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Canadian Government Muzzling Scientists
IllogicalStudent writes with this excerpt from The Vancouver Sun:
"The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age. Natural Resources Canada scientists were told this spring they need 'pre-approval' from Minister Christian Paradis' office to speak with journalists. Their 'media lines' also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation. The documents say the 'new' rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply not only to contentious issues, including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago. They also give a glimpse of how Canadians are being cut off from scientists whose work is financed by taxpayers, critics say, and is often of significant public interest — be it about fish stocks, genetically modified crops or mercury pollution in the Athabasca River."
that's like muzzling 1.25 American scientists, eh?
Canadians voted for Harper and he is simply giving them what they asked for. Everybody knows scientists just take money from the government by ginning up fear and give us nothing tangible in return. It's time somebody stood up to them.
Why don't I have the feeling there's about to be a flood of, "That's it, I'm moving to the U.S.!"
They commissioned a scientist to research it, but the government didn't like the results so they didn't approve the scientist's application to publish.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
It's so transparent the policy is now invisible. How much more do you want from them?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Nobody expects the Canadian Inquisition! Our chief weapon is Tim Horton's, Tim Horton's and hockey. Our two chief weapons are Tim Horton's, hockey, and a whole lot of boreal forest ... I'll come in again.
I am officially gone from
I don't see the difficulty. We now know "Transparency" = "keeping the scientists invisible" (you can't get much more transparent than that) and "accountability" = "having bean-pushers really run the country".
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The Conservative government in Canada is similar to the Republicans in the USA.
And in the immortal words of Stephen Colbert:
"Reality has a well-known liberal bias."
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Kind of like when they tried to take over Canada and didn't. Somehow that war wasn't lost either.