Is the Canadian government muzzling scientists?

UPDATED April, 2012 (see latest links below)

Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Claire Dansereau (also government "science champion") speaks at the CSWA's 2010 annual conference, in Ottawa.

In an attempt to provide a chance for members of the current federal government administration to show more transparency and accountability to science communicators and the Canadian public, then-CSWA board member Tim Lougheed invited several federal MPs to a panel discussion at our June 7, 2010 annual conference.

Among others, James Rajotte, MP Edmonton-Leduc and Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Claire Dansereau (also government “science champion”) attended and participated in this panel (pictured at left).

A defining moment for science journalism in Canada

During the discussion and Q&A with audience members, including journalists from several major news organizations, Dansereau committed to meeting with science journalists to discuss ways the federal government could more effectively disseminate information to both reporters and the general public.

In late 2010, Dansereau met with current CSWA president Kathryn O’Hara in Ottawa to discuss how this might be accomplished. In February of 2012, CSWA president Peter McMahon met with Dansereau.

An open letter to the Prime Minister

While both agreed to share information on government and media examples of interview requests and look for new ways to allow journalists timely access to government-funded scientists, both also agreed that nothing had been done in the intervening year to change the current way media requests to speak with scientists are handled.

In the interest of spurring action, McMahon and the heads of five other national and international groups delivered a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, asking him to let government-funded scientists speak freely.

An international audience listens to CSWA member and Post Media senior science reporter Margaret Munro at a AAAS 2012 panel on government scientist muzzling

Outcry at the world’s biggest science conference

The same week, CSWA board member and Post Media senior science writer Margaret Munro chronicled her ordeals in trying to get timely access to tax-payer-funded scientists to an international audience at AAAS 2012, the world’s largest general science conference, in Vancouver (press kit).

The audience included reporters from the BBC and other international outlets that soon reported on the issue.

(see below for more coverage)

Here are some of the stories that have chronicled this issue…

• Latest Tweets on the muzzling issue
• open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
• more stories

2012

 http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/662521

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/04/18/audio-aih-snow-scientist-muzzling.html

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Government+muzzling+scientists+critics+claim/6502175/story.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/03/29/video-strombo-michael-e-mann.html

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/04/17/national-post-editorial-board-oceans-11-the-ottawa-version/

http://www.canada.com/technology/Canadian+bureaucracy+joint+study+with+NASA/6493201/story.html

• Mar 2, 2012, “Nature journal criticizes Canadian ‘muzzling’“, Canadian Press (via CBC News)
• Mar 1, 2012, “‘Free’ your scientists, Harper told,” Postmedia News
• Mar 1, 2012, “Prestigious science journal slams Harper government’s muzzle on federal scientists“, Toronto Star
• Mar 1, 2012, The second criticism of federal scientists muzzling in the journal Nature
• Feb 29,  2012, “PMO Pest Control” parody on CBC’s Rick Mercer Report
• Feb 22, 2012, “Government muzzles its scientists says Canadian Journalists for Free Expression“, International Freedom of Expression Exchange
• Feb 16, 2012 “Muzzling of federal scientists targeted by campaign“, CBC
• Feb 17, 2012, “Canadian government is ‘muzzling its scientists‘”, BBC
• Feb 17, 2012, “Federal scientists say they’re being muzzled“, Toronto Star

• An April 13, 2011 Canadian Press story shows that scientists at Environment Canada could not be interviewed about their research on toxins at a northern mine site.
• In April 2011, the CSWA sent an open letter to the leaders of Canada’s political parties asking how each would guarantee freer channels of communication between Canadian journalists and government scientists. We posted their responses
• A July 27, 2011 article by Margaret Munro “Feds silence scientist over Salmon Study
• 28 July 2011 – The journal Science picks up the story on the Canadian government’s rigid control over its scientists’ contact with the media
• September/ October 2011 – Muzzling of the Environment Canada ozone scientists
• Oct 2, 2011 – Environment Canada muzzled scientists who were involved in research that finds massive hole in ozone layer above Arctic (Montreal Gazette). The discovery comes as government reduces staff at monitoring network to the outrage of scientists and politicians.
• Oct 3, 2011 – ‎Star Phenix editorial: Free info flow best for public.
• Oct 7, 2011 Bob McDonald for CBCNews: Big Hole in Ozone Layer, Bigger Hole in Government Policy

• In June 2010, the Canadian Association of Journalists published an Open Letter to Canadian Journalists. It describes the muzzling of cabinet ministers and civil servants, the “total obliteration” of the Access to Information system, and the effects of this practice. It also offers journalists recommendations: “push back by refusing to accept vague email responses to substantive questions that require an interview with a cabinet minister or a senior civil servant,” “stop running hand-out photos and video clips” and explain “how little information Ottawa has provided for a story”.
• In September 2010, a column by CSWA board member and Canwest News Service reporter Margaret Munro chronicled the frustrations of science journalists across Canada with current roadblocks to accessing government scientists in the Vancouver Sun (editorial on the issue)
• Freelancer Glen Blouin tackled this issue September 25, 2010 in the Montreal Gazette
• On September 29, 2010 a piece by Kathryn O’Hara further outlining these issues was published online in the journal Nature
• Later that day (September 29, 2010), CBC.ca science reporter Emily Chung published a piece referring to the Nature article here
• Check out this campaign related to the issue started on CBC.ca Science undermined by politics: federal union
• A group of scientists have joined forces to speak up for government researchers http://publicscience.ca/