Federal information watchdog to study policies that ‘muzzle’ government science

OTTAWA – The federal information commissioner has agreed to launch an investigation into policies and practices that appear to be muzzling government scientists.

The office of Suzanne Legault is responding to a detailed complaint lodged by the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria and the ethics advocacy group Democracy Watch.

Their lengthy report filed last month laid out repeated examples of taxpayer-funded science being suppressed or limited to pre-packaged media lines across six different government departments and agencies.

In a letter to the complainants, the commissioner concluded she has the mandate to investigate government policies, practices or guidelines that impede access to information.

Legault says that includes government practices that restrict or prohibit government scientists from speaking with the media and the Canadian public.

The government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been accused of silencing scientists on number of subjects, particularly environmental science, since the Conservatives came to power in 2006.