Are Canada’s Scientists Being Silenced?

The Canadian government is muzzling scientists, according to a complaint filed by Democracy Watch and a western Canadian university’s environmental law clinic earlier this year.

The nation’s information commissioner has confirmed her office’s investigation into the complaints.

The complaint claims Canadian scientists are being “muzzled” by being forced to request permission from numerous federal departments prior to talking to any media outlets.

The 26-page complaint (with over a 100 pages of appendices) alleges this breaches the Access to Information Act.

In an era when it’s virtually impossible to keep anything public private, thanks to social media, this complaint at first seems silly – as if the scientists just don’t want to have to fill out all the paperwork to report their findings.

However, this complaint isn’t just about the paperwork – it’s about freedom of speech and reporting on environmental issues which affect us all.

We’ve seen big businesses and government use this tactic to quash media attention from controversial issues before.

Cigarette companies used the tactic to try and convince us that their products were actually good for us – which we now painfully know is hogwash.

By forcing mounds of paper upon anyone requesting information, the cigarette companies made it almost impossible to learn the true dangers of smoking.

The Soviet government made it hard for journalists to find reliable information about most things during the Cold War, often forcing mountains of paper to be filed, which made it too time consuming to get and report on anything out of that part of the world.

But the Canadian government?

Really?!?!

Canada isn’t a communistic country, and freedom of speech and access to government has always been something Canadians never worried about.

It just is unheard of.

Hopefully, the Canadian government is not trying to stall environmental research, by delaying or denying scientists access to the press, and to each other’s reports.

Because if that is what really is going on – it’s not just a dark day for science in Canada – but a hurricane of hurt for free speech everywhere.