Article content continued

Read more . . .

[/np_storybar]

The federal information commissioner’s office is launching a sweeping investigation into complaints that the Harper government has been ”muzzling” and restricting access to scientists.

Seven federal departments and agencies, from Environment Canada to the National Research Council of Canada, have been told Suzanne Legault’s office plans to act on complaints about “the systematic efforts by the Government of Canada to obstruct the right of the media – and through them, the Canadian public – to timely access to government scientists.”

“A notice of our intention to investigate and a summary of complaint has been sent” to the seven departments, Emily McCarthy, assistant information commissioner, says in a March 27 letter to Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria.

The UVic centre and the non-profit group Democracy Watch asked Legault in February to launch an investigation arguing the Canadian public has a right to know about the science financed by tax dollars.

The two groups pointed to several instances where federal scientists have been “muzzled” and the tactics the government has been using to control discussion about everything from the oilsands to polar bears.

“With the resources of the information commissioner’s office we hope to get to the bottom of it, “ Sandborn said in an interview.

He is also hoping “policies change so that Canadian taxpayers can get access to scientific information that they paid for.”