Friendly Peaceful Canada Actually the Worst Place on Earth + Canadian Scientists 'Mourn Death of Evidence' under Harper Government

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Friendly Peaceful Canada Actually the Worst Place on Earth?

July 11, 2012

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31824.htm

AND

Canadian Scientists 'Mourn Death of Evidence' under Harper Government

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/10?print

Published on Tuesday, July 10, 2012 by Common Dreams

Canadian Scientists 'Mourn Death of Evidence' under Harper Government

Protest march will highlight public harm done by gutting of research programs

- Common Dreams staff

A funeral procession of scientists wearing white lab coats and mourners dressed

in black will take to the streets of Ottawa today to **mourn the death of

Evidence** and protest what they see as an attack on environmental science by

the Harper government.

The scientists say a rash of recent cuts exposes the government's hostility to

evidence-based research and is putting the public at risk. Despite claims by

government officials that the cuts are a necessary part of a cost-cutting and

efficiency plan, the scientists claim they are directed at research programs

critical of the government*s energy development plans, specifically the tar

sands mining taking place in Alberta.

**There is a systematic campaign to reduce the flow of scientific evidence to

Canadians,** said Dr. Findlay, Associate Professor and former Director the

University of Ottawa's Institute of Environment. **As a result, the public hears

and sees only information that supports federal government policy or ideology.

That*s not evidence, that*s propaganda.**

**It's not about saving money. It's about imposing ideology.**

Scientists and organizers contend the assault on science has been ongoing, but

cite the following specific government cuts in recent months:

-- Large reductions in critical research programs in Environment Canada,

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the National Research Council of Canada, Statistics

Canada and elsewhere.

-- The shutdown of irreplaceable systems vital to the health of Evidence,

including the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area, the Polar Environment

Atmospheric Research Laboratory and the First Nations Statistical Institute.

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-- Inadequate information diet resulting from the loss of such important sources

of information as the National Science Advisor, Law Commission of Canada, and

National Round Table on Environment and Economy.

**It definitely seems to us these cuts are not just part of fighting the

deficit, that there is a systematic attack on science and the preferential

cutting of programs that may produce results not in line with the Conservative

agenda,** says Gibbs, a PhD student at the University of Ottawa and one of

the organizers of the rally.

Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of in British

Columbia, was even more pointed speaking to The Guardian. **It's not about

saving money. It's about imposing ideology,** he said. **What's happening here

is that the government has an ideological agenda to develop the Canadian economy

based on the extraction of oil out of the Alberta tar sands as quickly as

possible and sell it as fast as it can, come hell and high water, and eliminate

any barriers that stand in their way.**

**The Harper government is the most environmentally hostile one we have ever had

in Canada. Harper pulled Canada out of the Kyoto protocol, gutted the Fisheries

Act (our strongest freshwater protection law), and hollowed out our

environmental assessment legislation, making it easier for extractive industries

to get licences to exploit,** said Maude Barlow, a former UN advisor on water

and chair of the Council of Canadians. **It is heartlessly shutting down a

program that costs very little to run given the incredible benefits it brings,

in order to silence the voices who speak for water.**

**Scientists are generally not agitators, but this continuous set of decisions

has got very many scientists hot under the collar,** said Findley.

The rally will begin at the Ottawa Convention Center at noon and march to

Parliament Hill following.