OTTAWA — Here we are, whiling away the dog days of summer, and waiting anxiously for Canada’s once-muzzled federal scientists to realize their gags have been removed.

Surely they must have noticed this by now.

After all, it was just two weeks after last year’s Liberal victory over the censoring Harperites that newly-minted Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Navdeep Bains, held a big presser to tell scientists that they were now free to talk about their work.

“Our government values science and will treat scientists with respect,” said Bains. “That is why government scientists and experts will be able to speak freely about their work to the media and to the public.”

Remember, these were very giddy days in the nation’s capital. While Bains was giving federally-funded scientists the nod to speak uncensored and unimpeded, newly-elected prime minister Justin Trudeau was being mobbed by enraptured civil servants at the Global Affairs building who were fervent to snap selfies with their conquering hero.

Federal scientist Tony Turner, meanwhile, was still basking in his 15 minutes of national fame for a comedic protest song he wrote during the election, picked up by the media, about how Harper “muzzles the poor scientist.”

Yes, there were huzzahs from every corner of Boffinville when Bains set scientists free, drinks no doubt hoisted, but silence ever since.

So what, exactly, did the scientists want to say that the Harper government thought was so explosive that it was necessary to order their muzzling?

These are slow days in the news game, so the time could not be riper for scientists to let it rip. Or were they over-hyping the cone of silence that the Harper crowd had dropped over their heads in order to stoke the anti-Harper fire that was burning uncontrolled within the federal civil service?

In 2006, the Harper government introduced strict protocols around how scientists were allowed to speak about their research to the media.

First, they had to get permission from their cabinet minister’s office, meaning the boss had to give approval. This, in itself, should have been a given, but it soon devolved into a major case of over-containment.

Journalist Chris Turner, in fact, managed to get out a book on it, entitled The War on Science: Muzzled Scientists and Willful Blindness in Stephen Harper’s Canada.

In 2014, to cite one of many examples, Canadian Press reporter Max Bothwell wanted to interview a federal scientist about “rock snot,” a particularly slimy algae, and it apparently led to a 110-page email exchange involving 16 different government communications officers.

In another case, a Postmedia reporter missed a deadline during the flood season because of pre-approval demands by the Harper government over a question involving a flood in northern Canada some 13,000 years ago.

Yes, it got that ridiculous but, as the media’s overt dislike of the Harperites began to increase over lack of access to the prime minister in particular, and his policies in general, the Harperites did what they were directed to do. They dug in.

In the meantime, scientists and concerned citizens were doing their best to keep their concerns in the news.

In 2013, for example, in conjunction with protests across the nation, a mock funeral was held on Parliament Hill to mourn what was being called the death of scientific evidence. A letter to Harper, signed by more than 800 scientists from 32 countries, asked for the end to “burdensome restrictions on scientific communication and collaboration faced by Canadian government scientists.”

So what is it now? It has been almost 10 months since the election, and almost as long since the muzzles on Canada’s 4,000 scientists were removed by the Liberals.

Surely there is something these scientists can collectively say to qualify their years of outcry, and produce at least one screaming headline during the dog days of summer.

The longer their silence, the more their motives are suspect.

markbonokoski@gmail.com