Scientists protest federal cutbacks to environmental monitoring

By Edward Hill – Victoria News  September 14, 2012 

A leading Canadian climate scientist today slammed the search for the long-lost 1845 Franklin Expedition as a veiled front for future oil and gas extraction in the high Arctic.

Andrew Weaver, a professor in the University of Victoria school of earth and ocean sciences, called the search for the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror a “joke” during an off-the-cuff speech during a noontime rally in downtown Victoria.

“The Franklin Expedition is using tax dollars to seismically survey the ocean bottom for future oil and gas exploration. That has nothing to do with science,” Weaver said. “It’s all about oil and gas exploration. They are mapping out the floor.”

Researchers in white lab jackets, Raffi Cavoukian, a.k.a Raffi the children’s entertainer, Saanich-Gulf Islands MP Elizabeth May and Saanich South MLA Lana Popham, joined Weaver in denouncing cutbacks in environmental research spending, and the fear cultivated among federal scientists about speaking publicly about research that might contradict the Conservative government’s economic goals.

“Morale at federal government science labs is at an all-time low,” Weaver said to a crowd of several hundred people gathered at Yates and Government streets, outside a federal building. “What’s happening in Canada is science is happening behind closed doors … and is only made public if it fits with the government’s agenda.”

Weaver, among other speakers, also noted that federal scientists often aren’t authorized to speak with the media, and that instead, journalists receive scripted “media lines” on research from federal communications officers.

“We used  to laugh about what was happening to science in the George W. Bush era. It pales in comparison to what is going on now (in Canada),” Weaver said.

Critics of the Conservative government argue that federal economic policy trumps science and environmental monitoring. Politicians at the rally pointed to cuts in long-running Arctic program to monitor the ozone layer, cuts in staff to monitor the health of marine ecosystems and sea life, and cuts across the board to federal agencies which monitor natural resources and environmental compliance.

“Why do citizens across this country have to rally for science? We have to rally against ignorance,” May told the crowd. “Canadians are being put at risk by this shortsighted, reckless Stephen Harper government.”

A speaker who donned a fake mustache and beard, and who was confirmed to be a research scientist out of the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, told the crowd the Conservative government cut funding for a $12 million national program that monitored pollutants in the ocean that accumulate in marine food chain and ecosystem.

“The country has terminated the eyes and ears on the ocean pollution front,” he said, referring to himself jokingly as Dr X. “Dr. X” told the News that he remains and employee of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and could be subject to legal repercussions for speaking publicly.

As for the 2012 Franklin Expedition, the government said in August that it is indeed mapping the Arctic ocean floor as part of ongoing surveys conducted in 2008, 2010 and 2011 by Parks Canada’s underwater archaeology service.

A press release from the Prime Minister’s Office in August said the 2012 Franklin expedition will collect data for the production of navigational charts and topographical maps in the Arctic. 

Weaver’s fellow scientists from the UVic Ocean Technology Lab are operating an autonomous underwater vehicle to gather three-dimensional data of the ocean floor for the Franklin survey areas, for the Parks Canada-led expedition.

“The use of cutting-edge technology by the team to map the Arctic waters and locate the Franklin vessels is also a tribute to Canadian expertise,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a release.

News release Sept. 14 2012

About 200 scientists, many of them wearing white lab coats, and

concerned citizens rallied at noon today in downtown Victoria by the

federal government building at Yates and Government Streets against

the Harper Conservatives’ assault on scientific research,

environmental monitoring, information dissemination, and informed

decision-making in Canada. Speakers included University of Victoria

climate scientist Dr. Andrew Weaver, Green Party of Canada leader and

MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands Elizabeth May, NDP MLA for South Saanich

Lana Popham, Center for Child honouring singer and song-writer Raffi,

and Majority for A Sustainable Society (MASS) executive director Ken

Wu.

“Democracy depends on informed opinion. Informed opinion relies on

understanding all the evidence, not just that which supports a

political objective or ideology. Science provides much of the best

evidence, without regard to political agendas or ideology,” stated Dr.

Andrew Weaver. “The only scientific evidence the Harper Conservatives

want the public to know about is that which supports their political

objectives and ideology. That’s not science, that’s propaganda.”

“An advanced, modern democratic society needs decisions to be based on

the best information available. Harper’s agenda seems to be focused on

eliminating any institutions that bring forward information that might

contradict or constrain his agenda for unfettered fossil fuel and

resource extraction in Canada,” stated MP Elizabeth May. “Instead of

making decisions based on the best available information, their goal

is to eliminate the best available information so they can implement

pre-made decisions based on their ideology.”

The Harper Conservatives have embarked on a systematic program to

impede and divert the flow of scientific information to Canadians

through two major strategies.

The first strategy involves the gutting of scientific research

institutions and programs that uncover scientific evidence. Examples

of this include:

– The end of funding to the Canadian Foundation of Climate and

Atmospheric Science

– The elimination of the Adaptation research group within Environment Canada

– Cuts to ozone monitoring

– Closure of the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory

(PEARL) in Eureka

– End of federal funding for the world renowned Experimental Lakes

Area near Kenora, Ontario

– The elimination of the marine contaminants program within the DFO

– The loss of scientists in Natural Resources Canada to study ice

cores data (and the hope to find a university with a large fridge

willing to take the 80,000 year ice core record Canada’s government no

longer wants)

– The end of monitoring smoke stack emissions

– Cut backs in the Canada Oil and Gas research group in Halifax

– Other major funding cuts research programs at Environment Canada,

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Library and Archives Canada, the National

Research Council Canada, Statistics Canada, and the Natural Sciences

and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

– Decisions to close major natural and social science research

institutions such as the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area, the

National Council of Welfare and the First Nations Statistical

Institute.

– Cutting the mandatory long-form national census.

Harper’s second strategy is to impede the bringing forward of

scientific evidence into the public debate. Examples:

– Shutting down the National Round Table on Environment and Economy

(NRTEE), an arm’s length advisory body providing independent advice on

environmental protection and economic development, because the

government didn’t like its advice.

– Not renewing the National Science Advisor in 2008.

– Dozens of instances of censoring of, impeded access to, and coercion

of government scientists, a practice which Minister of Environment

Peter Kent has justified as merely in keeping with “established

practice”.

Rally organizer Ken Wu expects that the political momentum against the

Harper’s cuts to scientific programs and institutions will continue to

grow in the future.