Following in U.S. footsteps?

According to today's Ottawa Citizen, McGill professor Brian Alters had his proposal to study of how the growing belief in intelligent design in the U.S. is carrying over into Canada rejected by SSHRC in part because he didn't provide sufficient justification that evolution, rather than intelligent design, was correct.

A section of SSHRC's letter quoted in the article:

"The committee found that the candidates were qualified. However, it judged the proposal did not adequately substantiate the premise that the popularizing of Intelligent Design Theory had detrimental effects on Canadian students, teachers, parents and policymakers. Nor did the committee consider that there was adequate justification for the assumption in the proposal that the theory of Evolution, and not Intelligent Design theory, was correct. It was not convinced, therefore, that research based on these assumptions would yield objective results. In addition, the committee found that the research plans were insufficiently elaborated to allow for an informed evaluation of their merit. In view of its reservations the committee recommended that no award be made."

Now I have no idea whether this proposal merited funding in relation to the many other proposals submitted by other academics (although the outcome certainly suggests that someone ought to study it), but these reasons should absolutely not have appeared in anything coming out of SSHRC.