Several student organizations and scientists decided to take advantage of Evolution Ottawa 2012 to organize a protest based on the theme "No science, no evidence, no truth, no democracy." The protest took the form of a funeral for the death of evidence.
We gathered at the Conference Centre and marched across Confederation Square, up Wellington Street, and onto Parliament Hill.
There were about a dozen speakers who addressed the crowd. They included the President of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, Jeffrey Hutchings (left), Maude Barlow (centre), and Liberal MP Ted Hsu (right). (Ted Hsu has a Ph.D. in physics form Princeton University and he worked at Atomic Energy of Canada's Chalk River Laboratories (AECL) before becoming a member of parliament.
The crowd of 1100 was well-behaved. The police were bored. Everyone had a good time. I've never been to a protest that emphasized good science and support for evidence-based policy. That's the message that all the speakers supported.
Ryan Gregory has more pictures, and a video [Pro-science rally on Parliament Hill].
Ford Denison was there ... check out the photo at: Thousands protest suppression of science in Canada -- the "Death of Evidence" rally.
Not surprising, considering the Minister for Science and Technology, creationist and chiropractor Gary Goodyear.
ReplyDeleteI see you have provided a link to a Wikipedia article on Stephen Harper. This makes it obvious that you think there may be Sandwalk readers who do not know who Prime Minister Stephen Harper is. If you were discussing Barack Obama, would you provide a link to a Wikipedia article on him?
ReplyDeleteIf you really do feel it is necessary to provide an article on Harper, maybe you could consider using The Canadian Encyclopedia: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=HomePage&Params=A1
Prof. Moran has many readers in countries other then Canada. As amazing as it is to Ms. Abbass, it would not surprise me if many of them are totally unfamiliar with Mr. Harper, particularly his off beat religious affiliations.
DeleteThe Wikipedia entry is considerably more detailed and informative than the entry from The Canadian Encyclopedia. Why should the latter be cited?
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Harper is too much needs to be done to correct what he hasn't done.
ReplyDeleteHe is an embarrassment to environmentalists world-wide ... And to all Canadians.
I trust voters will remember his extremely poor results at the next election. In this instance, I find it hard to believe we could do worse.