The Canadian Academy of Independent Scholars is a former association of independent scholars in Canada. [1] One of the largest organizations for independent scholars in the world, it is patroned by John Ralston Saul. [2] [3] [4] The academy was founded at Simon Fraser University, where it grew out of a series of informal discussions among academics known as the Philosophers' Café that began in the late 1990s. [5] The organization became inactive in 2020 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.