Science

Information commissioner right to investigate ‘muzzling’ of scientists

Topics: 
Access to information, Watchdogs, Science, Government transparency
Rating: 
4

Editorial – April 1, 2013

It’s good news that the federal Office of the Information Commissioner is launching an investigation into the alleged muzzling of Canadian scientists by officials in their departments. The clamour over the issue has only been getting louder, and continued inaction could have damaged Canada’s reputation in scientific circles.

The Information Commissioner has agreed to a request sent in February asking her to investigate what was termed as “the federal government’s policies and actions to obstruct the right of the public and the media to speak to government scientists.”

‘Muzzling’ of Canadian government scientists sent before Information Commissioner

Topics: 
Science, Message control or 'spin', Government transparency
Rating: 
4

Federal Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault is being asked to investigate the “muzzling” of Canadian government scientists in a request backed by a 128-page report detailing “systemic efforts” to obstruct access to researchers.

“She is uniquely positioned, and she has the resources and the legal mandate, to get to the bottom of this,” says Chris Tollefson. Tollefson is executive director of the University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre, which issued the request with the non-partisan Democracy

Prestigious science journal slams government’s muzzle on federal scientists

Topics: 
Science, Message control or 'spin', Government transparency
Rating: 
4

The Canadian Press – March 1, 2013

One of the world’s leading scientific journals has criticized the federal government for policies that limit its scientists from speaking publicly about their research. The journal, Nature, says in an editorial in this week’s issue that it is time for the Canadian government to set its scientists free.

It notes that Canada and the United States have undergone role reversals in the past six years, with the U.S. adopting more open practices since the end of George W. Bush’s presidency while Canada has been going in the opposite direction.

DNA tools to follow salmon disease back to the source

Topics: 
Fisheries, Science
Rating: 
0

Randy Shore – March 15, 2013

B.C. fishery scientists are developing a new generation of genetic tools to find diseases that are undermining the health of wild Pacific salmon and track them back to their source. More than 90 per cent of juvenile salmon that migrate from fresh water to live as adults in the ocean die before they return to spawn, according to the researchers.

Disease is believed to be responsible for excessive mortality, according to Brian Riddell, CEO of the Pacific Salmon Foundation. But very little is known about the incidence of disease among wild salmon, in part because wild salmon are very difficult to observe once they enter the ocean and because weakened fish are eaten by predators, leaving no evidence of the cause of illness.

New Film, Cutting-Edge Research Probe Salmon Virus Mystery

Topics: 
Fisheries, Science, Government transparency
Rating: 
3
Dr. Kristi Miler

Damien Gillis – March 12, 2013

The mystery of BC's disappearing wild salmon is back on the radar this week, with the release of a new documentary on the subject and the launch of a groundbreaking research partnership to study farmed and wild fish for viruses that may be affecting both.

Salmon Confidential, a feature-length film released online last week, explores the battle over salmon science that was at the centre of last year's federal judicial inquiry into rapidly declining Fraser River sockeye stocks, referred to as the Cohen Commission.

Scientist calls new confidentiality rules on Arctic project ‘chilling’

Topics: 
Science, Message control or 'spin', Government transparency
Rating: 
4

Margaret Munro – February 14, 2013

A bid by the federal government to impose sweeping confidentiality rules on an Arctic science project has run into serious resistance in the United States. “I’m not signing it,” said Andreas Muenchow of the University of Delaware, who has taken issue with the wording that Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans has proposed for the Canada-U.S. project.

It’s an affront to academic freedom and a “potential muzzle,” said Muenchow, who has been collaborating with DFO scientists on the project in the eastern Arctic since 2003.

Salmon-health dialogue shows why research transparency is a welcome approach

Topics: 
Food industry, Fisheries, Science, Government transparency
Rating: 
2

Mark Hume – March 10, 2013

When Kristi Miller walked into the Cohen Commission hearings two years ago, she had a security guard and a communications handler with her to keep the media away.

It was a strange moment. Here was one of British Columbia’s top scientists, the author of a groundbreaking fish-health study in Science magazine, about to testify at a public inquiry, and she wasn’t allowed to speak to reporters.

Could muzzling federal scientists be illegal?

Topics: 
Government transparency, Access to information, Science
Rating: 
4

CBC News – February 20, 2013

The Information Commissioner of Canada is being asked to investigate whether "federal government policy forcing scientists to jump through hoops before speaking with the media" breaches the Access to Information Act.

The request was made as part of a complaint filed Wednesday by Democracy Watch, a non-profit organization that advocates for government accountability, and the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Clinic.

Federal scientists muzzled re. oilsands contaminants

Topics: 
Tar sands, Environment, Message control or 'spin', Science
Rating: 
3

Mike De Souza – November 5, 2012

Environment Canada scientists have confirmed results published by researchers from the University of Alberta showing contaminants accumulating in the snow near oilsands operations, an internal federal document has revealed. They also discovered contaminants in precipitation from testing in the region.

But the researchers were discouraged from speaking to reporters about their findings, first presented at a November 2011 conference in Boston of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, says the document, released to Postmedia News through access to information.

Oh Canada: the government's broad assault on the environment

Topics: 
Environment, Science, Message control or 'spin'
Rating: 
0

Ed Struzik – July 2, 2012

Outsiders have long viewed Canada as a pristine wilderness destination replete with moose, mountains, and Mounties who always got their man. Recognizing the tourism value of that somewhat dull but wholesome image, successive Canadian governments — both Liberal and Conservative — were content to promote the stereotype in brochures, magazine advertisements, and TV commercials.

The lie of that was evident in the rampant clear-cutting of forests in British Columbia, the gargantuan oil sands developments in Alberta, the toxic mining practices in the Arctic, and the factory fishing that literally wiped out the Canadian cod industry by the 1990s.

Pages

Subscribe to Science