Thank you.
My name is Angela Regnier. I am the national deputy chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. This is our government relations coordinator, Ian Boyko.
I'd like to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak today about this legislation and about the academic community.
Our federation unites over one-half million university and college students from coast to coast. That membership includes over 60,000 graduate students. These graduate student numbers are in part why we requested to testify this evening.
Graduate students and faculty researchers receiving federal grants are excluded from Bill C-2, an oversight that we strongly recommend be considered by this committee. The federal government allocates well over $1 billion a year to researchers at universities and research-affiliated institutions every year. Canadians know the value of world-class research as they see the short- and long-term dividends of research every day--better and safer medication, made-in-Canada technological innovation such as the Research In Motion entrepreneurial success story, and as a result of social science research, the general public and its policy-makers obtain a deeper understanding of the social, economic, and cultural forces that shape our world.
Canadians are making a large investment in knowledge, and in most cases they are enjoying a wonderful return. Unfortunately, there are many examples of federal research policy that have distorted the development of university-based research. Increasingly, a narrow view of commercialization, bringing new products to the market, is becoming the predominant mission for federally sponsored research. Tying university research outcomes too closely to short-term, private sector needs is not only bad for innovation, it's simply bad science.
We are hearing more and more first-hand accounts of researchers who have had to alter their results in reporting in order to satisfy their industry sponsors. One example that comes to mind involves a public drinking water experiment in which a graduate student made efforts to expose data suppression and falsification of research results. Two researchers allegedly misrepresented results of the drinking water study to yield favourable results for the sponsor. Health Canada guidelines are being updated using these allegedly falsified conclusions. What is astounding in this case was that the university did not stand up for good science. Instead, the university attempted to shut down all efforts to shed light on the interference, including threatening the graduate student with a defamation suit.
Canada lacks a federal watchdog for research integrity. While the federal granting agencies have a policy on ethical guidelines for research that regulate the institutions they fund, they have no mandate to protect whistle-blowers. Sometimes universities have been complicit in research misconduct, especially when students have come forward with allegations. Other countries have implemented federal agencies to oversee public research. For example, the United States Office of Research Integrity explicitly states that the whistle-blower is essential to protecting the integrity of government-supported research.
The Federal Accountability Act provides the structure and the opportunity for the government to ensure research integrity through the following simple amendments: extend the protections offered by the proposed Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act to researchers, including students in public, post-secondary, and research-affiliated institutions. To reflect this expanded scope, the act should be renamed the Public Interest Disclosure Protection Act and the commissioner should be renamed the Public Interest Integrity Commissioner. We propose that a deputy commissioner on research integrity be established to work closely with universities, research institutions, and the federal granting agencies to promote research integrity. We further propose amendments to the lists of reprisals and wrongdoings to greater reflect the realities of research misconduct in universities as well as expansions to the remedies available to the tribunal.
Also, as a student, I would like to congratulate the government on putting the Millennium Scholarship Foundation under the bright light of public scrutiny, since soon after its inception, students have had concerns with the foundation.
Thank you for the opportunity.
I look forward to your questions.