For years now, the federal government has been censuring,
muzzling,
de-funding, and laying off scientists, librarians, archivists,
statisticians, and researchers in its efforts vacate government
involvement in core research, and to shift its focus to
industry-specific needs.
There are three granting councils that
allocate federal funding for research in Canada: the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences
and Engineering Council (NSERC), and the Canadian Institute of Health
Research (CIHR). In constant dollars, from 2007-2013, base funding for
SSHR has decreased by 10.1 per cent; funding for NSERC has decreased by
6.4 per cent; and funding for CIHR has decreased by 7.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, NSERC funding aimed at "company-specific" problems has
increased (between 2001-2012) by 1178 per cent, while success rates for
CIHR grants has dropped by 61 per cent.
The government rationale for the
de-funding and
transfer of funding is that tax payer-funded research should serve the
needs of industry. However, the shift in focus corrupts core research by
creating research parameters that compromise thorough examinations of
any given hypothesis or premise.
While these restrictions serve
the government's agenda to create an unimpeded/streamlined environment
for both industry and government ideology, they endanger the public.
Core research that interferes with the government/corporate agenda (but
sometimes negatively impacts public health and safety) is discarded or
suppressed, while narrowly focused research that doesn't contradict
corporate government messaging is rewarded.
Public dangers
inherent in this strategy of information suppression and distortion are
not always tangible, but they are toxic nonetheless.
Consider first the federal government's de-funding of the internationally acclaimed
Experimental Lakes Area
in Kenora, ON, (constituency of Canada's recently appointed Minister of
State for Science and Technology, Mr. Greg Rickford.) The only
plausible explanation for such a closure would be that its findings
would likely serve as an impediment to reckless resource extraction.
Instead
of addressing challenges such as the effect of crude spills on water,
or the impact of air pollutants on an ecosystem, the government chooses
to deny that the problems exist, or to minimize their impacts. Both
strategies of evasion (deny or minimize) are enabled in the absence of
core scientific data, but the
problems remain and the impacts on the environment, including humans, are perpetuated.
The track-record of the pharmaceutical industry also serves to highlight the dangers of industry-specific scientific research.
The tragedy of
Vioxx is a case in point.
In
its rush to secure a new patent for a new product, the international
pharmaceutical company Merck rejected studies on the cardio-vascular
risk of its new arthritis and pain drug, Vioxx (rofecoxib), and
introduced it prematurely to the general public, in 1999. The drug
contributed to an estimated 88,000-140,000 excess cases of serious heart
disease, of which close to half would have resulted in fatalities,
before it was withdrawn from the market on September 30, 2004
In Canada, the drug caused from 4,000-7,000
deaths.
Corporate
corruption of science is not a new phenomenon. For decades, scientists
employed by Big Tobacco successfully created unreasonable doubt about
the safety of their products. Their distorted findings, as we now know,
were to the detriment of the public.
The same dynamics are at play with global warming.
Industry-funded global
warming "scientists", unqualified to make pronouncements on global
warming, and unimpeded by the rigors of submitting their work for
peer-review, have created unreasonable doubt about man-made global
warming. Consequently, they have impeded efforts to responsibly address
what is likely the largest threat to humanity.
The Harper
government's decision to cancel the Long Form Census (LFC) is another
example of the suppression of core evidence. A thorough census such as
the (LFC) produces a detailed and accurate picture of Canada's
demographics. Normally, such data is crucial for creating
evidence-based policy; however, the comprehensiveness of the data
reveals unwanted information. For example, currently there are about
4.2 million people
living in poverty in Canada. Once poverty issues are no longer
statistically verifiable, they will no longer need to be thoroughly
addressed. Not surprisingly, Canada does not have a national
anti-poverty strategy.
Core historical/social science -oriented
research -- another area targeted for cuts --is vital for a nation's
self-awareness. Without such awareness, a government can create
alternate narratives at will, that may be to the detriment of the
public.
For example, we are currently being assaulted with what Naomi Klein
calls an "extractivist" mind-set, where core Canadian values are being
treated as "overburden" (the derogatory term used by extractors to
describe the trees, earth, and ecosystems that are excavated and
destroyed before the tar or minerals are exposed).
Additionally,
our Republican-inspired governance rejects -- through Omnibus
legislation -- constitutionally guaranteed rights of First Nations to
prior consultation, consent, and accommodation for development projects
that impact treaties and unceded territories.
As author
Anthony James Hall explains in
"Flanagan's Last Stand?" ,
the government has a duty to recognize and affirm aboriginal and
treaty rights, but instead it denies and negates these rights as stated
in Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982.
Furthermore,
explains Hall, the Harper government's "USAcentric" view of North
American history ignores the Canadian reality of the Royal Proclamation
of 1763 which guarantees the Crown's protection of the Aboriginal and
treaty rights of Britain's First Nations allies who, along with the
British, successfully repelled American efforts to annex Canada during
the War of 1812.
Core understandings of Canada's history and its
juridical commitments are foundational elements upon which we can rely
to combat falsified government narratives whose barely-hidden agenda is
the termination of First Nation reserves and cultural protections in
favour of corporate extractivism.
The censuring, muzzling,
de-funding of Canada's knowledge base works as a cancer that undermines
public safety, health and welfare, as well as our societal pluralism,
self-determination, and sovereignty.
Out first step in combating this assault is continued awareness.
Conservatives
in this country used to stand for something — for small, limited
government, for low taxes. This week’s spectacle showed that the
Conservatives are no better as guardians of public money than any other
party; worse, they have taken electioneering and electoral bribery to
new and dangerous levels.
Brent Rathgeber
is MP for Edmonton-St. Albert. He resigned from the Conservative caucus
in 2013 due to what he describes as the Harper government’s “lack of
commitment to transparency and open government”. He now sits as an
Independent and is running for re-election this fall.
