After the substantial pressure of a long-fought struggle by Divest McGill and their allies, the McGill Board of Governors finally pledged to divest from direct investments in fossil fuels in December 2023.
Given the well-documented negative social and environmental impacts of the fossil fuel industry, this is undoubtedly a major win for climate and social justice organizers at McGill. But despite the McGill Media Relations Office (MRO) recently confirming to the Daily that the divestment has been “successfully completed,” there is yet more work to be done in reducing McGill’s ties to the fossil fuel industry.
Last October, I had the opportunity to interview Emily Eaton, co-author of a study titled “Fossil fuel industry influence in higher education: A review and a research agenda.” Eaton and her co-authors investigated the numerous ways in which the fossil fuel industry influences the curricula and research outputs of higher education institutions.
“There is a growing movement across many universities, especially led by students, that are looking not just at [fossil fuel] divestment but also at disassociation,” explained Eaton. “[They are] acknowledging that it’s not just that universities are invested in fossil fuel corporations, but also [other] ties that they have […] whether that’s funding a research chair or coming on campus for career days.”
These ties, identified by Eaton and her co-authors, include fossil fuel industry personnel sitting on university boards (or vice versa); fossil fuel companies sponsoring research, academic posts, or scholarships; and hosting career recruitment events for students that encourage them to work in the fossil fuel industry. The Daily has uncovered evidence of many of these ties at McGill.
What is the fossil fuel industry?
The term “fossil fuels” encompasses non-renewable energy sources such as oil, coal, and natural gas. This industry plays a significant role in Canada’s economy, accounting for 7.7 per cent of the country’s GDP and 25 per cent of exports in 2023. At the same time, the oil and gas sector is responsible for 31 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. On a global scale, fossil fuels account for over 75 per cent of GHG emissions, therefore making them the largest contributor to climate change overall. According to the International Panel on Climate Change’s 2023 report, global warming as a result of the burning of fossil fuels has led to more frequent and severe extreme weather events, putting people’s lives in danger across the globe. Fossil fuel companies have been aware of the industry’s negative environmental effects since the 1950s and ‘60s, yet have continually sought to obscure this knowledge from the general public in order to avoid government regulation.
The Corporate Mapping Project, which tracks the power dynamics within Canada’s fossil fuel industry, names three categories of actors within the industry. First, there are “emitters,” which are the corporations directly extracting, transporting, and processing fossil fuels. The work of these “emitters” is then supported by “enablers” and “legitimators.” “Enablers,” which include many banks, facilitate fossil fuel production by investing in these companies or creating regulations that are favourable to the industry. Finally, “legitimators” work to persuade the public or political elites on the benefits of fossil fuels – they may argue, for instance, that fossil fuels have a place in a low-carbon future, or that transitioning away from them is simply unfeasible. When looking into McGill’s ties to the fossil fuel industry, it is important to consider not just the affiliated companies themselves, but also the other actors providing them with both material and ideological support.
Fossil Fuel Interests on the McGill Board of Governors
In October, McGill appointed its first-ever Deputy Chancellor, Cynthia Price-Verreault. Price-Verreault had previously served on the Board of Governors for ten years from 2012 to 2022, including as Chair of the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR, now CSSR), the committee which advises the Board of Governors on divestment from fossil fuels. She is also a former Petro-Canada employee, having worked as Director of Retail Marketing Services for 18 years, per her LinkedIn. Price-Verreault was the chair of CSSR (then CAMSR) in 2019, when the committee first considered and then decided against divesting from fossil fuels.
Price-Verreault is no longer a member of CSSR, but the current chair, Alan Desnoyers, also has corporate ties to the fossil fuel industry. Desnoyers works at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) as the regional vice president of Private Banking for Quebec and Eastern Canada. The Corporate Mapping Project classifies RBC as an “enabler” for being a key financier of the fossil fuel industry. A report by a coalition of environmental groups including the Rainforest Action Network and the Indigenous Environmental Network found that over the year of 2022, RBC was the biggest funder of the fossil fuel industry in the world. That year, the bank spent a total of 42 billion USD on fossil fuel development projects. Desnoyers has also previously worked at BMO and TD, two other banks which both remain huge investors in fossil fuels.
Page 49 of the McGill Board of Governors Handbook lists examples of conflicts of interest, including “when a Member, whether directly or indirectly, has a personal interest in the outcome of deliberations of the Board” and “when a Member is a member of the senior management personnel of a corporation, institution, or body, […] whose interests may be in competition with those of the University.” It could be argued that RBC’s continued interest in supporting the fossil fuel industry is in opposition to the decisions of numerous governing bodies such as the McGill Senate, SSMU, and even the Board itself, who have voted in favour of divestment from fossil fuel companies and acknowledged the socially and environmentally destructive nature of the industry. Given Desnoyers’s position as a senior employee of RBC – a corporation which profits ostensibly from the development of the fossil fuel industry – how likely would he be to vote for measures which could harm the industry’s growth?
When asked if Desnoyers’s position at RBC has ever been considered a conflict of interest, the MRO replied: “All members of the Committee on Sustainability and Social Responsibility (CSSR) commit to following our Board of Governors Code of Ethics and Conduct.” They added that “A conflict-of-interest declaration process takes place on an annual basis in order to ensure compliance.”
This system is reflective of a larger issue, raised by Divest McGill: the undemocratic structure of the Board. Out of the Board’s 25 voting members, 14 are unelected, including Desnoyers. The President and Chancellor, currently Deep Saini and Pierre Boivin, as well as the 12 members-at-large are chosen by the Board with no formal input from the rest of the McGill community, except in the case of the President where community members are invited to attend consultations. The other 11 Board members — representing students, staff (academic, administrative, and support), alumni — and Senators are elected by their respective communities, but comprise a minority of voting members. The average McGill community member therefore has relatively little say in who gets to sit on the Board and make executive decisions for the university at large, including whether or not to divest from industries such as fossil fuels or weapons manufacturing.
Recruitment from Fossil Fuel Industry
Universities are prime reservoirs for fossil fuel companies looking to recruit future employees into the industry. McGill career fairs have often hosted representatives from fossil fuel companies, particularly within the engineering department. The semesterly TechFair, organized by the Engineering Career Centre and volunteers from the engineering and computer science departments, has become a target for protests on account of the companies it chooses to host. In October 2023, Science for the People Canada created a zine highlighting the harmful actions of companies participating in TechFair, specifically those involved in the military and defense, mining, and oil and gas sectors. The zine argues that recruiters use the tech fair to greenwash their companies’ unethical practices in order to recruit new employees. Science for the People aims to “provide the other side of the story.”
In recent years, TechFair has continued to host companies directly involved in oil and gas extraction. Some of the companies hosted include Suncor, Teck Resources (also known as Elk Valley Resources), and Canadian Natural Resources Limited, which all directly participate in the extraction of fossil fuels. However, in addition to these direct “emitters,” Science for the People also flags “enabler” companies that collaborate with fossil fuel companies and help facilitate these operations by building relevant infrastructure or working to open up new land for exploitation. Examples of these companies include Preston Phipps, Klohn Crippen Berger, Enero Solutions, Alberici, and CIMA+.
In the winter 2025 edition of TechFair, a list of potential companies leaked to the Daily included Glencore, the world’s largest private-sector coal company, which produced 1.1 per cent of the world’s emissions in 2023. The company has also been accused of human rights abuses, environmental damage, and pollution in areas where it operates, such as Colombia and northern Quebec, according to a 2024 report by Mining Watch. Glencore is no stranger to TechFair, having been present at the past three semesterly events. Their inclusion, in addition to that of other oil and gas contractors such as Preston Phipps, shows that careers in the fossil fuel or similar extractive industries are still being heavily promoted at McGill.
Besides TechFair, the Desautels-run Jaclyn Fisher Career Day commonly features banks which invest heavily in the fossil fuel industry. In their September 2024 event, representatives came recruiting from TD, CIBC, and BNP Paribas. According to the Banking on Climate Chaos 2024 report, TD and BNP Paribas respectively provided 178.44 and 186.79 billion USD in fossil fuel financing between 2016 and 2023 (although the latter claims to have stopped financing new oil and gas fields in 2023).
The MRO explained that recruiters at McGill career fairs vary each year, mainly reflecting “market trends” and positions open to university graduates. They told the Daily that “McGill is willing to consider the participation of all lawful companies,” stressing that it is up to the students and not the university to determine which companies they are interested in. They added that if students have concerns about specific participants, they can share them with careers.caps@mcgill.ca.
Research funding and donations
Many Canadian universities, such as the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta, and the University of Calgary, have already been scrutinized for holding research partnerships with the fossil fuel industry. In a 2018 study on corporate influence in Canadian universities, University of Victoria researchers William Carroll and Garry Gray explained that “there is a long history of corporations directly funding research in order to cast doubt on independent scientific findings considered averse to industry interests,” citing the tobacco, pharmaceutical, and asbestos industries as examples. However, Eaton and her colleagues believe that there still remains a “gaping hole” in public knowledge about the fossil fuel industry’s influence on academic research.
The Web of Science database offers searching for academic publications based on the affiliations of the authors and the agencies which fund their research. Using this tool, the Daily was able to search for publications both authored by McGill researchers and funded by fossil fuel companies. The non-exhaustive results included companies which were either listed as “emitters” in the CMP’s Top 50 Fossil-Power index or as members of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). Out of the 34 total companies included in the list, 14 had funded McGill-affiliated publications (available on Web of Science). The company Shell funded the most publications at 92, followed by Teck Resources at 61 and Imperial Oil at 27. In 2024 alone, McGill scholars published papers funded by Shell Canada, Teck Resources, and Imperial Oil.
A large number of these publications came from the Faculty of Engineering, specifically the Department of Mining and Materials Engineering. The faculty has a history of collaborating with fossil fuel companies – a 2019 Tribune article found that Shell and Imperial Oil had donated $702,775 toward research grants primarily for McGill Engineering students between 2008 and 2015. Both companies routinely collaborate with universities to fund research through schemes such as the Shell Research Alliance and the Imperial Oil University Research Award, which was won by a McGill professor in 2018. In addition to those from Engineering, members of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment have also been involved in recent collaborations with Shell USA through the EcoToxChip project.
As reported in a Tribune article, McGill accepted a total of $1,137,954.10 in donations from several fossil fuel companies including Cenovus Energy, Suncor Energy, and Gaz Metro between 2008 and 2015. The Investigative Journalism Foundation’s charitable donations database shows that McGill received an additional $1150 from the Suncor Energy Foundation in 2016. Beginning in 2007, the Imperial Oil Foundation also donated $800,000 over a period of five years to the Faculties of Science and Education’s WOW Lab.
McGill’s Gift Acceptance Policy outlines several restrictions to accepting financial donations, including limiting those that “may come from illegal or unethical activities “violating university or government policies on equity and human rights, or gifts with conditions attached that the university deems unreasonable. When asked how the policy is applied toward fossil fuel donors, the MRO gave the reply that it “allows [McGill] to consider donors and gifts on a case-by-case basis.”
Moving forward
Most climate scientists today agree that fossil fuel extraction poses a significant threat to humanity and the planet. They warn that only by phasing out these industries will we stand a chance of preventing further destruction to the environment. While divesting from fossil fuel companies made for a powerful symbolic gesture, McGill’s investment portfolio was just one of the ways the university is connected to the fossil fuel industry. Although the connections identified in this article are by no means exhaustive, they offer insight into McGill’s continued relationship with the fossil fuel industry. Divestment is a start, but McGill has a long way to go before truly cutting ties with fossil fuels.