How dare our GG support science?
The Governor General has spoken. Out of turn, apparently. As the Queen’s representative in Canada, former astronaut Julie Payette was an inspired choice. Too inspirational for some, it turns out.
Payette supposedly overstepped the Crown’s bounds by committing the original sin: She dared to question creationism and embrace evolution.
And that was just the beginning. She restated the science of climate change, lamented the quackery of cancer panaceas, and dismissed astrology as junk science.
Pundits pounced, claiming she had wounded people of faith with elitist rhetoric. And argued that the Governor General simply can’t talk that way, for fear of giving offence to honestly held views (anti-vaxxers have feelings, too).
Governor General Julie Payette made a notable debut on the federal scene with a speech to fellow scientists. Her mocking of climate-change deniers, creationists, homeopathic medicine and horoscope-believers prompted howls of protest from those who say a representative of the Queen should be seen, not heard.
You might have thought we were in a constitutional crisis. It’s more of a conversational crisis.
By way of context, Payette recited her undisputed facts at a prestigious Canadian Science Policy Centre convention that invited her to give the keynote address as an accomplished scientist in her own right. (You can view her comments — not just the topic but the tone — in a Canadian Press online video and decide for yourself.)
Rather than dwell on dry topics with a desiccated delivery — the usual soporific speeches about hockey, curling and Canadiana — she opted to infuse reason with passion.
“Can you believe that still today in learned society, in houses of government, unfortunately, we’re still debating and still questioning whether humans have a role in the Earth warming up, or whether even the Earth is warming up” she asked incredulously. “And still questioning whether life was a divine intervention, or whether it was coming out of a natural process?”
Yes, the Governor General must remain above politics. But non-partisan isn’t nonopinionated, and apolitical isn’t amnesiac.
But it proved too much for some. The finger-wagging hasn’t stopped for days as people accuse her — J’accuse! — of a viceregal transgression that left true believers feeling hurt, humiliated and victimized by her intellectual elitism.
For all the earnest protests about the sanctity of politics, opposition politicians tried to drive the wedge in deeper. When Justin Trudeau publicly defended Payette’s “support of science and the truth” — a loyal prime minister defends the Crown — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer mischievously claimed millions were “offended” by his public defence of her alleged offence.
“It is extremely disappointing that the prime minister will not support Indigenous peoples, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Christians, and other faith groups who believe there is truth in their religion,” Scheer said, enumerating each and every religious group he could rouse to ire.
Who knew people of faith were so fragile? Yet for all the fuss, Scheer failed to include horoscope subscribers among the aggrieved.
(The wise columnist knows better than to minimize the popularity of astrology, given that the daily horoscope attracts far more readers most days. Had Payette lampooned astrology in India — where prime ministers have consulted the cosmos on important matters — it might have been political suicide.)
While a governor general must be agnostic about political parties, she cannot be oblivious to the world around her. Using her bully pulpit to inject common sense — and science — into the national conversation is not bullying people, nor badgering believers.
Far from hurting people’s feelings thoughtlessly, she is challenging us to think for ourselves in the era of social media. For the world is not only changing at warp speed, the truth is rapidly being warped on Facebook and Twitter feeds offering fake news.
“We must be vocal ... so we can deconstruct misinformation and don’t end up in an echo chamber,” Payette said in her speech.
At which point she was pilloried in a media echo chamber that took her words out of context. Compare her energy and enthusiasm to other viceregal representatives of the past, or in the provinces, who have remained invisible while pretending to be infallible.
The alternative, if the Crown remains conspicuously silent about taboo topics, is public confusion and dissension. Consider the recent prorogation controversies in Ottawa and at Queen’s Park: After thenLieutenant governor David Onley acceded to a request for a legislative pause in late 2012, he gave an unprecedented Toronto Star interview explaining his reasons, which serious scholars commended for dispelling public misconceptions about the Crown’s role.
In this day and age — 802 years after Magna Carta — we should be encouraging openness and discouraging opacity in the Crown. If our viceregal astronaut cannot embrace the science of evolution without being accused of a microaggression, God help us all.