A friend of mine emailed a story from the Vancouver Sun yesterday that reveals scientists working for Natural Resources Canada (NCR) were notified in March that from now on they had to receive permission from the Minister heading the department before speaking to journalists.  On top of that, the scientists "media lines" also needed approval focusing on "high priority" issues like "climate change, oilsands, and when the reporter is with an international or national media organization (such as the CBC or the Canwest paper chain)."

According to the article a scientist was even stopped from doing interviews on his study that appeared in the scientific journal Nature, which received so much attention for its finding on ancient floods that journalists as far away as the United Kingdom scheduled interviews which were unfortunately cancelled.  To label this absurd seems relatively obvious, but it really is par for the course for the current Canadian government.

Stephen Harper and his Conservative minority government haven't exactly been shy about attacking academics throughout their tenure in power.  From refusing to share the afghan detainee documents with members of parliament, to scrapping the mandatory long form census, the terrible prison policy along with mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders, to trying to scrap the long gun registry.  Each position showed a disdain for reliable data and the need for reliable data to make good decisions whether as a voting member of parliament, or just one of us regular voters.  Trying to hide or manipulate data should be antithetical to good governance let alone any process.  Literally everything we do can be improved with reliable data.

I suppose that begs the question as to why one would want to keep information concerning highly contentious issues like the oil sands in Alberta close to the chest so to speak?  If anything, it speaks to the ties the Conservatives have with big oil and I believe everyone should be concerned about private corporations influence on political action.