The Canadian Institutes of Health Research
(CIHR) funds medical research in Canada.
This national funding agency is composed
of 13 virtual institutes.
Each of these institutes is led by a
Scientific Director who benefits from the advice of “Institute Advisory Boards” (IABs).
These Institutes are the following: Aging,
Cancer Research, Circulatory and Respiratory Health, Gender and Health,
Genetics, Health Services and Policy Research, Human Development, Child and Youth
Health, Indigenous People’s Health, Infection and Immunity, Musculoskeletal
Health and Arthritis, Neurosciences, Mental Health, and Addiction, Nutrition, Metabolism
and Diabetes, Population and Public Health. These Institutes work both independently
and in collaboration with each other and/or with international institutes or agencies,
etc.
As you can see above, one of these excellent institutes is called the Indigenous People’s Health. Its Scientific Director is currently Dr. Carrie Bourrassa who acknowledges “the leadership of previous IPH Scientific Directors Dr. Malcolm King and Dr. Jeff Reading who helped shape the Institute” (https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/8668.html). Bambi had the honour to meet/interact or collaborate with Dr. King (what a scientist!).
Over the past years, there has been a debate around sex or gender differences among Canadian researchers and their access to funding. Some wondered if female scientists were less likely to be funded than male scientists because of systemic barriers. The answer turned out to be no. However, there were differences related to men and women’s styles. Perhaps choices of words in writing letters within applications. Perhaps more importantly, there was also a difference related to the more aggressive competing style of men. The latter tended to apply to funding competitions in the next competition immediately following a failure (where women preferred to wait and perhaps improve their chances with this strategy, etc.). OK, this problem was solved fast. There was no systemic discrimination against women. Plus, there is a whole institute devoted to gender and health.
Now, Mr. Trudeau’s government, seems to want to religiously apply the DIE religion
(to use the sarcastic term of Dr. Gad Saad from Montreal, Québec) to every aspect
of the public service sphere and even in the private sector. DIE stands for Diversity,
Inclusion, and Equity.
Indeed, look at what our government wants to demonstrate now… It is launching an initiative called “CIHR online discussion on systemic racism in Canada’s health research funding system” (https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/52258.html). Can you imagine? The underlying idea here seems to show that our funding system is filled with systemic racism.
If the same excellence criteria are applied to all applicants to a certain grant application and peer reviews are conducted in a thorough way, looking for EXCELLENCE, period (scientific merit and clinical impact/significance), why should we worry about a so-called systemic racism in our health funding agency? Please keep also in mind that any competition with the CIHR (or with other governmental funding agencies) starts with a check of conflicts of interests (http://www.science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_90108244.html?OpenDocument).
Plus, look at our outstanding IPH Institute
mentioned above, isn’t it amazing that we have a full Institute, which mission
is to “play a lead role in developing research capacity in the First
Nations, Inuit and Métis communities, and will support partnerships and
alliances between Indigenous communities and health research groups at the
local, regional, national and international levels. IIPH supports health
research that respects indigenous values, beliefs and cultures, while
generating new knowledge to improve the health and wellbeing of Indigenous
Peoples”. IIPH also
fosters capacity building in graduate students pursuing careers in Indigenous
health research and promotes partnerships with Indigenous Peoples.
Among its impressive achievements, there is the Indigenous Healthy Life
Trajectories Initiative. Indeed, under the leadership of IIPH, and in
collaboration with four other institutes, the CIHR developed an initiative
called Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI). There is another much appreciated
support of IIPH of the CIHR’s Transition in Care Initiative (TiC), co-led by
four institutes (including IIPH) in collaboration with four others. Last but
not least, there is the contribution of IIPH to the Network Environments for
Indigenous Health Research.
As you can see, the IPH Institute has played a leading role within the CIHR and even worldwide in great research initiatives! It is one of our Canadian prides, despite our sad history of abuses and de-culturation ☹… and residual contemporary racism.
To conclude this
post with an old story (already shared on this blog) to show what Bambi thinks
of all this wokeism religiosity: Whenever she applies to funding or completes governmental
applications, she refuses to answer those extra questions on her ethnolinguistic
background, etc. For her, this is no one’s business. She is Canadian, period. For
instance, recently, Bambi accepted an invitation to participate in a research
project (as a participant). One of the demographic questions was about ethnic
background. The list of answer options was literally endless, with funny categories
and even sub-categories. Bambi skipped the list to its very end. Luckily, there
was a category called “Other”. She chose it and managed to insert on the form
the words: “A proud Canadian :)”.
OK, seriously now, merit and only merit should be our criterion. Yes, we need an equal and fair access to opportunities for all (no discrimination there, support to those in need, etc.). However, we cannot and should not guarantee the outcomes of competitions in life. Once we do that, we set ourselves for scientific mediocrity. Is this what Mr. Trudeau really wants? Likely not. So, why doesn’t he stop and reflect before getting too excited by fancy ideologies, like DIE, wokeism, etc.?
