Carney worked as a principal and superintendent of schools in the
Northwest Territories. In 1962, he became the principal of the
Joseph Burr Tyrrell School, a federal
day school in
Fort Smith. He later served on the board of the
Newman Theological College, and as executive director of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees' Association before becoming employed at the
University of Alberta. He was an associate professor at the university from 1967 to 1971. In March 1965, Carney was interviewed by
CBC Radio concerning his work as a principal in the Northwest Territories. During the interview, he was asked about a program for "culturally retarded children" at the Joseph B. Tyrrell school, where he was principal. When asked to define a "culturally retarded child", Carney replied: "a culturally retarded child in the context of the Northwest Territories is a child from a Native background who for various reasons has not been in regular attendance in school". His remarks resurfaced in 2025 after the election of
Mark Carney, with some online posts incorrectly referring to Robert Carney as a
residential school principal. In 1975, Carney was appointed as deputy minister of the Alberta department of recreation, parks and wildlife. Prior to the appointment he held the role of executive director of the
Alberta Northern Development Group. In 1976, Carney was appointed as deputy director for operations of
Department of Indian Affairs in the Alberta region. Carney was a candidate in the
1980 Canadian federal election, running as a Liberal in the riding of
Edmonton South. He placed second in the election. In 1991, Carney conducted interviews with 240 former
residential school students as part of a study commissioned by the church. He subsequently published a report detailing allegations of physical abuse within the schools, noting 15 alleged instances of sexual assault which took place at residential schools in the Western Arctic. News coverage following the report prompted Carney to clarify that abuse was not the focus of the report, writing to the
Edmonton Journal that "a number of interviewees expressed positive comments about their experiences in residential schools and hostels, while others deplored what they described as the excessive attention given to negative incidents related to these institutions". He later criticized the 1996
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples for being "dominated" by "the Aboriginal perspective". Carney was employed at the
University of Alberta as Professor of Education Foundations, and retired as
professor emeritus. He died on 9 December 2009 in
Nanaimo, British Columbia. ==Personal life==