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CBC News

 

A union representing federal scientists has launched a campaign targeting what it calls the government's "worrying trend away from evidence-based policy-making."

 

"If the science isn't supported … then you're going to find that decisions are going to be made more at the political level," Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said Monday as the union launched a website called publicscience.ca.

 

The site aims to highlight science done for the public good — much of it taxpayer-funded and carried out by government scientists — and to "mobilize" scientists and the public to pressure politicians to support it. It features interviews with federal scientists about their work, along with interviews with science policy experts.

 

The union cited the example of the mandatory long-form census, which Stephen Harper's Conservative government decided in June to make voluntary despite opposition from statisticians, opposition politicians and many members of the public. Read more »