In September 2020, the Temerty Foundation made a charitable gift of $250 million CAD to “UofT,” making it the largest charitable gift given in Canadian history. Resident “bad boy” and President of UofT, Meric Gertler, arrived to the presentation ceremony in his regular attire of an Imperial Oil branded baseball cap and a leather jacket adorned with Enbridge, Suncor, and Husky Energy patches. As James and Louise Temerty, the donors, approached the stage, Gertler began to snicker and giggle excitedly. The Temerty’s brought up one of those big novelty checks and began their presentation speech.
“We are truly honoured to present ‘UofT’ (Louise and James included air-quotation marks) with this gift to ‘research AI’ and ‘further education in medicine’ (more air-quotation marks).” Both Louise and James were winking and smirking during their entire presentation. Meric Gertler giddily received the novelty check, stating that he was “Excited to invest this into foss…I mean, excited to invest this into the future of our institution.” Gertler let out a hearty laugh, as though he were laughing at an inside joke. “This will immediately go into our ‘endowment’ (more air quotation marks).” Gertler skipped off the stage giddily and handed the cheque to four men, who were later identified to be the CEOs of Enbridge, Suncor, Imperial Oil, and Husky Energy. In exchange for the cheque, the four men each handed one Reese’s Pieces to Gertler, who scuttled away immediately
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