Here’s an excerpt from our op-ed published in the Ottawa Citizen on June 14th. Read the full article here.
Since the election of Donald Trump, Canada has been distancing itself from U.S. policies on everything from immigration to human rights to science.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland gave a hard-hitting speech last Tuesday asserting that Canada will step up to lead on the world’s stage, and a part of that leadership needs to be progress on science.
Under the Trump administration, U.S. federal scientists have been silenced, restricted from speaking publicly and face a dizzying array of funding cuts and closures. The breathtakingly senseless cuts proposed in the recent U.S. budget will, if even partially enacted, decimate the scientific capacity of the United States for years to come, putting the health and prosperity of Americans at serious risk.
Canada continued to distinguish itself from the U.S. in its support for science last week with a huge stride forward in protecting public science. The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (the union representing the majority of federal scientists) and the Liberal government signed a new collective agreement, with an explicit commitment to create science integrity policies for all federal departments (with 10 or more scientific staff) by 2018.
Read the full article at the Ottawa Citizen.
