comment: >
  
  Science rocks tbh
context: "Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, former executive vice-president of NSERC and now senior fellow at the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa, noted that the new security guidelines only cover federal grants and not individual academic research with China’s military. China offers a lot of money to Canadian researchers and universities to work with them, she said.
  “The People’s Liberation Army is not our friend and we should not be partnering with them,” she said. “Any collaboration with the National University of Defence Technology is clearly going to a military purpose and Canadian researchers should be using their own personal ethical lens to decide not to move forward with that research.”
  ...
  Dennis Molinaro, a national-security analyst and professor at Ontario Tech University, said “there is a lot of passing the buck” taking place on the subject of university research with China.
  The universities say they need clarity from government on risks posed by their joint research. But CSIS, for instance, which gathers intelligence on foreign threats, is prevented from sharing specific details with Canadians – even with law enforcement unless it’s specifically for prosecution and regarding a criminal offence.
  “Each are relying on the other to do the right thing, meaning the university wants to know what specific threat exists so it doesn’t curb academic freedom, and the intelligence sector wants the university to act on the basis of, in essence, ethics, that partnering with this kind of institution in the PRC is unethical,” Mr. Molinaro said.
  He said the federal and provincial governments need clearer guidelines for academic partnerships and legislative reform to the CSIS Act that enables the spy service to talk more openly about threats that exist." >
  
  Universities are thirsty for big dollar research initiatives because it helps them boost their international rankings. On top of that, Deans have an inordinate amount of say in the direction their departments go, and with budget models that often incentivize departments to enroll more students and churn out more papers, the money speaks louder than the strategic plan the administrators laid out with no teeth. Administrators get to make the line go up, and Deans get the big ticket items for their departments.
  Until there’s a specific government policy prohibiting research activity with certain actors, this behavior will continue. >
  
  At the risk of being branded a commie, this is what happens when countries progressively privatise higher education. The institutions stray more away from what's best for students and just chase the $$. My father was a university professor before he retired and he lamented that this even applied to research which were increasingly becoming less theoretical and more designed to achieve short term practical application, which is short sighted because it's the more theoretical research that churns out the bigger leaps in scientific understanding in the long term. >
  
  DARPA money is no joke. You can go from using a 30 year old instrument that only takes zip drives and floppy disks for data transfers to brand new everything. I don't agree with taking money from military sources, but I get why people do it. There would be fewer people willing to work with any military if research as a whole wasn't so underfunded. >
  
  There's a lot of money you can get that doesn't even have to be spent on actual military or classified stuff, too. The US military funds a ton of basic, public research. Personally I think if you're able to get the military to give you money for that sort of stuff, more power to you. >
  
  Can't compete with those defence dollars. >
  
  
  China offers a lot of money to Canadian researchers and universities to work with them, she said.
  
  Came here to say this. It's pretty grim when everything is for sale in your country. Political influence, your land and housing, corporations and their IP and your natural resources. >
  
  It's just the end state of capitalism. Thats all. >
  
  Its really not though, but go off. >
  
  Buy them out with your own grants then. The modern academic model is clear in the absence of funding: publish or perish. If you can't get money you can't publish. If someone else provides it then researchers will take it. >
  
  Everyone has been working with China for years. It was the right thing to do when China was opening up and giving more rights to it's citizens. Unfortunately Xi came along and put a stop to all that and now it's hard to divest from China. >
  
  Alright but it has been almost 10 years with Xi.. >
  
  Unless you’re officially at war countries don’t usually cut ties quickly. 10 years is quick in a global sense. >
  
  Of course, but there is a difference between severing diplomatic ties and allowing problematic collaboration such as the example described in this article. That’s just the tip of the iceberg here in Canada when you look at the level of interference in Canadian business and politics, not to mention the police stations they have been running in violation of our sovereignty.
  I am not anti-immigration by any means, and I do not have any bad feelings towards the Chinese people themselves, but the Chinese government is and has been awful for many decades. >
  
  There was also a potential Chinese spying incident in a Canadian virology lab in 2019.  (Although I am not sure how the investigation ended)
  link >
  
  Detailed article in Jan 2021
  
  It’s been 2½ years since Qiu and Cheng were removed from the lab. It’s been a year since they were actually fired, in January 2021. And yet they have yet to be formally accused of anything, and it’s not known if they have retained legal counsel.
  
  It's 3 and a half years now.
  another article by BBC in 2020
  
  A tweet with more than 12,000 retweets and 13,000 likes - claimed without evidence that Dr Qiu and her husband were a "spy team", had sent "pathogens to the Wuhan facility", and that her husband "specialised in coronavirus research".  
  None of the three claims in the tweet can be found in the two CBC reports and the terms "coronavirus" and "spy" do not appear even once in either.  
  CBC has since reported that these claims are baseless. >
  
  I'm curios, joint research with the military alone isn't a bad thing. Joint research with China ain't a bad thing either. But joint research with the "Chinese Military" is, however, problematic to say the least. Since it's behind a paywall, I have no idea what to expect. Can someone elaborate? >
  
  Yeah it’s as bad as you think. Even worse it’s done because the Chinese military is funding these projects for the Canadian Universities. >
  
  You would think security and intelligence agencies within Canada would actually stay close to this. I mean, these sort of "joint research" obviously will leak important results to China, right? >
  
  What? If it’s joint research it means both countries participate, how can it “leak” results to china, China and Canada both gets the results. Not some secret stealing of information, both agree to the research and results >
  
  They were on the brink of finding a Hammer and sickle shaped maple leaf. >
  
  In 1997 my lab supervisor in Dublin was approached by friendly Chinese people interested in his research and were offering to fund it. This has been going on a long time and is not limited to Canada >
  
  Ms. Fletcher said UBC recognizes the “global political landscape” has changed and the university is now aware “some research collaborations may pose potential national-security risks.
  Oopsie. >
  
  That’s just a lie to control negative press. Anyone with a brain has known China was a national security threat to western countries for well over a decade. Only now is it becoming impossible to look the other way. >
  
  all your countries belongs to china >
  
  Anyone surprised by this should also look up Chinese money laundering via real estate, how we were so very late in shutting down the Huawei 5G deal, and so on. Trudeau has only very recently started to openly admonish the CCP, but that’s only because it’s been politically expedient for him to do so. Yes, other countries are entwined with the CCP but at least they’ve been actively extricating / divorcing themselves from those partnerships. Canada? Not as much and not nearly as quick. >
  
  I can’t read it but I’m also not surprised. >
  
  Why are you not surprised? >
  
  This country has been bought and paid for by the Chinese for awhile. >
  
  If you think Canada is alone on this, I invite you to read up about the Confucius Institute, and how many universities in OECD countries have a Confucius Institute within their premises. You'll be disgusted by it. 
  EVERY developed nation was sold out to China by hedgies, capitalists and industrialists.  Australia, USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, I could go on. China has been sending its students to universities around the world to gain military and non-military information. >
  
  No one said they were alone. This is about Canada. >
  
  Point being made is that Canada isn't immune, just like all other western countries. >
  
  Canadian WTF! >
  
  Scientists conducting research together? Oh no the HORROR!!! >
  
  Ya that bullshit needs to stop! They are not our ally in any way shape or form. There are ways to build a political relationship that don't open us up to possible national security breaches. >
  
  I think Canadians are the one gaining knowledge here. >
  
  Correct >
  
  Paywall >
  
  Just like Canadian interests, apparently. >
  
  Its almost like this article is inflammatory... >
  
  Wait, so what’s the problem with your neighbor working closely in a weapons related field with your adversary? >
  
  Yes, the Chinese pay for Canadian weapon research in bad, Canadian can get the money and the weapon. Since the Chinese only use the weapon on their own citizens. >
  
  We really have the worst fucking allies. JFC canada. >
  
  Well, Justin made it clear that he admires China's government, so I'm not surprised they have connections in uni too. How low have you fallen Canada, I used to think it was such a nice place... >
  
  Probably a good idea to not cooperate with authoritarian dictatorships as a country in the west?
  China wants to replace the US as Hegemon, how do we think that will go for global peace and stability...
  Fuck China, fuck Russia, Iran, North Korea and all of the places that align with them
  The liberal world needs to understand we are in an ideological war vs autocracy/authoritarianism. >
  
  They said the same with Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Holy war, Easy victories. /s >
  
  Greater good of the chinese military? >
  
  Lol this is so naive of geo-politics and how Chinese espionage works. >
  
  Lovely.  The CCP with the eyes and ears inside our beat university labs. >
  
  Guarantee Canada elects a CCP stooge who curiously speaks fluent mandarin within the next 20 years. >
  
  Yeah, theres a negative percent chance anyone is going to admit we funded that research given the shitshow that ensued even if we did.