In what seemed to be either a money-making scheme or a plan to annoy his political opponents, Oshawa city councillor Robert Lutczyk copyrighted the phrase “Medical School in Oshawa,” claiming it was his original literary creation. When a fellow councillor spoke in favor of opening a medical school in the city, Lutczyk accused the man of stealing his “intellectual property” and called for his resignation.
Lutczyk has struck again, threatening to sue a local paper if they print the name “University of Ontario Institute of Technology,” which he claims to have owned since 2005.
The University of Ontario Institute of Technology opened in Oshawa in 2003.
On Friday, Oshawa paper This Week published an excerpt from an email they received from Lutczyk, “forbidding” them from printing the university’s name.
Lutczyk has refused to comment on the matter, but Oshawa’s mayor John Gray made it known he was “not impressed.” Gray mused that Lutczyk’s belief in his own financial stake in UOIT’s name suggested the councillor had a conflict of interest.
It sounds like a stunt aimed at protesting Canada’s less-than-brilliant copyright laws, but Lutczyk is actually serious. For some perspective on what he considers fair play, consider that just last week Lutczyk was found guilty of bilking two people who had contracted him to build their homes, leaving one with half a house and the other with nothing. Lutczyk left Domenic Pacitti’s cottage half-finished and, claiming that Pacitti still owed him money, helped himself to a $48,000 deposit left by Pacitti’s son Luigi for a different house—of which Lutczyk never began.
