CSPC2014: Policy Makers Should Listen to Policy Experts and Scientists

Karine Morin, Science Policy co-editor   Last week marked the sixth Canadian Science Policy Conference, and the fifth I’ve attended. Some topics seem to recur annually: entrepreneurship, the importance and challenges of research collaborations, and big data. However, each meeting also reveals something unexpected. This year’s unexpected aspect was a session focused on Canada’s defense […]

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What the Franklin expedition says about Canadian research priorities

Pascal Lapointe and Karine Morin, Science Policy co-editors The discovery of one of the long-lost Franklin ships is surely big news, archaeologically speaking. But it is also highly political. Not simply because Franklin is used as a symbol of Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic, but also in the context of what has happened in recent […]

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The Canadian response to Ebola: a new science diplomacy?

Pascal Lapointe and Karine Morin, Science Policy co-editors In early August, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development (DFATD) announced that Canada would provide $3.6 million dollars to both the World Health Organization (WHO) and Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to help the international Ebola effort. This was not the first Canadian contribution; […]

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Was the Northern Gateway project approval a science-based decision?

Karine Morin and Pascal Lapointe, Science Policy co-editors Undoubtedly, the government’s approval on June 17, 2014, of a pipeline to transport oil from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia stands as one of the most important policy decisions of the year. By examining the regulatory framework applied and the review process followed, it’s clear […]

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