A controversy-courting U.S. politician causes stir on Canadian university campus | CBC News

Students at the University of New Brunswick are pushing their university for details about its role in granting Doug Mastriano the crowning academic achievement on his CV in 2013.

A UNB associate professor listed on Doug Mastriano's doctoral dissertation describes it as atrocious academic work and says he can't understand why the paper includes his name. .

"This dissertation has bothered me for nine years," Jeffrey Brown told CBC News in an interview.

Up in New Brunswick, Brown's objections to Mastriano go way back, long predating his political career.

That old dispute within the university has now resurfaced publicly as Mastriano runs for an important office. .

"The prospect of Doug Mastriano having any power, anywhere, is horrifying," said Brown, who met and worked with Mastriano on several revisions to his dissertation. .

Even before he arrived in New Brunswick, Mastriano, then an Army intelligence officer, made news in 2008 for his work to pinpoint the location of York's heroics on a French battlefield.

The archeological controversy was the initial reason Brown, the New Brunswick professor, voiced concern with the project. .

Nobody examining Mastriano's work had any archeological expertise, so, he asked, how were they supposed to scrutinize a paper filled with archeological claims, claims being vigorously disputed.

He said Mastriano offered opinions without facts or attribution to support them, an approach Brown called non-academic.

In a dramatic example of that, Brown said, Mastriano would make matter-of-fact claims even when referring to heavenly phenomena.

"It wasn't so much, 'Sergeant York reported that,' or, 'York believed that,' as it was, 'God talked to York,'" Brown said in an interview.

In Oklahoma, a teacher and history PhD candidate wrote last year to the UNB warning that Mastriano's work was rife with academic fraud.

James Gregory, who first encountered Mastriano's work in his published book, says he's since found over 150 problems with the thesis.

For instance, Mastriano's paper says a journalist first took an interest in York's story because of its religious aspect; a footnote then cites a telegram the journalist, Canadian George Pattullo, sent on Jan.

He says he's a registered Republican, in Oklahoma, and doesn't care who the governor of Pennsylvania is.

That's because Gregory has also written about York; he cited Mastriano in his work and now he's feeling deceived.

And everyone in the future who cites Mastriano's work, now, their work is tainted?

Gregory said he actually had a cordial relationship with Mastriano, exchanging messages online about their shared scholarly interest in York. .

Then, suddenly, Gregory says, when he started spotting details that contradicted Mastriano's work, the politician cut off contact and blocked him on Facebook. 

A dozen Master's and PhD students gathered last month to discuss plans to press the university for details about Mastriano's degree

The school, he says, has a good relationship with the military, and let Mastriano through to avoid disrupting that

In that note, Brown told Milner that, from what he understood, regardless of his complaints, Mastriano would get his degree anyway

The university finally released Mastriano's thesis over the summer, amid external pressure after a years-long delay in making it public