Renowned professor fired over sexual harassment complaints

The University of Victoria (UVic) has fired one of its longest-serving professors after complaints he sexually harassed two women – including a graduate student, reports Jason Proctor for CBC News.

In his 45 years at UVic, Robert Gifford pioneered the burgeoning field of environmental psychology, drawing students from around the world to study topics like climate change anxiety and the interplay between human beings and their surroundings. But according to a pair of recent Labour Relations Board (LRB) decisions, the 78-year-old was fired last summer after an investigation found “repeated harm to junior scholars” and a “lack of accountability and understanding of [his] obligations as a senior scholar”.

The LRB documents detail a probe into “concerning behaviours”, citing an email Gifford sent a woman he first met when she was a “visiting student” – suggesting they share a hotel room while co-presenting a paper at a conference in 2018.
Full report on the CBC News site