Is Canada's Government Gagging Its Scientists? (April 15, 2013)

Just over seven-years ago -- February 2006 -- the conservative government of Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was sworn into office. Over the years there has been increasing grumbling about the growing restrictions of the nation's civil servants, including Canada's governmentally employed scientists,  to address the press and the public.

According to ScienceInsider's Wayne Kondro:

[A]ll federal civil servants and scientists [are required] to get permission for press interviews from their minister or the Privy Council Office (Harper's central shop) and that all questions be submitted in advance. Often, interviews with scientists are conducted with a media relations officer in the room or on the phone; if a reporter asks a question that isn't among those submitted in advance, the officer leaps in and precludes the scientist from answering the question. In a recent dictum, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans also required that all department scientists get approval, including sign off on copyright waivers, from senior officials before publishing papers.

Now the matter has gained sufficient prominence that Canada's Information Commissioner, Suzanne Legault, has opened an investigation. The Information Commissioner, according to Wikipedia:, is an independent ombudsman and an officer of the parliament of Canada who reports directly to the House of Commons of Canada and the Senate of Canada.

The Office of the Information Commissioner:

• carries out investigations and dispute-resolution efforts to resolve complaints;

• monitors federal institutions’ performances under the ATIA*; and

• represents the Commissioner in court cases, and provides legal advice on investigations and legislative matters

Commissioner Legault has now been asked "to examine whether the government was systematically obstructing 'the right of the media—and through them, the Canadian public—to timely access to government scientists.' Such obstruction constitutes a 'subtle means of intimidation,' the environmental law center argued in a 128-page report called Muzzling Civil Servants: A Threat to Democracy?" which is attached to a five-page letter from the Environmental Law Clinic, University of Victoria (see below).

In a letter explaining her decision, Ms Legault states that she will investigate if "government policies and policy instruments, including departmental policies, protocols, guidelines and directives, that are related to communications and media relations and that restrict or prohibit government scientists from speaking with or sharing research with the media and the Canadian public, are impeding the right of access to information." Specifically, seven federal agencies are to be examined: the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the National Research Council of Canada, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, and the departments of Environment, Fisheries and Oceans, National Defence, and Natural Resources.

Jeffrey Hutchings, a professor of biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax told ScienceInsider: "There's been a clear attempt, and a successful one thus far, to reduce governmental scientific capacity. No question about it. One can only speculate whether it's an ideological issue with science or whether it's the fact that scientists don't toe the line, that scientists communicate objectively the results of their work, with all the warts and wrinkles and bumps that go along with it."

The date for issuing the Commissioner's report has not been set and indeed "whether a final report will be crafted and submitted to Parliament, is unclear; so says Josée Villeneuve, director of public affairs for the commissioner.

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*ATIA = Access to Information Act