Stop censoring and suppressing public science

Dear Prime Minister Stephen Harper,

I am concerned about the shifting relationship between the government and public scientists. A recent report by the University of Victoria Environmental Law Clinic presents extensive evidence of internal communication policies that severely constrain the ability of government scientists to bring their science into the public domain. New publishing policies at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans put up additional barriers for government scientists to publish their work and make it harder for them to collaborate with non-governmental scientists. And last week it was revealed that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is now demanding that foreign scientists on a joint Canada-U.S. Arctic research project sign a sweeping confidentiality agreement which could make it less likely for international scientists to undertake collaborative research with DFO scientists.

Your government has repeatedly stated that science plays an important role in government decision making. Yet these policies are not consistent with that view.

The open and transparent communication of science is crucial for informed public debate and a functioning democracy. Moreover, open communication within the scientific community is how science progresses.

I am calling on you to implement a new government policy (similar to policies that have been adopted in the United States and Britain) that makes it explicit that scientists are able to communicate their results openly and freely to the public, except in cases where the government can justify that it is not in the public’s best interest and to retract the new publishing policies at DFO that were implemented on February 1st 2013.