August 18, 2025
RED FM News Desk
The University of Victoria (UVic) has terminated one of its longest-serving professors, Robert Gifford, after an investigation found he sexually harassed two women, including a graduate student.
For 45 years at UVic, Gifford was a pioneer in the field of environmental psychology, attracting students from around the world to study topics like climate change anxiety. However, according to recent Labour Relations Board (LRB) documents, the 78-year-old was fired last summer. 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 “concerning behaviours,” including an email Gifford sent to a woman he first met when she was a “visiting student.” In 2018, while co-presenting a paper at a conference, Gifford suggested they share a hotel room.
In the email, Gifford wrote, “This arrangement might require a bit of care in terms of other people who we know at the congress, but that can be managed.” He continued, “And, of course, everything beyond the mere sharing of the room is to be decided on a completely mutual basis, at the time. How does that sound?”
In response, the woman, identified as AB, told Gifford she wanted to remain “strictly professional.”
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