Getting It Right: Canadian Conservatives and the “War on Science”

Beyond Bloom's Taxonomy: Integrating “searching as learning” and e‐learning research perspectives

“…3) Historically, the philosophy of science has shown that complex scientific information often contains a range of biases. This much has been argued by science philosophers of the past century (Amend & Barney, 2016;Dewey & Rogers, 2012;Hayles, 2001;Kuhn, 1970). However, I will add that the situation has not improved due to the rise of what is often termed as "single-source" journalism (i.e., the media using the perspective of a single source of scientists, often from a press release, to represent a complex.…”

What Scientists Say about the Changing Risk Calculation in the Marine Environment under the Harper Government of Canada (2006-2015)

“…Many scientists spoke of funding cuts, program restructuring, reassignment of scientists to new positions that did not draw on their expertise, and other workplace barriers they experienced that made it difficult to anticipate, understand, and address risks. Examples such as closure of government libraries, research groups, longitudinal studies and laboratories have been highlighted elsewhere (Amend and Barney 2015;Bailey et al 2016;Davies and Slivinski 2016;Richter 2015;Turner 2013), but our respondents spoke to the demoralizing impact of these government cuts: "you try and do your job and at the end of the day somebody just chops your arm off" (Interview 13, February 2 nd , 2016). A notable example for Atlantic Canada was the closure of a DFO ecotoxicology lab that was doing cutting edge research on the impacts of various development projects on marine ecosystems and commercial species, including oil dispersants and aquaculture pesticides.…”

“…The Harper administration science agenda cut science funding and resources (Amend and Barney 2015;Bailey et al 2016;Davies and Slivinski 2015;Turner 2013;Wells 2014a), but scientists also spoke to the shift in funding and in bureaucratic resources towards innovative technologies and support for industry (see also Cooper 2009;Holloway 2015), rather than basic research into risk. For example, one informant noted: "If you were to come forward with the message that we are all about climate change during the Harper years, that would not have been very popular.…”

What Scientists Say about the Changing Risk Calculation in the Marine Environment under the Harper Government of Canada (2006-2015):

“…Examples such as closure of government libraries, research groups, longitudinal studies and laboratories have been highlighted elsewhere (Amend and Barney 2015;Bailey et al 2016;Davies and Slivinski 2016;Richter 2015;Turner 2013), but our respondents spoke to the demoralizing impact of these government cuts: "you try and do your job and at the end of the day somebody just chops your arm off" (Interview 13, February 2 nd , 2016). A notable example for Atlantic Canada was the closure of a DFO ecotoxicology lab that was doing cutting edge research on the impacts of various development projects on marine ecosystems and commercial species, including oil dispersants and aquaculture pesticides.…”