An investigation by CBC News into the relationship between the University of Calgary and Canada’s largest pipeline company has revealed “a university bending over backward to accommodate the apparent public relations ambitions of a corporate patron.”
According to reporters Kyle Bakx and Paul Haavardsrud, emails obtained from a freedom of information request suggest “a pattern of corporate influence during the bungled attempt to establish a new research center that cost the university top level academic talent and its Haskayne School of Business upwards of a million dollars in corporate sponsorship.”
“Most damningly it smacks of us being apologists for the fossil fuel industry rather than independent scholars and teachers doing work in broadly defined area.”
—U of C professor Harrie Vredenburg
To establish the Enbridge Center for Corporate Sustainability at U of C, the corporation behind controversial pipeline proposals including Energy East and Northern Gateway reportedly pledged $2.25 million over a 10-year period.