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“A president of a university, wherever she is, is still president of the university,” said James Turk, a professor at Ryerson University and former executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

“To try to pretend that you can separate the two is simply untenable.”

The controversy came to light Monday following a CBC investigation into the relationship between the university and Enbridge, a Calgary-based energy transportation company.

The CBC obtained 1,200 pages of documents under freedom of information legislation, including an email between Cannon and Leonard Waverman, then dean of the Haskayne School of Business.

“They (Enbridge) have traditionally been strong supporters of (the University of Alberta) and this is the first major gift to the U of C,” Cannon said in her message to Waverman.

“They are not seeing your leadership on this file and are feeling that once the funding was committed, the interest from you was lost. This is not good for you or the university.”

The message was featured in the public broadcaster’s investigation into whether the university gave up academic independence in favour of corporate sponsorship when it set up the new centre.

Waverman, who now works at McMaster University, declined an interview request.

“I left the University of Calgary 3 (sic) years ago and cannot add anything,” he said in an email to the Herald.

Cannon’s email was written after a United States academic recruited to lead the new centre had balked at a position with the research institute he felt would be perceived as too cosy with Canada’s largest pipeline company and a 10-year pledge of money aimed at rejuvenating its corporate image in the wake of a massive spill in Michigan in 2010.