Why Did The University of Calgary Fund Attack Ads Against The Liberals During The Last Federal Election?
The internal university audit revealed the accounts, which received money from a fund at a community charity organization, collected more than $500,000 in donations."
-Canada.com
So Stephen Harper's old Alma Mater has possibly been caught violating the Canada Election Act for funding attack ads against Canada's climate change policies going into the last federal election in 2006. Let's not forget that Preston Manning is listed as a Distinguished Visitor at the University of Calgary with famous students like our current prime minister.
This stinks. Universities should NOT be playing politics ... the police need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.
University of Calgary News Release
No connection between the Cons and the FOS...and no connection on campus between FOS and the "Calgary School" either, I'm sure.
Posted by Niles | 12:13 pm, April 15, 2008
The announcement says that the auditor's report is "attached" yet there's nothing there.
I've asked for a copy to be emailed to me.
I wonder how U of C's peer review system works?
Posted by Anonymous | 1:32 pm, April 15, 2008
Dana, Desmogblog has a pdf copy of the audit report on their coverage of this story.
Posted by leftdog | 1:44 pm, April 15, 2008
I don't think you should blame the whole University of Calgary, which distanced itself from the FOS long ago and which called for the independent audit. Look instead at professor Barry Cooper; DeSmogBlog wrote about him and his Conservative buddies almost two years ago:
http://www.desmogblog.com/pm-harpers-fishing-buddy-behind-kyoto-attack-group
Posted by Holly Stick | 2:13 pm, April 15, 2008
Thanks. Pretty damning.
I'm left wondering why there isn't a recommendation of referral to the police for a fraud investigation.
Tenure should be examined as well.
Posted by Anonymous | 3:55 pm, April 15, 2008
Holly, I don't see any apology from U of C yet (there may be in future in which case, their guilt by association may be mitigated). Why are you so defensive for the U of C - is it your alma mater too?)
Posted by leftdog | 4:18 pm, April 15, 2008
Yes, it is my alma mater; but also I recall earlier reports of the university disowning the actions of FOS. Still, I don't know a lot about the politics of the U of C administration.
I can't easily read the audit report on my old clunker, but Desmogblog has a new post which gives the university some praise and some criticism over the audit; such as it not being hard enough on Cooper. I hope they do take action against him, but time will tell.
http://www.desmogblog.com/university-of-calgary-audit-exposes-friends-of-science-wrongdoing#new
(lots of earlier articles at desmogblog if you search for "cooper" or "friends of science" etc.)
It would certainly be nice if this helped bring down the entire "Calgary School" of rightwing political scientists, etcv., like Cooper, Flanagan, Morton and Harper.
Posted by Holly Stick | 5:32 pm, April 15, 2008
Holly, I couldn't agree more!
Posted by leftdog | 7:52 pm, April 15, 2008
I find that the Negitive stuff starts coming back to the Liberals within a week of Negitive News that Spins on the Tories.
There will be a lot of stories on Dions Leadership within a week again.
Guaranteed!
Always is!
Posted by huffb1 | 10:13 pm, April 15, 2008