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Students at the University of Ottawa have launched a report highlighting how the school has failed to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry. The report revealed that the university directly accepted donations for $27 million dollars from fossil fuel extractors, enablers and legitimators.
“I think it’s important for us to hold them accountable,” Student Union Commissioner Norah Bello said of the school’s administration. “If you sign up for something, commit to it.”
The students involved in the fossil fuel divestment campaign say that continued investment in the fossil fuel industry is contributing to eco-anxiety as young people look for jobs that don’t actively contribute to the erosion of their future.
The report shows that the university’s operations are directly linked to the fossil fuel industry. More than 240 research articles published by the University of Ottawa between 2004 and 2026 were funded by fossil fuel related organizations and institutions. Currently, 21 percent of the university’s leadership is connected to the fossil fuel industry through ties to companies including RBC, BMO and the Canadian Commercial Corporation.
Oil and Gas is also present at employment recruitment events and in clubs on campus, the report shows. For example, the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering brought students to a Shell plant in Brockville for a tour and networking.
For the environmental activists writing this report, the university’s practices were frustrating. Grace Jeffries, a co-author of the report and recent graduate of the University of Ottawa, said her experience at the school made it increasingly clear that the jobs available are often tied to the fossil fuel industry.
“If I can advocate for a future where students don’t have to enter their fourth year and have to choose between selling their soul and having a job, that’s what I’m fighting for,” she said in an interview with rabble.ca.
Bello stressed that the report calls for positive investment in addition to divestment of fossil fuels. While the university’s current ties to the fossil fuel industry are driving the sector’s growth, alternatives are available.
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In addition to her role with the student union, Bello is involved in the fight for a youth climate corps. This project calls on the government to invest 1 billion dollars to create green jobs for youth.
“We can present different solutions, climate solutions that are greener and healthier for us, and that create jobs and opportunities for students,” Bello said. “As if they are able to create better research positions, that will allow us to give more opportunities to students.”
In 2024, Canada’s oil and gas sector accounted for 30 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to the worsening climate crisis. University of Ottawa student activists said their fight for campus segregation is not isolated to their school. Institutions throughout the country have a responsibility to mitigate the climate crisis.
As such, the recent report from the University of Ottawa is not the only one of its kind. The students who wrote it join activists at the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto in calling for greener campuses.
The University of Ottawa has publicly taken the position as a climate conscious school, being one of the first universities to sign up to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Despite claims to be a leader in campus sustainability, student activists say the university remains complicit in the climate crisis.
“What we would like to see — the world we dream of — is a university that supports us and what we think the future will be,” Jeffries said.
Post University of Ottawa falls behind fossil fuel divestment appeared first on rabble.ca.
