Kin-Yip Chun

Canadian geophysicist

Kin Yip Chun is a Canadian geophysicist at the University of Toronto's Department of Physics. He gained attention when he sued the University of Toronto for alleged racial discrimination.

By the time the controversy had ended, President Robert Prichard had departed and he had been succeeded by Robert Birgeneau. A mediated settlement was reached in 2000 and Chun dropped his appeal against the Ontario Human Rights Commission, as well as his $1 million lawsuit against the University. In return, Chun received a full time faculty position of Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor, $100,000 in compensation, an estimated $150,000 in legal fees and a $260,000 research start up fund. Columns by Margaret Wente of The Globe and Mail which attacked the settlement received severe criticism from members of the university community. The Arts & Science Students' Union (ASSU), which represents more than 22,000 full time undergraduate students at the University of Toronto described the incident as the "Dr. Chun miscarriage of justice" when bringing up the controversies of Prichard's administration, on the back of their 2001 Arts and Sciences Anti Calendar. In 2003, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) established a committee to study Dr. Chun's case. They concluded there were "serious irregularities" in the hiring process in each case and that Dr. Chun was treated unfairly. They discovered when he had made allegations of systemic discrimination, he was subject to various forms of harassment and unfair treatment, such as being prevented from attending departmental meetings, denied a faculty library card, frustrated from pursuing his research, and prohibited from teaching courses. The inquiry described this as a serious violation of academic freedom.