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Scientists to hold "wake" in city, Ottawa to protest cuts to research
Mike Tate does research at the Experimental Lakes Area near Lyng, Ont., in 2008. Federal cuts have ended the world-renowned research program. (MIKE APORIUS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store
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Scientists are holding a wake in Winnipeg at the same time hundreds of their colleagues plan to stage a mock funeral procession in Ottawa.
Both are mourning what’s been called an attack on science by the Harper government.
In Winnipeg, the coalition for the ELA is congregating at noon on the lawn at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Freshwater Institute at the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus.
"The termination of the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area is a prime example of this government’s agenda," the coalition said in an announcement calling for the wake, "to mourn what’s been lost by the Harper government’s attack on science and knowledge."
At 1 p.m. several hundred Canadian scientists will leave their lab benches in Ottawa to mark what they’re also calling the death of evidence in this country at the hands of the federal government.
The protest will include a "funeral procession" march from the Ottawa Convention Centre to Parliament Hill, and eulogies to scientific evidence delivered by a number of nationally respected scientists.
"We want to let the public know this isn't just about budget cuts," said Katie Gibbs, a PhD student at the University of Ottawa. "It's a systematic attack on science."
Gibbs is one of the organizers of the Death of Evidence event, which is expected to draw nearly 1,000 people, many of them in the city for a conference on evolutionary biology.
The protest comes after millions were cut from basic research programs including ending the federal government's commitment to the unique Experimental Lakes Area near Kenora. The cuts include slashed budgets at the National Research Council, which is putting more than four dozen Winnipeg scientists out of work and eliminating a successful research program on magnetic resonance imaging.
Other cuts include the closure of the Polar Atmospheric Environmental Research Lab, the elimination of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy and cuts to the scope and number of environmental reviews done by Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans.
"Widespread cuts to federal science programs, muzzling of government scientists and profound changes in our federal legislation are fundamentally changing the nature of our country," the Winnipeg coalition warned.
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