/ Opinion / Letters /

Richards turns his back on science

Tuesday, Jul 24, 2012 03:00 am

This month scientists from all across Canada held a funeral march on Parliament Hill for the “death of evidence.” They were protesting how MP Blake Richards and his Conservative government are ignoring evidence in policy-making, cutting off funding to vital research and preventing government scientists from presenting evidence to the public.

This normally reserved group was moved to noisy protest by a set of decisions of the Conservative government that shows disregard for the hard work that our scientists do to generate knowledge for the benefit of Canadians.

The Conservatives are eliminating the Experimental Lakes Area, which we have used for 40 years to protect us from poisons in our water. They killed the mandatory long form census, depriving us of a clear picture and understanding of the circumstances that Canadians face in their daily lives. Scores of federal scientists will no longer be monitoring and reporting to us about the environment that our children and grandchildren will have to live in.

I believe that to make good decisions you need good data. Yet Mr. Richards and the Conservatives are eroding that data, bit by bit. It leaves our government flying blind—and dangerously ill-equipped to protect the health and safety of Canadians.

Ted Hsu, MP

Science and Technology Critic for the Liberal Party of Canada

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