The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) is holding a series of town hall meetings across Canada.
The gatherings are held under the banner “Get Science Right”. James Turk is the executive director of the CAUT
ListenThe Association represents some .68,000 academic and general staff at universities and colleges across the country.
They say they’ve becoming increasing concerned about the federal government’s attitude towards research and scientific data gathering, storage and availability.
The series of public gatherings organized by the CAUT are in response to a long series of government reductions and closures of federal scientific research institutions and funding of basic research.
James Turk says this action is unusual for the Association, but is a necessary reaction to the situation.
The public panel discussions involve science professors from local universities who speak on their personal experience and opinion of the changes with regard to the direction science support has taken in recent times.
James Turk says many university professors have and/or will work for government research projects. He says the members are concerned about the “politicization” of science” in that the government has instituted tight controls on media access to them and on their findings and is also directing agencies which distribute science funding on how and where to provide funds thereby affecting which research projects get funding while preventing certain kinds of research.
Turk says he hopes these public forums make the public more aware of the situation, how research helps them in their daily lives, put pressure on the government to properly fund research so the country doesn’t fall behind other countries in science “as it is starting to do now”.
He says Canada is “embarrassed” and “looks silly internationally” when the UN or other international organizations publish data on countries and information about Canada is left blank because the data can no longer be collected. “ We look foolish” he says.
Professor Thomas Duck Dalhousie University April 30 2013 (26 min)
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