We would like to invite you to two upcoming rallies in support of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers in Canada, with the details given below and here.
The recent open letter to the federal government requesting increased NSERC funding has been overwhelmingly successful, with 27 societies and >6300 individuals signing in support of the call for action from the government. We’ve received overwhelming support from many Canadian organizations and institutions, including the Canadian Association of Graduate Students, Canadian Association of Post-doctoral Scholars, Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, Union étudiante du Québec, Science and Policy Exchange, the Chief Science Advisor, Universities Canada, and the Chief Science Advisor, to name a few.
We have received encouraging information that the government is receptive to our request, but we’ve also been told that we need to keep the attention and pressure on the issue if we are going to achieve success for graduate students and post-doctoral associates. And it is important to be clear, the stakes are much higher than just NSERC-funded students. If the government increases funding for NSERC-funded graduate students, they will almost certainly need to increase funding to SSHRC and CIHR-funded graduate students and post-docs. Moreover, this increased level of funding will set a new and higher bar of funding for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers Canada-wide. In short, the repercussions of success are potentially far-reaching.
This is why we are now asking for your support. We invite you to attend two rallies entitled “Support Our Science”, in support of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. From 2-3pm on Thursday, August 11, we will be meeting in Ottawa on Parliament Hill. You can meet us directly on the green of the Center Block, or if you wish, you can meet us at 1pm at University of Ottawa (location TBD), and march with us to Parliament Hill, carrying the Open Letter (currently 62m long, stapled end to end!). There will be ca. 30 min of speeches from graduate students, post-docs, faculty and politicians. We will then deliver the letter to the Prime Minister and Minister of Science at the Office of the Prime Minister.
At 11am on Wednesday, August 17, we will meet in Montreal at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ride office (1100 Crémazie East, Montréal), for a similar event. If you wish, you can meet us at 10am at Parc Villeray (details in RSVP link), and march with us carrying the Open Letter to the riding office. Again there will be speeches and questions form the media.
You can RSVP for both events here:https://forms.gle/UWqR5dE9vxzrXgd1A
Please feel free to share this invitation widely within your circles (departments, societies, colleagues, friends, etc.) – ALL are welcome to attend. And encourage others to sign the Open Letter if they have not already done so: https://bit.ly/3vWWDQt.
Together we will achieve success and get the long overdue funding graduate and post-doctoral researchers deserve.
Sincerely,
The Open Letter Leadership Team