About 100 people gathered in Saskatoon on Saturday to show support for American scientists facing funding cuts south of the border.
Ash Lyons is visiting Saskatoon from Scotland, and decided to change her schedule to take part in the March for Science.
“When we knew there was going to be a march so close to where we were staying, we couldn’t not come to it,” she said.
Lyons has a PhD in fire chemistry. She made a sign asking people what science has done for them – and received a lot of responses.
“What would the world be without science?” she said. “How developed could we be, what would we achieve if we didn’t have specific advances, if we didn’t have people working together to make the world a better place?”
The group marched through the city, holding signs high to promote science in the community.
“It’s such an integral part of our society, our culture, our economy, everything that we do,” said Mark Bigland-Pritchard with Climate Justice Saskatoon.
Bigland-Pritchard joined the march in solidarity with American scientists facing funding cuts from the Trump government.
“We want to see evidence-based policy, especially on climate, because that’s the big issue right now,” he said.
Bill Lewis, chair of the business of science and technology committee with the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce, wants to create better awareness of local scientific research.
“We’re taking an inventory of all the different organizations that are doing science and technology,” Lewis said. “We’re going to try and find ways to publish that and make people more aware.”
The March for Science in Saskatoon is just one of more than 600 marches in 60 countries across the world on Earth Day. Organizers hope the marches will help promote science locally and create a better understanding for the next generation.
“We have researchers doing all kinds of work here that nobody has any idea about,” said Adam McInnes, co-organizer of the march. “This is a great opportunity for scientists to promote what we’re doing and to allow the public to engage with them.”
