Julie Payette is far from your usual bureaucratic official. Even so, her defense of good science and swipes at climate contrarians and believers in divine intervention was refreshing to science supporters and the science-minded.
Payette is Canada’s new governor general. That’s a symbolic position, where she is the state-appointed representative of the Queen. Generally, they are supposed to be impartial overseers of the democratic process and not involve themselves in politics or spiritual matters.
But at the Canadian Science Policy Conference in November, Payette, fifty-four, made international headlines when she argued for greater public acceptance of science. She said it is time for Canadians to move away from false beliefs such as astrology and divine intervention and speak out against people who insist climate change isn’t real and isn’t being caused by human activities.