A speech in Calgary last week by the last white president of South Africa in which F. W. de Klerk suggested the challenges faced by Alberta in the waning days of the petroleum industry may not be dissimilar from those facing his country in the last days of apartheid seems
Continue readingTag: Honorary Degrees
Alberta Politics: Hopes and Prayers, Ontario … Now, let’s get back to Dr. Suzuki and the U of A honorary degree …
Premier Doug Ford. You have our hopes and prayers, Ontario. Our hopes and prayers. And I’m sorry for my friends and readers in Ontario … so sorry to have gotten your hopes up by saying I thought the Ontario NDP would win. You should have known better than to listen
Continue readingAlberta Politics: That U of A ‘bailout’ the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s prattling about? Hasn’t happened; isn’t happening; won’t happen …
Good news for Alberta taxpayers! The University of Alberta has not sought, is not seeking, and will not seek a “bailout” – or anything like a bailout – from the taxpayers of Alberta. Let’s say it again: Hasn’t happened. Isn’t happening. Won’t happen. I mention this because of the startling
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Embarrassing honorary degree stories: ‘Did no one warn them?’
You have to ask why universities bother handing out honorary degrees like bonbons when you think about all the trouble it can cause them. Consider the embarrassing 2012 case of the Israeli university that came up with a scheme to give an honorary degree to an unsavoury right-wing foreign politician
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney joins attack on David Suzuki; complains too many U of A honorary degrees go to progressives
Where is the Globe and Mail, the National Post, federal Opposition leader Andrew Scheer? After all, they were all such convincing defenders of intellectual freedom on campus when the barbs were being directed at Jordan Peterson, the University of Toronto professor who is “the Darth Maul of tenured campus bad
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If there was ever a time for the U of A to stick to its guns and welcome David Suzuki to Edmonton, this is it!
The University of Alberta’s dean of engineering believes his faculty faces “the worst crisis, a crisis of trust, that we’ve faced in more than three decades.” The immediate cause of this perceived looming disaster for the U of A’s most favoured faculty? “The conferral of a single honorary degree,” wrote
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