Rancourt's other campus activism includes running a weekly film and discussion series and hosting the Five O'Clock Train radio program on CHUO-FM.(*) Rancourt was also the videographer for ACTivist Magazine's No Code short film documenting the riotous opposition to the proposed Student Code of Non-Academic Conduct on campus.(*)
Cinema Academica
Rancourt also hosted a regular film series on Friday evenings known as Cinema Academica (formerly Cinema Politica) since 2005. In the summer of 2008, the university stopped allowing Rancourt to book rooms for the event, which effectively threatened to end the film series from taking place on campus.(*) The film series was able to continue, however, when Rancourt gained the support of Psychology Professor Claude Lamontagne, who began booking the room on Rancourt's behalf. Professors Rancourt and Lamontagne now jointly host Cinema Academica every week.
Also, in 2008, a deaf student had filed a human rights complaint against the University of Ottawa for refusing to pay the cost of sign language interpretation during Cinema Politica events. Rancourt supported the student's action and appeared before the Ontario Human Rights Commission in September 2008 to make his case.(*)
While hosting Cinema Academica on 23 January 2009, Rancourt was arrested and issued a trespassing ticket for being on school grounds after a formal ban on his presence was institute on 10 December as part of dismissal proceedings. The subsequent week, however, Rancourt returned to host the event in defiance of the campus ban and the university backed down, not calling the police to arrest him.
- Background on Cinema Academica: Alroy Fonseca, "Death to Cinema Politica: A question of Academic Freedom?", (Cult)ure Magazine, October 2008.
