This is a subsection of a longer article entitled "An Anarchistic Understanding of the Social Order: Environmental Degradation, Indigenous Resistance, and a Place for the Sciences" recently published as a hard copy in the Spanda Journal.
The extract provides a rather rare glimpse of the growing suppression of scientific information in relation to the environmental crisis by both direct and indirect agents of the government, in this case, Canada. (See also the comment following an article posted on my website which illustrates the fear of reprisals that is affecting scientists.)
Since Stephen Harper's Conservative government came to power in 2006, there has been a steady attack upon the sciences, particularly those related to environmental issues, as the government cut funding for major programs and implemented layoffs. One major facet of this attack has been the 'muzzling' of Canadian scientists at international conferences, discussions with the media, and the publication of research. At one conference hosted in Canada, scientists working for Environment Canada were forced to direct all media inquiries through the public relations department in an effort "to intimidate government scientists[97]." Under new government guidelines, scientists working for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) cannot publish material until it is reviewed by the department "for any concerns/impacts to DFO policy." The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) expressed in a letter to Stephen Harper their "deep dismay and anger at your government's attack on the independence, integrity and academic freedom of scientific researchers[98]." Hundreds of Canadian scientists marched on Parliament Hill in July of 2012 in what they called a "funeral procession" against the government's "systematic attack on science[99]."(Note: you will need to access the current issue of the Spanda Journal to locate the references.)
One of the world's leading science journals, Nature, published an editorial in March of 2012 calling on the Canadian government to stop muzzling and "set its scientists free[100]." Journalists requesting interviews with Canadian government scientists on issues related to the Arctic or climate change have had to go through public relations officials, provide questions in advance, adhere to "boundaries for what subjects the interview could touch upon," and have a PR staffer "listen in on the interviews[101]."
Dozens of government agencies and programs related to environmental sciences have had their budgets slashed, scientists fired, or were discontinued altogether[102]. The Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria lodged a formal complaint with Canada's Federal Information Commissioner about the muzzling of scientists, outlining multiple examples "of taxpayer-funded science being suppressed or limited to prepackaged media lines across six different government departments and agencies." Natural Resources Canada now requires "pre-approval" from the government before any scientists give interviews on topics such as "climate change" or the "oilsands[103]."
The attack upon the sciences is part of the Harper government's 2007 strategy, Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage, which directed "a major shift away from scientific goals to economic and labour-market priorities," aiming to focus on science and research which would be directly useful to industry and for commercial purposes. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has been steered by the government "toward industry-related research and away from environmental science." The government's minister of state for science and technology noted that the focus for research was to be on "getting those ideas out to our factory floors, if you will, making the product or process or somehow putting that into the marketplace and creating jobs[104]." Further, the National Research Council (NRC) was "to focus more on practical, commercial science and less on fundamental science" which wouldn't be as beneficial to corporate interests. The minister of state for science and technology, Gary Goodyear, announced it as "an exciting, new journey - a re-direction that will strengthen Canada's research and innovation ecosystem for many years to come." The president of the NRC noted that, "We have shifted the primary focus of our work at NRC from the traditional emphasis of basic research and discovery science in favour of a more targeted approach to research and development[105]."
As Stephen Harper said, "Science powers commerce," but apparently to Harper, that is all it should do, even though many scientists and academics disagree[106]. The implications should be obvious: just as society's interaction with the environment is unsustainable, so too is the dependency of the sciences upon those institutions which are destroying the environment.
