Silence of the Labs

Silence of the Labs is the title given to the Fifth Estate presentation coming up on CBC this Friday which anyone concerned with the future of Canadian scientific research, indeed the very future of Canada, should make a point of watching. Whilst I do not know what their investigative reporting will reveal their brief description gives us a good idea.


“In the past few years, the federal government has cut funding to hundreds of renowned research institutes and programs. Ottawa has dismissed more than 2,000 federal scientists and researchers and has drastically cut or ended programs that monitored smoke stack emissions, food inspections, oil spills, water quality and climate change.
Now some scientists have become unlikely radicals, denouncing what they call is a politically-driven war on knowledge. In Silence of the Labs, Linden MacIntyre tells the story of scientists - and what is at stake for Canadians - from Nova Scotia to the B.C. Pacific Coast to the far Arctic Circle.”


That these scientist were unable to tell their story, or indeed reveal details of their research without 'permission' from the Harper regime, until they found themselves without jobs or funding and their research or monitoring programs shut down says much about the respect that Harper and his cronies have for factual information and science based decision making. There is indeed a war on knowledge in progress with even 'book burning' being carried out in the name of 'conciliation' and cost cutting, expect revisionist history and Orwellian propaganda to be coming soon........ Oh wait, its already started!


Do take the time to watch the program, I suspect it will reveal much about the priorities of the Harper regime and their preference of ideology over fact based decisions.


BROADCAST DATE : Jan 10, 2014 'check your local listings for more information'

 
EDIT
The program can now be watched on line here
A list of the facilities and programs that have been shut down can be found here.


Cross posted at Democracy Under Fire and The Rural Canadian