Documents show concerns about instructor's views on glyphosate ahead of firing
CBC
The head of the Maritime College of Forest Technology said he wanted to keep "a positive relationship" with the forestry industry as he fielded complaints about an instructor he later fired.
Officials at Natural Resources Canada were complaining to college director Tim Marshall about Rod Cumberland, a biologist and instructor who opposes the spraying of the herbicide glyphosate in New Brunswick forests.
Cumberland's internal criticism of how glyphosate would be discussed at a 2019 scientific conference triggered the emails between the federal department, the college and J.D. Irving Ltd.
College instructors "should not be undermining federal scientists," a person whose identity was blacked out wrote to Natural Resources Canada official Derek MacFarlane in a Jan. 18, 2019 email.
"We will look into this," MacFarlane, a senior advisor at the department and former director of the Atlantic Forestry Centre, responded 45 minutes later.
Cumberland argued a Jan. 18, 2019 conference on vegetation management at the University of New Brunswick was one-sided in favour of glyphosate. He was not included in any of the email threads discussing his criticism.
Centre director Peter Fullarton wrote to Marshall Jan. 23 that Natural Resources Canada was "disappointed and troubled" by Cumberland's comments, which he called false, and "what we perceive as his influence (bias) on his students."
Marshall responded that "it is very important to me that [the college] maintains a positive relationship with the organizations working in the sector we aim to serve."
Cumberland was fired from his instructor position at the Fredericton college five months later.
Marshall relayed the decision to several government and forest industry officials in an email at 8:06 p.m. the same evening.
In a court filing in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit by Cumberland, the college says he attended the conference and was "disrespectful and was openly dismissive, rude and insolent" toward the scientists.
The college denies Cumberland was fired for his views on glyphosate, though his dismissal letter says his "undermining" of the conference was one of the reasons.
Marshall turned down an interview request from CBC News about the emails.
"Given that this is an HR matter and is presently before the courts, I respectfully decline to comment," he said.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.
New poll results released by Narrative Research suggest the Progressive Conservatives are heading into Tuesday's provincial election with a commanding lead over their political rivals.
A measles outbreak in New Brunswick is set to push Canada's annual case count to the highest it's been in five years, highlighting how infectious the disease is and how low vaccination rates have allowed it to take hold, says an immunologist.