The University of Toronto has that it rescinded a job offer in human rights legal work after a wealthy donor raised objections over the chosen candidate¡¯s criticisms of Israel.

University leaders, after weeks of pressure, also said they would let the scholar, Valentina Azarova, stand as a candidate in a new effort to fill the non-academic position of director of the International Human Rights Programme in the Faculty of Law.

They rejected, however, any suggestion of interference in academic freedom or other impropriety.

¡°Assertions that outside influence affected the outcome of that search are untrue and objectionable,¡± the dean of law at Toronto, Edward Iacobucci, told his faculty in an email. ¡°University leadership and I would never allow outside pressure to be a factor in a hiring decision.¡±

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The controversy over the past month as law faculty resigned from the International Human Rights Programme¡¯s advisory board to protest at the failure to hire Dr Azarova, the unanimous choice of their hiring committee.

Media reports, including email exchanges, have suggested that Dr Azarova was given a verbal offer, and was making plans to move to Toronto from her post as a visiting lecturer at Bard College Berlin, when the opportunity was pulled back.

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Reports attributed the reversal to private complaints to campus leaders from David Spiro, a member of the Tax Court of Canada, whose extended family has to the university. A pro-Israel activist, Mr Spiro was reportedly motivated by Dr Azarova¡¯s of the Palestinian territories.

Numerous legal scholars and other organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, demanded the university .

¡°There¡¯s evidence to suggest that the university bowed to that outside political pressure,¡± said David Robinson, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. ¡°And that¡¯s absolutely inappropriate and a violation of academic freedom.¡±

Professor Iacobucci said that Toronto¡¯s would be led by Bonnie Patterson, a former president of Trent University, and be completed by mid-January.

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The review will be ¡°non-disciplinary¡± and will be presented to the university¡¯s head of human resources, with a version made public, a university spokesman said.

The human resources director, Kelly Hannah-Moffat, a professor of sociology, issued her own statement saying that reports on the matter so far have involved ¡°insinuations and the selective disclosure of information¡±, and that the university backs Professor Iacobucci¡¯s position ¡°that no offer of employment was made, nor accepted or rescinded¡±.

Professor Iacobucci, in his statement, said that conversations with the candidate ¡°had been ongoing¡± and were incomplete, because legal limits on cross-border hiring left the candidate unable to ¡°meet the faculty¡¯s timing needs¡±.

Then, he said, ¡°the opportunity to consider other candidates in a timely way was derailed by this unnecessary controversy, and the search was cancelled¡±.

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¡°All candidates, including candidates in the recent search, are more than welcome to apply when the search resumes,¡± Professor Iacobucci said.

Mr Robinson argued that the university should offer Dr Azarova the job and commission a fully independent investigation of what took place.

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The case was reminiscent, Mr Robinson said, of a situation about 20 years ago when British psychiatrist David Healy sued Toronto for withdrawing a job offer after he criticised antidepressant drugs made by a major pharmaceutical company that partnered with the university. Dr Healy settled that case for an undisclosed amount.

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com