/06/wha…

The second is from Joseph Carens, a political theorist and emeritus prof at UofT, who nicely lays out why Cromwell's report fails to actually clear the administration of corrupt interference.

dropbox.com/s/howgl8fs4j59…

In the end, the results of the Cromwell Report change nothing. If anything, the details it relates actually confirm the scandal: a) The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs asks a UofT donor and federal judge to intervene in a hiring process; b) He does so;...

...c) His concerns are relayed to the law school dean; d) Who within days (over a long holiday weekend, no less) overrode the unanimous decision of the hiring committee to reject its chosen candidate's job offer.

That's all there is to it. Cases are rarely so clear cut.

And now here we are. Azarova is out of a job, the Dean has been cleared of all wrongdoing, and everyone else involved (all of whom are either women or POC, as Wong notes) has either resigned or been publicly chastised. The Cromwell Report has done its job.