RCGS and Can Geo in the media

RGSC and Canadian Geographic have been called out in media outlets and activist campaigns before, but failed to act. It’s time for Can Geo and RGSC to act on their stated climate strategy and decisively cut ties with fossil fuel sponsors.

Business Intelligence BC (BIV) covered the open letter to RGSC in July 2022: “‘Huge conflict of interest’: Canadian academics denounce fossil fuel funded curricula”

“The Royal Geographic Society of Canada is representing our discipline,” Eaton, an associate professor at the University of Regina, said. “It hurts a little bit more to know that they, in particular, would partner with organizations like the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers or Shell.”

Canadaland published an expose in 2015 about Canadian Geographic’s fossil fuel funders and biased educational resources. Former Canadian Geographic intern Jimmy Thomson described how Canadian Geographic censors any story that might go against their oil and gas industry funders.

“Nobody bothered pitching stories that would antagonize the magazine’s most valued partners like Shell, CAPP, or Parks Canada, and in that manner, the institution slipped into bland irrelevance,” – Jimmy Thomson, former Can Geo intern

In 2013, Global News and the Vancouver Sun reported that Vancouver students walked out in protest of Canadian Geographic Magazine’s energy lesson plans — 600 students signed an open letter to Can Geo.

“The Energy IQ program is of serious concern to us as current high school students, specifically because of its inherent corporate bias and the ideals it will promote,” -Sydney Emo and Sophia Yamauchi, Windermere Secondary School