{"id":9459,"date":"2013-04-20T19:02:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-21T03:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/?p=9459"},"modified":"2013-04-20T19:02:03","modified_gmt":"2013-04-21T03:02:03","slug":"muzzling-scientists-is-an-assault-on-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/2013\/04\/muzzling-scientists-is-an-assault-on-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Muzzling scientists is an assault on democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Suzuki, Rabble.ca<\/a>, April 9, 2013–<\/p>\n

Access to information is a basic foundation of democracy. Canada\u2019s\u00a0Charter of Rights and Freedoms<\/a>\u00a0also gives us \u201cfreedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

We must protect these rights. As we alter the chemical, physical and biological properties of the biosphere, we face an increasingly uncertain future, and the best information we have to guide us comes from science. That scientists \u2013 and even\u00a0librarians<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 are speaking out against what appear to be increasing efforts to suppress information shows we have cause for concern. The situation has become so alarming that Canada\u2019s\u00a0Information Commissioner is investigating<\/a>\u00a0seven government departments in response to a complaint that they\u2019re \u201cmuzzling\u201d scientists.<\/p>\n

The submission from the University of Victoria\u2019s Environmental Law Centre and Democracy Watch alleges that \u201cthe federal government is preventing the media and the Canadian public from speaking to government scientists for news stories \u2013 especially when the scientists\u2019 research or point of view runs counter to current Government policies on matters such as environmental protection, oil sands development, and climate change\u201d and that this \u201cimpoverishes the public debate on issues of significant national concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint and investigation follow numerous similar charges from scientists and organizations such as the\u00a0Canadian Science Writers\u2019 Association<\/a>\u00a0and the World Federation of Science Journalists, and publications such as the science journal\u00a0Nature<\/a><\/em>. Hundreds of scientists marched on Parliament Hill last July to mark \u201cthe\u00a0death of evidence<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The list of actions prompting these grievances is long. It includes shutting the world-renownedExperimental Lakes Area<\/a>, axing the\u00a0National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy<\/a>, eliminating funding for the\u00a0Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences<\/a>\u00a0and prohibiting federal scientists from speaking about research on subjects ranging from\u00a0ozone<\/a>\u00a0to climate change to\u00a0salmon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All of this has been taking place as the federal government guts environmental laws and cuts funding for environmental departments through its\u00a0omnibus budget bills<\/a>. It has justified those massive environmental policy changes in part by saying the review process was slow and inefficient, but\u00a0research by scientists at the University of Toronto<\/a>, published in the\u00a0Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0\u201cfound no evidence that regulatory review in Canada was inefficient, even when regulators had an ongoing load of over 600 projects for review at any given time.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read More: Rabble.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Suzuki, Rabble.ca, April 9, 2013– Access to information is a basic foundation of democracy. Canada\u2019s\u00a0Charter of Rights and Freedoms\u00a0also gives us \u201cfreedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.\u201d We … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1527,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[554,2249,287,110960,147183,2259,555,635,662,2265,642,2266,2276],"tags":[1288925,1288923,1288930,1288952,1288954,1288924],"class_list":["post-9459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-freedom","category-accountability","category-administration","category-censorship-2","category-environment-2","category-ethics","category-free-speech","category-government","category-media","category-organizing","category-politics","category-protests","category-working-conditions","tag-academic-freedom","tag-administration","tag-government","tag-legal-issues","tag-protests","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9460,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9459\/revisions\/9460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}