Set Canadian Scientists Free

As an outspoken advocate for scientific progress and a politically-active Canadian citizen I was shocked and appalled at the contents of the February 29 editorial in the weekly science journal Nature. The editorial, titled Frozen Out, details the extent to which Canadian scientists have been muzzled since Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have come to power.

What can you do to help?

Find your member of parliament here, and send them an email or letter to tell them that you don’t support the censorship of our scientists. Explain to them that scientists should have free reign to speak about their research. Share this article with your friends, family, and colleagues. Help them understand how crucial the freedom of our scientists is, and the ramifications of the government’s current practice of censoring them Sign the change.org petition here.

In the pre-Conservative era, scientists “felt comfortable responding freely and promptly to journalists.” Since the Conservatives have come to power, however, these same scientists are now “required to direct inquiries to a media-relations office, which…might not permit scientists to speak.”

As these researchers are funded by the government, one could argue that there is probably nothing inherently wrong with ensuring their research is communicated in a controlled manner. But what’s happening here isn’t a push for more streamlined communication with the media. Rather it’s the suppression of ideas that do not conform to the Harper government’s agenda.

In a recent article in The Globe and Mail, Tamsyn Burgmann detailed two recent examples:

For almost three weeks after David Tarasick published findings about one of the largest ozone holes ever discovered above the Arctic, the federal scientist was barred from breathing a word about it to the media. Kristi Miller was similarly gagged from granting interviews about her own research into a virus that might be killing British Columbia’s wild sockeye salmon, despite going to print in the prestigious journal Science.

Government-funded scientists and researchers–and, indeed, professional public-servants of all kinds–are supposed to be able to conduct their work free of political influence. Public servants are supposed to be just that, publicservants. They are supposed to be able to provide unbiased (read:apolitical), evidence-based advice to policymakers thus enabling policies to be crafted on the basis of evidence, not ideology.

I suppose we probably shouldn’t expect much else from a government whose minister of science is not only a chiropractor, but won’t say whether or not he believes in evolution. Nevertheless, we can and should expect more than that. Despite being a small GDP fish in a big GDP pond, Canada has always had a great reputation for its contributions to the scientific endeavour. The Canadarm, for instance, played a huge role for many years in Space Shuttle missions. But now we face the prospect of becoming irrelevant in the global scientific scene as a result of politically-driven suppression of scientific research.

Politicians and bureaucrats have no right to restrict scientists from communicating with the public. These scientists receive funding from public coffers, not from the Conservative Party’s treasury. The public has the right to hear about the research performed by our hard-working researchers, especially if their findings do not coincide with the government’s agenda.

As always, Carl said it better than myself:

What can you do to help if you’re not a Canadian citizen?

If you’re not a Canadian citizen, please share this article with any Canadians you know. After all, you can’t see borders from space. We’re all in this together!