Category: science Page 2 of 12

Nothing’s really changed yet, but I’m cautiously hopeful.

On September 25, the Federal Liberal party released a statement¹ that included this music to my ears:

The muzzling of scientists and the Conservative suppression of scientific information is an assault on democracy and an embarrassment to Canada on the international stage. The Liberal Party of Canada is committed to revoking the rules and regulations that muzzle government scientists and allow them to speak freely about their work, with only limited and publicly-stated exceptions. In addition, we will consolidate government science so that it is easily available to the public at-large through a central portal.

Further to this, should the Liberal Party of Canada form the next government, we will create a Chief Science Officer, whose mandate will include ensuring that government science is freely available to the public, that scientists are able to speak freely about their work, and that scientific analyses are appropriately considered when the government makes decisions.

Earlier today, Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he and his cabinet were sworn in. Of particular interest to me is Ontario MP Kirsty Duncan who took the Science portfolio. Is this the Chief Science Officer mentioned in the press release? I have no idea.

What I’m particular pleased about are Kirsty Duncan’s qualifications. According to Wikipedia²,

After graduating from Kipling Collegiate Institute in 1985 as an Ontario Scholar, Duncan studied Geography and Anthropology at the University of Toronto. She then entered graduate school at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and completed a Ph.D. in geography in 1992.

She’s a scientist. Anyone with a Ph.D. has contributed new research to their field even if they never do anything else.

Who previously held the science portfolio? Harper’s last assignment to the post was Roy Cullen³, a chartered accountant with a Bachelor of Arts in business administration and a Masters in Public Administration. I’m sure he’s got mad skills in administration, but a science post should be held by a scientist. It’s not fair to expect a business administrator to have a vision about science. This has always bothered me about government portfolios. The politicians are shuffled about and none of them have any expertise in the fields they’re heading. I’m thrilled to see Trudeau has appointed people with expertise in their portfolios.

I remain cautiously hopeful and remind myself that it’s still early.

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1. “Open letter to Canada’s public servants” from liberal.ca, retrieved November 4, 2015.
2. “Kirsty Duncan” from wikipedia.org, retrieved November 4, 2015.
3. “Roy Cullen” from wikipedia.org, retrieved November 4, 2015.

Sections 4 and 5 of the Controlled Drug and Substances Act prohibit possession of non-dried forms of cannabis. This means that medical marijuana users have been allowed to only smoke. Getting the marijuana in pills, oils, tea, or even brownies has been illegal.

I find this curious because smoking is drilled into us as being a very bad thing. Wouldn’t it be better to get the same medical ingredient without smoking? One person I saw interviewed about this has a seven-year-old child who would benefit from medical marijuana, but the parent understandably isn’t comfortable with the child smoking it.

So the court cases started. British Columbia courts ruled that the law went against medical marijuana users’ right to consume it in the form they chose. The Federal Government took it to the Supreme Court of Canada, and lost. According to the CBC, the court ruled unanimously that the current restriction violates the rights of medical marijuana users “in a manner that is arbitrary and hence is not in accord with the principles of fundamental justice.”

The government is not pleased. Health Minister Rona Ambrose said,

Let’s remember, there’s only one authority in Canada that has the authority and the expertise to make a drug into a medicine and that’s Health Canada. Marijuana has never gone through the regulatory approval process at Health Canada, which of course, requires a rigorous safety review and clinical trials with scientific evidence.

I’m still laughing. The idea that the Harper government would consider scientific evidence in making decisions is ridiculous. They make up their minds first, and if science backs their decision, they’ll use it. Otherwise, science is ignored.

Shame on Stephen Harper and his government.