University of Alberta President Rod Fraser said he would not stop debate on controversial issues because of criticism from Alberta Premier Ralph Klein.

Klein wrote to Fraser on March 5 complaining about a conference on poverty sponsored by the Parkland Institute, a think-tank based at the university. In his letter, Klein said "I am dismayed to see yet another one-sided and ideologically biased attack on the generosity of Albertans by the factually challenged Parkland Institute.

"The Institute, which is associated closely and housed within the University of Alberta, appears dedicated to the manipulation and misuse of statistics to spread its apparent doctrine that Alberta is bad," Klein continued.

Fraser said he has never received a letter like this from the provincial government which supplies a large part of the university's funding.

"Mr. Klein does not act as if he's operating in a democracy," said Gordon Laxer, a professor of sociology at the University of Alberta and director of the Parkland Institute. "Mr. Klein's attempts to intimidate and stifle debate is more the kind of thing you would expect in a dictatorship than in a democracy."

Tory MLA Mary O'Neill, one of the panellists at the conference, described the conference as excellent, saying it brought people together to discuss solutions to poverty.

University of Alberta Chancellor Lois Hole said the Institute was using the democratic system to make people think. "It is trying to make people aware that there are poor people out there."

Another conference participant, the Rev. Bill Phipps, moderator of the United Church of Canada, said it is unbelievable that the premier would write such a letter, calling it "disgraceful."

Mr. Klein's Minister of Social Services declined an invitation to speak at the conference.