Scientists stage mock funeral
Scientists from across the country staged a mock funeral on Parliament Hill Tuesday to mark what they called “the death of evidence,” protesting government funding cuts to basic research.
Carrying signs accusing the Harper government of a “war on knowledge,” an estimated 2,000 scientists and their supporters walked through the streets of the capital behind a black casket carrying the “body of evidence.”
“We are at a critical point in Canadian history,” said organizer Katie Gibbs, a PhD student at the University of Ottawa. “If we don’t stand up for science, nobody will.”
“No science, no evidence, no truth, no democracy,” they chanted as tourists and onlookers took photos of the walk, which ended on the steps at Parliament Hill.
“Between the sweeping cuts to federal science programs, the legislation changes that we saw in (the omnibus budget) Bill C-38, and the muzzling of scientists, the injuries to evidence have just been overwhelming,” Gibbs told a cheering crowd.
Citing cuts to research programs in Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the National Research Council of Canada, Statistics Canada and elsewhere, the mock eulogies focused mainly on cuts to environmental research that they said would “draw an iron curtain around” the evidence of climate change.
Jules Blais, professor of biology at the University of Ottawa, said he was encouraged by the turnout on Parliament Hill.
“I think what this shows is a turning point — that Canadian scientists are no longer going to stand quietly by and let the government basically destroy our ability to provide and collect evidence,” he said.