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University of New Brunswick investigating how Trump ally was awarded PhD in 2013

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HALIFAX — A high-profile ally of former U.S. president Donald Trump is at the centre of an academic controversy at the University of New Brunswick, where the administration has promised an independent review of how he received a PhD in 2013.

Doug Mastriano, a retired U.S. army colonel, was a little-known state senator in Pennsylvania until he took an active role in the movement to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat. In May, with Trump’s support, he won the Republican nomination to run for state governor, catapulting his far-right campaign into the national spotlight.

On Sept. 9, Mastriano’s academic credentials from UNB were called into question when The Associated Press reported allegations from scholars asserting that his doctoral dissertation was plagued by factual errors and amateurish archeology.

Mastriano has yet to publicly respond to the allegations. Calls to his Pennsylvania offices — in Chambersburg and Gettysburg — were not returned.

Richard Yeomans, a PhD candidate in UNB’s history department, said students on the Fredericton campus want to know what the university is going to do to uphold its academic standards.

“I think that everybody is just shocked at the fact that the department has said nothing since this became an international news story,” Yeomans said in a recent interview. “The university has chosen to save face rather than come to terms with what this means. A certain level of trust has been breached.”

Yeomans said graduate students have raised their concerns with the chair of the history department, Lisa Todd. Todd did not respond to a request for an interview.

Earlier this month, the university issued a statement acknowledging the allegations against Mastriano were causing “concern or confusion” among students, alumni and the public.

“UNB has a clear policy for dealing with any allegations of research misconduct,” the statement said. “UNB will review its internal processes to ensure our systems and policies around the awarding of PhDs remain of the highest standard.”

The Oct. 6 statement said the review would be conducted by two independent academics, but there was no indication of a deadline or if the results would be made public.

Jeffrey Brown, a history professor at UNB, said he was among the first to raise red flags about Mastriano’s dissertation in 2012-13, which focused on U.S. army Sgt. Alvin York, a highly decorated First World War infantryman. As a member of the examining board that reviewed Mastriano’s work, Brown said he identified problems early on.

“Through subsequent drafts, those problems did not disappear,” Brown said in an interview last week. “It became evident that Mastriano wasn’t really taking my suggestions seriously.”

He said the main problem with Mastriano’s 500-page paper was that it relied too heavily on a 1928 autobiography that has been called into question by other historians for being a simplistic portrait that glorifies York’s life and battlefield exploits.

Brown, who has taught at UNB for 21 years, also cited shortcomings with an archeological dig Mastriano led in France before enrolling in the PhD program, which Mastriano claimed unearthed the site where York defeated an entire German machine-gun battalion in October 1918. The professor said two qualified experts had come forward in 2008 to dispute Mastriano’s findings.

In an internal examiner’s assessment submitted Feb. 8, 2013, Brown told Mastriano to recognize that the two researchers — geoscientist Thomas Nolan at Middle Tennessee State University and historian Michael Birdwell at Tennessee Tech University — had located the battlefield at a different site.

“These scholars explicitly reject Mastriano’s findings,” the assessment says. “Mastriano makes no mention of this debate in his dissertation.”

After Mastriano provided final revisions to his paper in April 2013, Brown submitted a letter to the dissertation supervisor, Marc Milner, saying he was considering removing his name from the paper.

“Doug (Mastriano’s) revisions may have spoken to some of what disturbs me about his work, but they have not diminished my concerns about its fairness and scholarly integrity,” says the letter, a copy of which was provided to The Canadian Press.

“The charge of dishonesty, in fact, is everywhere in the letters of concern we have both received from people who believe that Doug’s dissertation should not be accepted by UNB.”

According to Brown, Milner told him his input was no longer required because the examining board had enough members to proceed. Brown said he expected his name would be removed from the paper’s final draft, but that didn’t happen. Mastriano was awarded a PhD later that year, and the paper was subsequently used as the basis for a 2014 book by Mastriano.

Milner could not be reached for comment.

James Gregory, an instructor and PhD candidate at the University of Oklahoma, said he became concerned about Mastriano’s work after he cited a passage from the 2014 book in an article. Gregory received messages indicating the material was questionable and decided to have a closer look at the book.

In January 2021, Gregory submitted a list of 15 issues he found to the publisher, the University Press of Kentucky. And he followed up by requesting the original dissertation from UNB.

“No one would tell me where it was,” Gregory said in an interview last week. Eventually, he was told the paper had been placed under an embargo until 2030, which the university later admitted was a violation of UNB regulations that allow for only a four-year embargo.

After the dissertation was released in August of this year, Gregory discovered Mastriano had attached a list of 21 corrections, some of which addressed his original allegations.

But upon reviewing the dissertation, Gregory sent a report to UNB this month documenting 213 allegations of academic misconduct. “His dissertation and subsequent book are built upon falsified research,” Gregory’s latest report alleges.

As an example, Gregory points to a citation for a passage that describes in detail the weather conditions in France’s Argonne forest as an investigation began into York’s battlefield heroics. According to Gregory, the cited source is a telegram that includes nothing more than a brief travel itinerary.

“The university needs to do something,” said Gregory, author of “Unravelling the Myth of Sgt. Alvin York,” to be published in December.

“They either need to come out and say Mastriano’s dissertation is perfect example of the standard we uphold here at UNB, or they need to do something about it. There’s no way this should have passed.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2022.

— With files from The Associated Press

 

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

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Whitehead becomes 1st CHL player to verbally commit to playing NCAA hockey

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September 13, 2024

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Braxton Whitehead said Friday he has verbally committed to Arizona State, making him the first member of a Canadian Hockey League team to attempt to play the sport at the Division I U.S. college level since a lawsuit was filed challenging the NCAA’s longstanding ban on players it deems to be professionals.

Whitehead posted on social media he plans to play for the Sun Devils beginning in the 2025-26 season.

An Arizona State spokesperson said the school could not comment on verbal commitments, citing NCAA rules. A message left with the CHL was not immediately returned.

A class-action lawsuit filed Aug. 13 in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, could change the landscape for players from the CHL’s Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. NCAA bylaws consider them professional leagues and bar players from there from the college ranks.

Online court records show the NCAA has not made any response to the lawsuit since it was filed.

“We’re pleased that Arizona State has made this decision, and we’re hopeful that our case will result in many other Division I programs following suit and the NCAA eliminating its ban on CHL players,” Stephen Lagos, one of the lawyers who launched the lawsuit, told The Associated Press in an email.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Riley Masterson, of Fort Erie, Ontario, who lost his college eligibility two years ago when, at 16, he appeared in two exhibition games for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. And it lists 10 Division 1 hockey programs, which were selected to show they follow the NCAA’s bylaws in barring current or former CHL players.

CHL players receive a stipend of no more than $600 per month for living expenses, which is not considered as income for tax purposes. College players receive scholarships and now can earn money through endorsements and other use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).

The implications of the lawsuit could be far-reaching. If successful, the case could increase competition for college-age talent between North America’s two top producers of NHL draft-eligible players.

“I think that everyone involved in our coaches association is aware of some of the transformational changes that are occurring in collegiate athletics,” Forrest Karr, executive director of American Hockey Coaches Association and Minnesota-Duluth athletic director said last month. “And we are trying to be proactive and trying to learn what we can about those changes.

Karr was not immediately available for comment on Friday.

Earlier this year, Karr established two committees — one each overseeing men’s and women’s hockey — to respond to various questions on eligibility submitted to the group by the NCAA. The men’s committee was scheduled to go over its responses two weeks ago.

Former Minnesota coach and Central Collegiate Hockey Association commissioner Don Lucia said at the time that the lawsuit provides the opportunity for stakeholders to look at the situation.

“I don’t know if it would be necessarily settled through the courts or changes at the NCAA level, but I think the time is certainly fast approaching where some decisions will be made in the near future of what the eligibility will look like for a player that plays in the CHL and NCAA,” Lucia said.

Whitehead, a 20-year-old forward from Alaska who has developed into a point-a-game player, said he plans to play again this season with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League.

“The WHL has given me an incredible opportunity to develop as a player, and I couldn’t be more excited,” Whitehead posted on Instagram.

His addition is the latest boon for Arizona State hockey, a program that has blossomed in the desert far from traditional places like Massachusetts, Minnesota and Michigan since entering Division I in 2015. It has already produced NHL talent, including Seattle goaltender Joey Daccord and Josh Doan, the son of longtime Coyotes captain Shane Doan, who now plays for Utah after that team moved from the Phoenix area to Salt Lake City.

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Calgary Flames sign forward Jakob Pelletier to one-year contract

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September 13, 2024

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CALGARY – The Calgary Flames signed winger Jakob Pelletier to a one-year, two-way contract on Friday.

The contract has an average annual value of US$800,000.

Pelletier, a 23-year-old from Quebec City, split last season with the Flames and American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

He produced one goal and two assists in 13 games with the Flames.

Calgary drafted the five-foot-nine, 170-pound forward in the first round, 26th overall, of the 2019 NHL draft.

Pelletier has four goals and six assists in 37 career NHL games.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Kingston mayor’s call to close care hub after fatal assault ‘misguided’: legal clinic

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September 13, 2024

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A community legal clinic in Kingston, Ont., is denouncing the mayor’s calls to clear an encampment and close a supervised consumption site in the city following a series of alleged assaults that left two people dead and one seriously injured.

Kingston police said they were called to an encampment near a safe injection site on Thursday morning, where they allege a 47-year-old male suspect wielded an edged or blunt weapon and attacked three people. Police said he was arrested after officers negotiated with him for several hours.

The suspect is now facing two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

In a social media post, Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson said he was “absolutely horrified” by the situation.

“We need to clear the encampment, close this safe injection site and the (Integrated Care Hub) until we can find a better way to support our most vulnerable residents,” he wrote.

The Kingston Community Legal Clinic called Paterson’s comments “premature and misguided” on Friday, arguing that such moves could lead to a rise in overdoses, fewer shelter beds and more homelessness.

In a phone interview, Paterson said the encampment was built around the Integrated Care Hub and safe injection site about three years ago. He said the encampment has created a “dangerous situation” in the area and has frequently been the site of fires, assaults and other public safety concerns.

“We have to find a way to be able to provide the services that people need, being empathetic and compassionate to those struggling with homelessness and mental health and addictions issues,” said Paterson, noting that the safe injection site and Integrated Care Hub are not operated by the city.

“But we cannot turn a blind eye to the very real public safety issues.”

When asked how encampment residents and people who use the services would be supported if the sites were closed, Paterson said the city would work with community partners to “find the best way forward” and introduce short-term and long-term changes.

Keeping the status quo “would be a terrible failure,” he argued.

John Done, executive director of the Kingston Community Legal Clinic, criticized the mayor’s comments and said many of the people residing in the encampment may be particularly vulnerable to overdoses and death. The safe injection site and Integrated Care Hub saves lives, he said.

Taking away those services, he said, would be “irresponsible.”

Done said the legal clinic represented several residents of the encampment when the City of Kingston made a court application last summer to clear the encampment. The court found such an injunction would be unconstitutional, he said.

Done added there’s “no reason” to attach blame while the investigation into Thursday’s attacks is ongoing. The two people who died have been identified as 38-year-old Taylor Wilkinson and 41-year-old John Hood.

“There isn’t going to be a quick, easy solution for the fact of homelessness, drug addictions in Kingston,” Done said. “So I would ask the mayor to do what he’s trained to do, which is to simply pause until we have more information.”

The concern surrounding the safe injection site in Kingston follows a recent shift in Ontario’s approach to the overdose crisis.

Last month, the province announced that it would close 10 supervised consumption sites because they’re too close to schools and daycares, and prohibit any new ones from opening as it moves to an abstinence-based treatment model.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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