The Georiga Straight: Universities fight for corporate secrecy
The province’s three largest universities have argued that the public shouldn’t have access to the financial dealings of SFU’s spinoff companies. According to documents filed with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, UBC and the University of Victoria have justified this position, in part, with the claim that universities act as “service providers” to private-sector organizations.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers and the B.C. Information and Privacy Association have argued in favour of the release of these records. The Georgia Straight has obtained copies of all of their submissions to Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis, whose ruling is pending.
The dispute centres around a freedom-of-information request to SFU, which was filed by David Noble, a professor at York University. Noble, a critic of the corporate influence on universities, sought information in February 2004 from SFU’s University/Industry Liaison Office on companies spun off from SFU research.
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