To the Editor:
Scientists are not usually found waving placards at public rallies. But that's where many of them will be this week at various locations across Canada.
Why? Because they are profoundly worried about the Harper government's assault on science, knowledge and evidence-based decision-making.
This is a government that operates on a combination of prejudice and bias. They don't want to be contradicted by hard facts. To them, it's not what you know to be true that matters. The only thing that counts is what you believe to be true, regardless of all evidence to the contrary.
So Mr. Harper is systematically silencing sources of information and voices of dissent.
One of the first casualties was Statistics Canada. The Conservatives killed the long-form census, thus undermining the integrity of what was once a world-class data collection agency. They hounded Canada's Chief Statistician out-of-office. And their latest budget chopped StatsCan by nearly 50 per cent.
The Harper regime has an inglorious record of intimidation against scientists, civil servants, public-interest watchdogs, charities and community organizations. Those with the courage to "speak truth to power" get routinely vilified. Their funding is cut. They may even be attacked by the tax department.
Canada used to have a "chief science officer" - Mr. Harper abolished the position. The once-revered National Research Council has been twisted out of shape. Federal funding for science is being diverted away from "public good" and "curiosity-based" research and into projects exclusively controlled by the private sector.
Vital federal research sites like the "Experimental Lakes" in northwestern Ontario, the Bratt's Lake Observatory just south of Regina and many others have been sacrificed.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) has requested full details of the government's budget cuts, instead of having them dribbled out bit-by-bit. The Conservatives are stonewalling. This could lead to the unseemly spectacle of the PBO having to go to Court to force the Harper regime to produce the facts.
This government's standards are those of a two-bit Banana Republic.
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
