TAP Canada

We all know that we have lost a giant with the passing of Sister Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D.

I knew of Rosalie Bertell’s work at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute where she first gained invaluable insights into the manner in which ionizing radiation degrades the health of all and impairs the intelligence of very young children.

I was lucky enough to go with Rosalie on a trip to Korea to visit the communities where the CANDU nuclear reactors are located, seeing at first hand her compassionate heart and her scientific mind working in seamless harmony.

To me, she is a trailblazer in the practice of Science and Mathematics in the Public Interest — something the human community sorely needs if we are to survive our own technologies.

It is pitiful to see scientists and engineers allowing themselves to be shackled in jobs where their conscience is anaesthetized, their voices are stilled, and their actions are severely limited because they have sold their services to a corporation, a government agency, or military establishment.

Rosalie saw that science has to be put at the service of humanity and that scientific language has to be demystified so we can all understand the magnitude of the stakes and the enormity of what we are doing to earth’s living systems.

Scientific thought devoid of compassion, concern and action– for the good of humanity and all life on earth — is not only sterile, but rapidly becomes enormously destructive.

 May Rosalie rest in peace, but may her spirit remain very much alive and active in the world, because we need it — we need her– so much.

 Gordon Edwards