By Candice Malcolm
The University of Alberta has decided to grant an honorary doctorate to the infamous David Suzuki, the charlatan who has long advocated for Alberta’s hydrocarbon industry to be shut down.
Suzuki received a PhD in zoology in the 1960s and uses it as a ploy to pretend he’s an expert on everything from climate science to agriculture to immigration to fossil fuels.
And while many remember him fondly as a presenter on CBC’s The Nature of Things, Suzuki’s political and academic record is marred with scandal and dishonesty.
- BONOKOSKI: Albertans should trash Suzuki, not honour him
- GOLDSTEIN: Suzuki and free speech? Don’t make us laugh
Suzuki once said that humans are “maggots” that “defecate all over the earth.” He called for an end to immigration, calling our program “disgusting” and insisting that “Canada is full.”
He told McGill students that politicians who don’t meet his arbitrary standards of “climate activism” should be incarcerated. Forget about the rule of law — Suzuki challenged students to find a “way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail.”
On just about every issue Suzuki weighs in on, he pushes a narrow ideology while sacrificing facts. He insists genetically modified food is dangerous, saying “any politician or scientist who tells you these products are safe is either very stupid or lying.”
Meanwhile, the government of Canada says, “after 12 years of reviewing the safety of (these) foods, Health Canada is not aware of any published scientific evidence demonstrating (these products) are any less safe than traditional foods.”
Speaking at an event with world-renowned climate scientists in Australia, Suzuki was entirely out of his depth and responded to question after question by denying reality and making up facts.
When asked about the scientific data sets on global climate that seem to run counter to his theory, he suggested that a “climate skeptic down in Huntsville, Ala.” must have manipulated the research.
Suzuki wrote an article saying the Great Barrier Reef was being destroyed by cyclones, and when a scientist told him that simply wasn’t true, he threw his hands in the air and admitted he hadn’t bothered to look it up.
He destroyed his reputation that day and embarrassed all Canadians with his profound ignorance.
Suzuki rails against free markets and the business sector while earning millions through his leftist activism. He demands we make huge sacrifices to reduce our carbon footprint while he owns multiple mansions and flies around the world.
Suzuki pretends to be an environmentalist, but a quick examination of his career shows something totally different: a conspiracy theorist, a xenophobe, a totalitarian ideologue, a hypocrite, a pseudo-intellectual and a fraud.
In 1996, the University of Alberta offered an honorary degree to premier Ralph Klein, but due to protests by left-wing students over cuts to their subsidies, Klein graciously bowed out. He declined the offer because he didn’t want to embarrass the university.
If Suzuki had any sense of decency, or half the class of Klein, he’d do the same.
Suzuki has led a malicious and decades-long campaign to demonize Alberta’s energy industry, a top employer of U of A grads, and his efforts have helped to destroy the livelihood of thousands of Canadians.
He should be persona non grata to people who care about Alberta’s economy and people who care about facts and the truth.
One would think the University of Alberta would fall into that category. That it doesn’t demonstrates that my alma mater has been infected with the same poisonous anti-Alberta ideology that fuels Suzuki’s dishonest work.