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Denis Rancourt is a former professor of physics at the University of Ottawa. Rancourt identifies himself as an activist and anarchist. He briefly taught an activism course at the university which received local and national media attention.
He gained notoriety in 2006 when it came to the attention of the university and the local media that the activism course he was teaching had two elementary school aged children in it. The course was officially called SCI1101: Science in Society.
In 2006 Rancourt's students sued the University of Ottawa. The students alleged that the high-intensity workshop-based class needed more teaching assistants which the university would not provide. Rancourt publicly supported the students. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). The course had evolved from its original theme of activism and turned into an activism workshop where there was no hard and firm grading system. The majority of students however enjoyed the course and rallied to support its continued existence on campus.
Rancourt has been holding a documentary film and discussion series called Cinema Politica on campus since 2005. The event features a documentary film followed by an unmoderated, anarchist style discussion where group consensus determines the topics and speakers.
Rancourt gained attention again in 2008 when the university denied use of university facilities for his weekly documentary film series. The administration argued that Rancourt was not using the classroom space as it was originally intended. As of September 5th 2008, Rancourt is still hosting the Cinema Politica event at MacDonald Hall at the University of Ottawa. Rancourt has petitioned and received the help of another professor on campus to help him with the event which means the event may still on campus. The future is up in the air for the event which may have to move off campus if the university administration again intervenes against Rancourt.