Virtual Freedom

Ash Baker is a Toronto-based lawyer.

This affectionate roman а clef centres on the efforts of the chairman
of the board of Avalon University to privatize, exploit, and otherwise
interfere with the liberal arts tradition of the university. Equally
compelling are the efforts of the university’s denizens—from student
activists to professors to administrative staff—to resist the change.

Virtual Freedom is a funny and pointed comic novel spiced lightly with
satire (it was nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour). Kane
is particularly good at capturing the overblown rhetoric that academics
resort to when addressing political issues. For obvious reasons, his
novel will resonate most with readers who have firsthand knowledge of
the real-life setting and situations from which it is drawn. Kane is a
cultural studies professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.