Canada's Finest

"Telling scientists they are not able to communicate their work to the people who paid them to do it is a pretty striking statement on the condition of Canada's democracy."
Dr. Jeremy Kerr, biology professor, University of Ottawa

"Our government is committed to science, technology, innovation and taking ideas to the marketplace.
"Canada is ranked No.1 in the G7 for our higher education research and development. We are building on these successes to improve the quality of life for Canadians and to create jobs, growth and long-term prosperity." 
Minister of State for Science Greg Rickford

There it is in a nutshell; practical science, science projects and research that yield results, that can be taken from the laboratory to manufacturing production and then on to trade has primacy. It is innovation in marketable commodities that this government, ever practical, is interested in focusing on. Pure science, scientific investigation for sciences' sake, to discover more about the world we live in, and with an eye to protecting it mayhap -- not so much.

Hundreds of scientists and their supporters rallied on Parliament Hill. Taking part in the Stand Up For Science protests planned for 18 cities Canada-wide. Organized by a group calling themselves Evidence For Democracy, it criticizes the alleged "muzzling" of Canadian scientists, along with cuts to research funding of science programs by the federal government. Some of those cuts are hard to swallow, wiping out years of vitally important accumulated research.

About 300 scientists and students protested on Parliament Hill Monday as part of a nationwide rally, Stand Up For Science, aimed at stopping cuts to scientific institutions and enacting more open communication about findings to the public.  Photograph by: JULIE OLIVER, OTTAWA CITIZEN

 

Research of a nature felt to be invaluable to the international scientific community reliant on the gathering of data and its usefulness to understanding the world around us and how to manage our invaluable resources. There have been previous protests and they have been well considered by the public reading about them in the media. There doesn't appear to have been much of a back-lash from the public.

The government launched an austerity program in an attempt to come to grips with the deficit and ultimately the Canadian debt level. There are plans to reduce waste, reduce government outlay to more manageable levels; reduce the size of the government payroll, and cut out services and programs that don't speak well enough for themselves. All in the general effort to bring costs into reasonable perspective.

The organizer of the advocacy group Evidence for Democracy feels that conditions have continued to deteriorate for Canada's public-service scientists. Within Fisheries and Oceans, as an example, a policy has been implemented forbidding scientists to publish in peer-review journals without managerial approval.

"It requires a government manager to have an additional sign-off, even after a paper has been accepted by peer review and accepted by a journal. So it gives an extra power to the government to withhold science that might be inconvenient for them", stated Dr. Katie Gibbs, Evidence for Democracy executive director.

The National Research Council's mandate was most recently re-directed to carry out work benefiting industry, dropping research away from basic scientist inquiry. Scientists object to the oversight, insisting basic scientific research is invaluable in fostering innovation. In addition, strict communication policies limit scientists' potential contact with media, keeping the public uninformed about what their tax dollars accomplish.

Dr. Jeremy Kerr noted that in 2006 the National Research Council published almost two thousand peer-reviewed publications and 53 patents. In contrast to 2012 when the agency's publication output shrank by 80% and the patent rate dropped by 95% to a mere three patents. "Telling scientists they are not able to communicate their work to the people who paid them to do it is a pretty striking statement on the condition of Canada's democracy", he charged.

Finally, the closing argument by Ottawa-based Dr. Kapil Khatter represented irrefutable reality. Basic science, curiosity-driven, unsupported by commercial research and development budgets, has on occasion led to some of the greatest scientific discoveries. MRI technology was developed through government-funded science, along with the discovery of health threats posed by asbestos and tobacco.

Not to mention the Banting and Best isolation of insulin as a life-saving therapeutic management of diabetes, a coup for Canada and the world, funded meagerly but meaningfully by the University of Toronto.