Muzzling of federal scientists bad news for all Canadians

Imagine you hire someone to do some work – maybe paint your house, babysit your children, do your accounting.
Then imagine that you want to check up on how the work is going. You’d expect to have full access to that painter, baby-sitter, or accountant, so you could chat openly.  
But what if you had to go through a middleman to get any information? What if the middleman could decide whether or not you could speak with your hired help, and even went so far as to provide a script of what your hired help could tell you? What if the middleman decided you’d have to wait weeks or months after the work was done to chat? Would that seem reasonable?
Of course this scenario would seem ridiculous and completely unacceptable to most people. But this is exactly what is happening with our publicly funded federal civil servants, especially federal scientists. These people conduct important research in areas such as climate science, energy, infectious disease, agriculture, engineering, environment, and health care. Many are considered experts in their fields and are internationally recognized for their work. Canadian taxpayers spend billions of dollars to support their valuable research. So you might think that Canadians have the right to hear directly from the scientists about their findings, and to rely on their expertise to become informed on critical issues.
Sadly, direct, free and open access to government scientists is becoming increasingly difficult.  Despite promises from the Harper government that it would promote accountability and transparency, there has been a clear trend toward restricting public access to government information since the Conservatives came to power.  One way this is being achieved is through the muzzling of federal scientists, so they are no longer able to speak freely and openly with the media.  
A new report by Democracy Watch and the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre highlights recent changes to government policy affecting media access to federal scientists. The flow of information to the public is now controlled by media relations offices. Media relations now determine whether researchers are allowed to talk with journalists, and in some cases provide ‘approved lines’ of what scientists are permitted to say in interviews. They routinely deny interviews, or delay approval so long that reporters are forced to file stories without input from government scientists. Media relations also shadow government scientists at international conferences and sit in on interviews.
The report documents several case studies of this Orwellian policy in practice, including the muzzling of an Environment Canada scientist who published research on Arctic ozone loss, and the muzzling of a Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist who published research on BC salmon decline. The policy has had a chilling effect. For example, federal scientists report that the number of interview requests to Environment Canada has declined, and media coverage of Environment Canada’s most high profile issue, climate change, has gone down by 80 per cent.
The situation is drastically different south of the border. Since Obama took office in 2009, U. S. federal researchers have been actively encouraged to speak freely with the media about their work. Government scientists do not need approval to communicate with journalists, and are even allowed to offer their own opinions about policy and management implications, as long as they indicate these are not necessarily the government’s position. And there is no middleman micromanaging the message getting out to the media and the public under the Obama administration.
This approach signals that the U. S. government values and respects its scientists, and trusts that they are the best ones to discuss their work. Unfortunately, our government is sending a very different message to its scientists and to the Canadian public.
This muzzling and intimidation of government scientists is bad news for all Canadians. Free and timely communication between researchers and the media and public is essential for a healthy democracy. The public relies on this flow of information to become informed, and to benefit fully from the research we are funding with our tax dollars. But the federal government has politicized media and public access to federal scientists, undermining a basic democratic right.  
Andrea Smith is a local biologist who works on invasive species and climate change issues through the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network and York University.