No devil in Museum of History details

2013/12/05 Leave a comment

Further to my earlier post on the fears of Victor Rabinovitch, former director of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, an alternate more relaxed perspective by Christopher Dummit of Trent University, following the unveiling of the plans for the rebranded Canadian Museum of History:

David Morrison, the head of the team putting together the new Canada Hall, revealed that the main stories to be told were the relations between aboriginal peoples and European settlers, French — English relations, and the experiences of new immigrants. Political history would give structure to the exhibit but “the real content is the consequences of political history …. What did this mean to ordinary people?” He got out ahead of the critics by asserting that the museum would include many troubled aspects of the nation’s history including “residential schools, the imprisonment of Ukrainian Canadians during the First World War, anti-potlatch laws and the forced relocation of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.”

Where were the swords and scythes, the royalists with machine guns, the mock lynching-in-absentia of Lester Pearson? Absent. For now, anyway. Perhaps between now and the opening, Harper’s history apparatchiks will descend to wreak their havoc. Maybe. More likely, the new museum will give us a benign version of Canada’s history — a museumified Canadian Studies 101.

No devil in Museum of History details.

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Advice for Policy Makers and Researchers

2013/12/04 Leave a comment

While this was written to assist government scientists and policy makers better understand each other these are both very good lists, compiled by British and Australia policy makers and researchers. They capture the dynamic well between the technical expert and the more general policy advisor roles and perspectives, and tap into themes of ideology, evidence and risk of Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias: Resetting Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

Good reading both within the public service and with the political level, given some of the ongoing tensions regarding evidence and anecdote and how the different perspectives play out.

Top 20 things scientists need to know about policy-making

  1. Making policy is really difficult
  2. No policy will ever be perfect
  3. Policy makers can be expert too
  4. Policy makers are not a homogenous group
  5. Policy makers are people too
  6. Policy decisions are subject to extensive scrutiny
  7. Starting policies from scratch is very rarely an option
  8. There is more to policy than scientific evidence
  9. Public opinion matters
  10. Economics and law are top dogs in policy advice
  11. Policy makers do understand uncertainty
  12. Parliament and government are different
  13. Policy and politics are not the same thing
  14. The UK has a brilliant science advisory system
  15. Policy and science operate on different timescales
  16. There is no such thing as a policy cycle
  17. The art of making policy is a developing science
  18. ‘Science policy’ isn’t a thing
  19. Policy makers aren’t interested in science per se
  20. We need more research’ is the wrong answer

Top 20 things politicians need to know about science

  1. Differences and chance cause variation
  2. No measurement is exact
  3. Bias is rife
  4. Bigger is usually better for sample size
  5. Correlation does not imply causation
  6. Regression to the mean can mislead
  7. Extrapolating beyond the data is risky
  8. Beware the base-rate fallacy
  9. Controls are important
  10. Randomisation avoids bias
  11. Seek replication, not pseudoreplication
  12. Scientists are human
  13. Significance is significant
  14. Separate no effect from non-significance
  15. Effect size matters
  16. Data can be dredged or cherry picked
  17. Extreme measurements may mislead
  18. Study relevance limits generalisations
  19. Feelings influence risk perception
  20. Dependencies change the risks

 

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Museum of Civilization changes driven by clashing visions of Canada, former CEO says

2013/11/27 Leave a comment

Others have commented on the change from the Museum of Civilization to the Museum of Canadian History. Whether one calls this values or ideologically driven, Rabinovitch is right on the significance of the change, and taking it to the most fundamental level. Reflects overall government emphasis on history, the military and Crown through a range of initiatives.

While there was much to criticize in the Museum of Civilization, in terms of how it skirted controversies and at times was almost Disneyish in its portrayal of Canadian history, it did give visitors a sense of the social history of Canada.

Rabinovith is scathing in his critique:

…. the underlying tension in the museum “is with the Harper-Kenney vision of Canada as a land of victorious armed forces, brawny resource extractors and compliant monarchists.”

That Conservative vision rejects what he says had been the mainstream Canadian identity — “a cosmopolitan country engaged with the wider world, where citizens seek solutions through informed debate, compromise, social justice and respect for diversity.

“That cosmopolitan vision is loathed by some Reform-Conservatives as a Lester Pearson-Pierre Trudeau invention,” Rabinovitch said, adding that the Museum of Civilization “is seen as its symbolic temple in the heart of the national capital.

“Its heresies must be uprooted. Real Canadian history, interpreted by select historians, must be installed to express Canada’s true identity as a muscular northern outpost of Western values.”

Museum of Civilization changes driven by clashing visions of Canada, former CEO says.

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Kevin Page calls for public service renewal from the ‘ground up’

2013/11/08 Leave a comment

While I think Kevin nails the lack of senior level leadership on public service renewal (and his dismissal of initiatives like BluePrint 2020 as an “empty vessel without a rudder”), I am not sure, given the hierarchical nature of the public service, that a grass-roots initiative is workable. But his diagnostique is bang on.

Kevin Page calls for public service renewal from the ‘ground up’.

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Keller vs Greenwald: Why Not Both? « The Dish

2013/10/29 Leave a comment

A good discussion by Andrew Sullivan on open bias versus hidden bias, and his preference, as practiced by the Dish, for “biased and balanced”. Another illustration of the debate over bias and ideology, this time in the media:

But on the basis of this exchange, I think Glenn has the advantage. And that’s because his idea of journalism is inherently more honest – declaring your biases is always more transparent than concealing them. That’s why, I think, the web has rewarded individual stars who report and write but make no bones about where they are coming from. In the end, they seem more reliable and accountable because of their biases than institutions pretending to be above it all. In the NYT, the hidden biases are pretty obvious: an embedded liberal mindset in choosing what to cover, and how; and a self-understanding as a responsible and deeply connected institution in an American system of governance. These things sometimes coexist easily – as a liberal paper covering the Obama administration, for example, with sympathetic toughness. And sometimes, they don’t – as a liberal paper covering the Bush administration, for example, and becoming implicit with its newspeak.

Keller vs Greenwald: Why Not Both? « The Dish.

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Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, 2013

2013/10/29 6 Comments

This report is a useful source of statistical and other info on immigration and related programs. Less trend analysis than desired, however, and glosses over problems like the drop in citizenship applications approved.

Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, 2013.

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To restore faith in Statscan, free the Chief Statistician

2013/10/26 Leave a comment

Munir Sheikh, the former Chief Statistician of Canada, on the case for a more independent Statistics Canada to help improve trust in the quality of their reports.

To restore faith in Statscan, free the Chief Statistician – The Globe and Mail.

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Des chercheurs déboulonnent des mythes sur le bilinguisme | Le Devoir

2013/10/25 Leave a comment

Appears that early hard wiring of the brain for language may be less important than commonly thought, and that there is little long-term difference between those who are raised bilingually and those who learn it later in life. Having seen colleagues struggle with learning French as an adult, anecdotally this seems counter-intuitive, however.

Des chercheurs déboulonnent des mythes sur le bilinguisme | Le Devoir.

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2017: Canada’s next good year?

2013/10/24 Leave a comment

Andrew Cohen, contrasting preparations, events and resources for Canada’sC Centennial in 1967 to the meagre offerings in 2017.  I am old enough to remember the Centennial train, visiting Expo 67, and the various nation-building projects.

Changing times,  governments then had a larger nation-building role, the current government has a more minimalist approach, and a general weaker sense of national identity (the 60s were a decade of affirmation of Canadian identity). And of course, in 1967, physical events were the main way to reach people; now one has to be in cyberspace as well.

A good reminder of what was, and suggestion of what could have been. With the risk that we will wake-up in 2017 asking: “Is that all?”

2017: Canada’s next good year?.

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Public service losing its ability to provide policy advice, former top bureaucrat says

2013/10/22 Leave a comment

A good article by Kathryn May of the Ottawa Citizen on Mel Cappe’s upcoming Public Policy Forum speech. Thoughtful remarks on the decreased demand for policy advice and reduced role of the public service. Reinforces points in my book. Quote:

“The issue isn’t whether advice is followed or not but whether public servants can prepare the work they need for ministers to make decisions … Let the minister choose whether to take or ignore the advice, but they should hear it. Let the minister choose to ignore the evidence, but don’t allow them not to have the evidence in front of them.

“I never expected my advice to be followed, but it was heard, listened to and taken into account. When the government did what it thought was politically the right thing to do and I was heard, I was successful whether they followed my advice or not. But if public servants don’t get heard, it’s not a good thing for the country.”

Public service losing its ability to provide policy advice, former top bureaucrat says

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