Here's one story (http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/a/story/9601), you can
find others on the net and the Fortean Times ran a good article by
Paul Deveraux sometime round december last.....

auntlet News - Students locked out of labs

Story by: Simon Jackson, Gauntlet News
Story date: Thursday, December 08, 2005

Twenty-four students at Laurentian University are suffering
academically in what has become a prolonged and bitter battle between
the university administration, its Animal Control Committee and the
faculty member responsible for much of the behavioural neuroscience
program, Dr. Michael Persinger.

The problems began for students on Wed., Nov. 9 when LU administration
changed all the locks to the research facility where the behavioural
neuroscience program operates, preventing them from accessing any of
their animals.

"The hardest part of this situation is being locked away from the
ongoing research in the facility," said undergraduate student Dawn
Shea. "Knowing that some experiments are no longer viable and all that
scientific data is gone. I am actually considering University of
Calgary for grad studies but am worried I will not have the lab
experience required."

Senior LU administrators claimed they were forced to take the steps
after the university's ACC had rejected all of Persinger's animal use
protocols. Anybody wishing to conduct animal research at a Canadian
university are regulated by a local ACC. Any research undertaken must
be submitted first to the ACC for approval, before an animal use
protocol is granted.

U of C veterinarian and ACC member Dr. Doug Morck explained the role
ACC's play in approving research.

"The ACC provides the review, discussion, debate, and decisions with
respect to applications made by faculty members to use animals in
research, teaching, or testing," said Morck. "It is the role of the
ACC to not only debate the applications by faculty members using
animals, but to ensure that the three Rs of animal use are considered
and implemented. Researchers must replace animal use if it is feasible
and defend their proposed use of animals if replacement is not
feasible. They must also reduce the number of animals used and must
defend the numbers of animals they propose to use. And finally they
must refine their methods to ensure that the use is optimal and that
any discomfort experienced by their animals is minimized or eliminated."

Problems at LU began in 2004. According to documents provided by LU
administration, every ACC is regulated and guided by the Canadian
Council on Animal Care. The CCAC is funded by federal grants and is
responsible for publishing guidelines regarding the care and use of
animals in experimental research.

LU Media Relations Officer Paul de la Riva explained that the
university might lose funding for not complying to CCAC guidelines.

"Institutions meeting guidelines are given a Good Animal Practice
Certificate," said De la Riva. "Institutions failing to comply with
CCAC guidelines have this withdrawn and are also likely to lose
funding. In 2004 LU's ACC was disbanded following a CCAC visit which
placed their Good Animal Practice Certificate on probation. The
university put an interim committee in place and eventually appointed
a new one. It was this new committee which rejected or would not renew
the animal use protocols without significant changes."

The conflict has reached fever pitch, with the students employing
legal representation in order to gain access to the facility or gain
compensation.

"I am, sort of, a member of the ACC, however I am excluded from
participating in the discussions concerning the neuroscience research
group's protocols because they deem me to be in conflict of interest,"
said graduate student Debra Meades. "They refused to let ongoing
projects continue while all the details were ironed out. Obviously
they do not care about research."

LU administration is unmoved by the students' plight. De la Riva
highlighted their position in a press statement.

"Laurentian University is under no obligation to have an animal
research facility," he said. "However, as long as it operates one, it
will be administered in accordance with CCAC guidelines, as required
by the relevant granting councils."

The students are currently pursuing an injunction to have the facility
reopened.

"The university does not support us at all," said Meades. "They only
care about the big dollar. Univers-ities choose to cower and comply
rather than upholding the spirit of active and creative research."

Neither side was willing to comment about the nature of the alleged
CCAC violations.

-end of story-

-image follows-
Image caption: Dr. Persinger (middle) and his group of researchers
have been locked out of their labs at Laurentian University.
Image caption: Dr. Persinger (middle) and his group of researchers
have been locked out of their labs at Laurentian University.

Image credit: Courtesy Linda Saint-Pierre

--- In PSI_research@yahoogroups.com, Peter Raynolds
<peter.raynolds@...> wrote:
>
> Could someone fill-in some details about the roots of this
confrontation
> between Dr. Persinger and Laurentian?
>
>
>
> >===== Original Message From "tmharte@..." <tmharte@...> =====
> >Hello Dr. Roll,
> >This doesn't bode well for the scientific method or what a lecturer
can and
> cannot say in the classroom. Is this a Canadian thing? Thank you
for the
> information.
> >Timothy M. Harte
> >
> >
> >
>
>________________________________________________________________________
> >Try Juno Platinum for Free! Then, only $9.95/month!
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>
> Peter A. Raynolds, Ph.D.
> Adjunct Research Faculty, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,
Palo Alto, CA
> Emeritus Professor, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
> Home:
> 1626 Channing Way
> Berkeley, CA 94703
> 510-540-8800 (phone); 510-898-1525 (fax)
> E-mail: Peter.Raynolds@...
>