Students at the University of Ottawa launched a report highlighting how the school has failed to divest from and cut ties with the fossil fuel industry. The report revealed the University accepted direct donations to the tune of $27 million dollars from fossil fuel extractors, enablers and legitimators.
“I think it’s important for us to keep them accountable,” the student union advocacy commissioner, Norah Bello, said of the school’s administration. “If you sign on to something, then commit to it.”
Students involved in the fossil fuel divestment campaign say the continued investment in the fossil fuel industry is contributing to eco-anxiety as young people search for jobs that do not actively contribute to the erosion of their futures.
The report shows that the university’s operations are directly connected 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 per cent of leadership at the University are 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 from the University of Ottawa, said her experience in school had made it increasingly clear that the jobs available were often tied to the fossil fuel industry.
“If I can advocate for a future where students don’t have to get to 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 highlighted that the report calls for positive investment alongside divestment from fossil fuels. While the university’s current ties to the fossil fuel industry may be driving the sector’s growth, alternatives are available.
READ MORE: In the Carney era — what Big Oil wants, Big Oil gets
Alongside her role with the student union, Bello is involved in fighting for a Youth Climate Corps. This project is calling on the government to invest $1 billion 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. “Like if they’re able to create better research positions, that will allow us to give more opportunities for students.”
In 2024, Canada’s oil and gas sector accounted for 30 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions which contributed to the worsening climate crisis. The University of Ottawa student activists said their fight for campus divestment is not isolated to their school. Institutions across the country have a responsibility to mitigate the climate crisis.
As such, the recent University of Ottawa report is not the only one of its kind. The students who wrote it are joining 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 onto the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Investment. Despite the claims of being a leader in campus sustainability, student activists say the university remains complicit in the climate crisis.
“What we would like to see–the world that we’re dreaming of–is a university that supports us and what we think the future is going to be,” said Jeffries.
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