Rickford riding association targets "radical" scientists

The Kenora Conservative Association (KCA) is asking its members to contribute to a campaign to counter "misinformation" being disseminated by "radical ideologues" that have criticized Greg Rickford for his handling of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) research facility. Rickford, the recently appointed minister of state for science and technology, was criticized in an opinion column in the Toronto Star by three scientists that fought the federal defunding of the ELA (R$, September 10/13). Existence of the KCA letter was revealed by the on-line news site iPolitics. The letter asks members to make a contribution to an unspecified initiative — "We can't let these attacks go unanswered". The authors of the Toronto Star column are Dr Diane Orihel,a PhD candidate at the Univ of Alberta, Dr Britt Hall, associate professor at the Univ of Regina, Dr Carol Kelly, professor emeritus at the Univ of Manitoba and Dr John Rudd, former ELA chief scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Rickford had not publicly responded to the riding association letter by deadline....