Way to Go, Canada

Image source.

Hopefully, you are aware that my post title is intended as sarcasm, and of the growing concern that the Canadian government is muzzling its researchers. Also, that it allegedly short-circuited a press conference two years ago by Canadian scientists who wanted to report the record 2012 Arctic sea ice minimum. Since then, there has been some absurd excuse-making and guesswork over whether or not this was intentional or just plain ole bureaucratic inertia.

If the Harper government did indeed squelch this press conference, it had plenty of political reason to do so, since it would inevitably have been spun into "Harper fiddles while Santa’s workshop sinks due to man-made climate change." This wouldn’t have been true. Nor would it have justified the kind of draconian policies that Mr. Harper has so far avoided.

Well, we now have some fairly damning evidence that the cancellation was purposeful.

Federal scientists who keep a close eye on the Arctic ice would like to routinely brief Canadians about extraordinary events unfolding in the North.

But newly released federal documents show the Harper government has been thwarting their efforts...

The briefing never happened. Nine levels of approval — from the director of the ice service up to the environment minister’s office — were needed for the "communication plan," according to the documents released to Postmedia News under the Access to Information Act.

"Ministerial services" — the sixth layer — cancelled the briefing, the documents say. And the ice service scientists ended up watching as the Canadian media and public got most of their information from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), where scientists were quick to give interviews, hold briefings and issue press releases as the ice shattered records as it melted from Baffin Island to the Beaufort Sea.

Observers say the case is further evidence of the way the Conservative government is silencing scientists.

"It’s suppression through bureaucracy," said Katie Gibbs, executive director of Evidence for Democracy (E4D), an Ottawa-based non-profit pushing for open communication of government science.

"Why is it that we need nine levels of approval for this sort of thing, what’s the justification," said biologist Scott Findlay, a co-founder of E4D and member of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.

He said the government’s "Byzantine message control" is not only wasting time, money and resources, but having a “corrosive” effect on the public service.

Do I even need to mention how unacceptable this is, my Canadian friends? Is it not bad enough that we have idiotic and/or devious deniers misrepresenting the climate science that does get out? Now we have to put up with the science being censored before it can even be disseminated and then willfully mangled by the pseudoscience-loving denier chuckle patch? What is this the geeeeeyawddamn 14th or 15th century all over again?

And let me just make a preemptive strike against complaints that I am unfairly linking all Canadians to the actions of a conservative government. Ummm, you did vote Harper into office, no? Also, it's not like shit like this hasn't happened before. Besides, I am no more lenient with my fellow Americans for electing anti-science/information Bush, and for being a bunch of ignorant fools. So, north and south of the border, if you don't like the criticism, you can all just get over it already, and start bringing your brain with you when you head for the voting booth, and when the pollsters come around as well. We can't put these clowns in office, then try to distance ourselves from their actions, act like we are all so perfectly innocent, and like we played no part. Doesn't work that way.