The Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS) is a national Canadian science advisory group that encourages evidence-based inquiry into scientific, medical, technological and paranormal claims using scientific scepticism.[1] The committee is an autonomous working group of the Centre for Inquiry (CFI) Canada, a non-profit educational organization with headquarters in Toronto, whose mission is to advance the causes of secularism, reason, science, and freedom of inquiry in Canadian society.[2] CASS conducts research, provides educational programs in schools, and publishes papers on a variety of scientific topics in a proactive approach to public outreach, and also acts reactively to non-evidence based scientific, medical, and paranormal claims in public discourse.
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CASS was formed in 2010 as a working group of CFI Canada to act as point of contact for science outreach for the organization. The committee is a volunteer driven panel of experts and enthusiasts in fields that include physics, philosophy, biology, biochemistry, neurology and medicine, engineering, computer science, economics, political science, and statistics. CASS is run by two co-chairs, with one chair currently held by Iain Martel, a University of Toronto contract lecturer with a background in the metaphysics of physics, and one chair currently vacant after the departure of Michael Kruse, a contributor to Skeptic North with a background in health, in late 2011.
The mandate of the committee encompasses four major program areas: the paranormal, fringe science, medicine and health, and religion, ethics, and society.[3]
CASS considers paranormal claims to be those claims about phenomena which, by definition, do not have any basis in reality and are considered beyond the range of scientific explanations. Examples of paranormal claims include psychics (mediums, astrologers, faith healers, clairvoyants) and extraterrestrials (ghosts, aliens).
Pseudo-scientific claims that CASS explores are those claims that fall between science and fiction, with efforts focused on separating evidence-based research from pseudoscience. Some examples of fringe science areas are perpetual motion, UFOlogy, and cryptozoology. CASS follows strict protocols of the scientific method when evaluating these claims, as they represent claims that fall on a continuum of probability.
CASS seeks to educate the public, politicians, and the media on many of the non-evidence based health claims made by proponents of alternative medicine and new age practices. The committee also promotes a healthcare system built on rigorous, scientifically-based treatment plans for everyone who seeks professional healthcare in Canada and abroad.
The committee scrutinizes religiously-based claims about science, including an active effort to keep creation science or intelligent design teaching out of schools.
The Extraordinary Claims Campaign was a series of ads developed in 2010 based on the Carl Sagan quote “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”.[4] The ads featured a list of “extraordinary claims” on topics of pseudoscience, religion, and alternative medicine, including Allah, Christ, Bigfoot, Chiropractic, and many more.[5]The campaign also focused on public education, running a series of events and publishing articles throughout the campaign that explored each extraordinary claim in more detail. The Campaign received coverage in The National Post[6], The Toronto Star[7] and The Digital Journal [8] and was also awarded the About.com Best Atheist Ad for 2010.[9] This campaign was a follow-up to the highly publicized Atheist Bus Campaign, which encouraged individuals to “stop worrying and enjoy your life” because “there’s probably no God.”[10]
CASS takes part in the annual 10:23 campaign, an international campaign aimed at raising awareness about what homeopathy is with the slogan: “There’s nothing in it.”[11] In cities around the world, individuals get together to take an ‘overdose’ of homeopathic pills to highlight their dilution and ineffectuality. In 2011, members of CASS in Vancouver were featured taking their overdose on a CBC Marketplace episode dedicated to homeopathy called: “Cure or Con?”[12] In March 2011, CASS sent an official complaint to The Honourable Deb Mathews, Minister of Health and Long Term Care, to express concern over a move in the province of Ontario to create a college of homeopaths as a regulated health profession. Key demands have been to ensure that the term “doctor” remain and be enforced as a protected term and to ensure public health safety with particular reference to the promotion of homeopathic vaccines.
In the Fall of 2010, several representatives from CASS attended the Body, Soul, & Spirit Expo that toured western Canada to highlight the harm done by forms of alternative medicine.[13]
During the Canadian federal election in 2011, CASS sent questionnaires asking candidates their position on public health as it relates to homeopaths and alternative medicine practitioners, scientific integrity and political influence, climate change, and critical thinking education. Responses received were posted publicly. In the summer of 2011, CASS sent a team of four members to speak on a variety of skeptical science topics at Polaris 25 in Toronto.[14] The panel was the first of its kind at a Canadian science fiction conference and was modelled after Skeptrack at DragonCon in Atlanta.[15]