Stephen Harper's War On Science

The first time I heard about the protocol was from the BBC. A few months ago, they published an article called "Canadian government is 'muzzling its scientists'. The piece explained that back in 2008, soon after Stephen Harper won his second minority, his Conservatives issued a new "protocol" to all scientists working for the federal government — so that's people in departments like Health Canada, Environment Canada, and the Department for Fisheries and Oceans. The protocol says that those scientists are no longer allowed to talk to the media without permission from Harper's public relations officials first. If a scientist wants to discuss their work, Conservative PR people decide whether or not they're allowed to. And if the interview is approved, Conservative PR people decide what the scientists are — and are not — allowed to say.

“Just as we have one department," the protocol claims, "we should have one voice... This should include asking the [scientist] to respond with approved lines.”

Harper has not been shy about enforcing this new rule.

So, for instance: the head of molecular genetics at the Department for Fisheries and Oceans did some research into why salmon populations in Western Canada are going down. She found that it might be because of a cancer-related virus in the water — one that might have gotten there from nearby industrial fisheries. Her findings were published in Science, one of the most reputable peer-reviewed scientific journals in the world. Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell helped to get it started. But when Science sent out a press release about the article and, as usual, supplied the scientist's name as a contact, reporters discovered that she wasn't actually allowed to talk to them about it. Harper's government didn't want her to; her findings didn't fit with the Conservatives' pro-industry stance. So they were enforcing their new rule and refusing to let her discuss her work in public. (Later, when the BBC wanted to talk her about the protocol; the government wouldn't let her talk about that either.)

Now just so we're clear here, I'm going to repeat that in all-caps:

IF A SCIENTIST WORKING FOR CANADA DISCOVERS EVIDENCE THAT THERE MAY BE CANCER-RELATED VIRUSES IN OUR RIVERS, STEPHEN HARPER WON'T LET THEM TALK ABOUT IT BECAUSE IT MIGHT MAKE HIM LOOK BAD.

Sadly, that's far from the only example. Even when Harper's PR people do allow a scientist to be interviewed, they will delay giving their permission until the news cycle is over, pass journalists onto other scientists more likely to toe the Conservative line, and publish reports they don't like late on Friday afternoons in order to bury them. When reporters had questions for scientists at Health Canada about whether nuclear fall-out from the Fukushima reactor might reach Canada's west coast after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Harper's PR people dragged their feet on the requests until reporters were forced to ask European scientists instead. The same thing happened with Environment Canada scientists who discovered new information about the hole in the ozone layer above the Arctic. A scientist who wrote a fictional book about climate change was told he was not allowed to read from it in public. Others have been kept from attending conferences. And when they have been allowed to attend, media "minders" have been sent along to make sure the scientists don't step out of line and discuss their own work without permission. As Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin puts it, "This is the type of thing I used to see when, back in the 1980s, I reported from the Soviet Union."

The Experimental Lakes Area

Of course, those are the federal scientists who still have jobs. Many of them don't. The Conservatives are firing them and shutting down their research projects at a staggering rate. Hundreds of scientists are being let go from Environment Canada. Almost every single one of the 70 scientists who monitor pollution in our oceans is being eliminated, leaving only "five junior biologists scattered across the country". Harper has also shut down research at the Experimental Lakes Area, "the best known freshwater research facility in the world".  They've been studying the effects of pollution there since the 1960s, fueling hundreds of publications and providing vital information to scientists around the globe. Since some of that research shows chemicals released by major industrial projects (like the Alberta tar sands) can be harmful, it seems the project made Harper's hit list. "To have it shut down is just appalling," one Harvard science professor told the Winnipeg Free Press. "It's just embarrassing." A professor from Stockholm University was even more upset. "This is the kind of act one expects from the Taliban in Afghanistan," he wrote in a letter to politicians in Canada, "not from the government of a civilized and educated nation."

Harper is also shutting down Canadian research into the thinning of the ozone layer. He's closing a network of 17 research stations across the country. They've been operating for 45 years, providing a third of all of the ozone readings in the entire world. One American scientist called the decision "unthinkable". There's also word they may close the World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre, which hosts decades' worth of international research. And shut down storage of vitally important, one-of-a-kind ice core samples. And they've already cancelled federal support for the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences. That's the main organization that funds climate-related science at Canadian universities.

Meanwhile, the science shows the thinning of the ozone layer is getting worse and worse.

Then there's the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy. It was started by another Conservative Prime Minister — Brian Mulroney — back in the '80s. The idea of the Roundtable is to bring together experts from a variety of fields in order to find common ground and come up with ideas that are good for both the environment and the economy. It's "dominated" by people Harper has appointed himself. Some members represent major corporations, like mining companies and energy producers. Others are environmentalists, labour leaders, or even former ministers. The current head is the former Chief of Staff for Jim Flaherty, Harper's own Finance Minister. But when those industry leaders and environmentalists made the mistake of discussing the possible benefits of a carbon tax, the Conservatives had the Roundtable permanently shut down. John Baird, our Foreign Affairs Minister, explained the decision in parliament. "It should agree with the government," he claimed. "No discussion of a carbon tax that would kill and hurt Canadian families." (He didn't explain how exactly a carbon tax kills people. Or why an organization specifically created to give independent expert advice should repeat whatever the government says.)

Shutting down the Roundtable is just one part of Harper's giant new budget bill. C-38 is more than 400 pages long and 170 of them are dedicated to gutting Canada's current system for environmental protection, ensuring that dissent on environmental issues will be even further silenced in the future. Environmental assessments will no longer be required by the federal government. Instead of expert review panels making decisions on major industrial projects with input from scientists, business leaders and the public, ministers will have the power to approve those projects all by themselves. Fewer people will be allowed to speak to the panels that do survive — and for less time. Oversight bodies are being shut down. Review periods are being slashed. Canada's only survey into water consumption is being cancelled after 30 years.

And while environmental legislation like this wouldn't usually be included in a budget, doing it this way allows the Conservatives to stifle criticism even further. Bills are studied by relevant committees made up of MPs from both sides of the floor — environmental bills are examined by the Environmental Committee, but budget bills are only examined by the Finance Committee. When Opposition MPs complained that all of these environmental measures weren't going to be properly examined, the Conservatives did allow the environmental impact of the budget to be studied by a specific sub-committee of the Finance Committee. But then, on the first day the sub-committee met, three Conservative Ministers made a surprise appearance. They took up most of the time giving speeches, leaving the opposition only 20 minutes to ask questions about all 170 pages.

At the same time, the Conservatives have been going out of their way to demonize environmental groups. Harper's government has officially listed environmentalists alongside Islamic extremists and white supremacists as a "terrorist threat". They've denounced organizations who oppose the proposal for a massive new oil pipeline as "radical groups" who "threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda". And they've dismissed them as being funded by "foreign special interest groups." (That criticism is particularly absurd: these same Conservatives used to encourage environmental groups to seek foreign financial support and those groups still receive far less of it than the companies supporting the tar sands do.) Our Environment Minister, Peter Kent, went even further: he publicly claimed that environmental groups are being used "to launder offshore foreign funds" (but has conveniently declined to provide any evidence of it). Now, the Conservatives are following up on that rhetoric in their budget bill: millions of dollars will be spent auditing charities — including environmental charities — to make sure they're not spending more money than they are allowed to spend supporting or criticizing government policies.

Meanwhile, Canada's National Science Advisor has retired and Harper just hasn't bothered to replace him. So we don't have a National Science Advisor anymore. And our Minister for Science & Technology isn't exactly an expert. He claims that the question of whether or not he believes in evolution is "irrelevant" – and at best seems to lack even the most basic understanding of what evolution is. ("We are evolving every year, every decade," he nonsensically explained to reporters, "whether it's to... walking on cement versus anything else, whether it's running shoes or high heels, of course we are evolving to our environment".)

Nature doesn't exactly love our PM

Scientists all over the world have responded to this crackdown on science with outrage and disgust. Nature, another of the world's most respected scientific journals, has published more than one scathing editorial about Harper's new protocol. They've called it "unacceptable political interference... [responsible for] muzzling scientists... openness is being held ransom to media messages that serve the government's political agenda."

As the journal points out, "Access to scientific evidence that informs policy is not a luxury. It is an essential part of our right to know." The last few centuries of world history have taught us that. An attack on the free-flow of scientific information is an attack on the fundamental principles of democracy. Voters need to be informed in order to make a responsible decision on election day and science plays a vital role. In order for voters to be able to cast an informed ballot based on an issue like, say, climate change, they need the best possible scientific information about climate change. That's a large part of the reason we have public sector scientists in the first place: our taxes pay for their work and in return they, unlike scientists working for private corporations and institutions, are expected to owe their full loyalty to the Canadian people, to the evidence, and to the free-flow of scientific information.

Even Harper himself used to claim he believed in these principles. "Iron-fisted bully tactics have no place in a free and democratic society,” he once wrote. “Information is power. The less control the government has over the flow of information, the less control it can exert over its citizens... We cannot allow the government to dictate what information we can and cannot publish."

That was, of course, before he got elected. And even back then some people didn't believe him. Left-leaning academics and journalists have long accused Harper of having ideological ties to a political philosopher by the  name of Leo Strauss. Strauss, they claim, promoted the idea of the "noble lie" — the suggestion that leaders should intentionally mislead the public if they think it's for the greater good. Strauss and his students famously taught some of the Bush administration officials who orchestrated the PR campaign leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Some say he has also influenced a group of professors (known as "The Calgary School") who taught Harper when he studied political science at the University of Calgary. Conservatives deny the link. They've argued that Strauss is misunderstood, and that he has no ties to the Calgary School. But in the end, the question of whether or not Harper's ideas come from Strauss is far less important than the question of what he has actually done in his time as Prime Minister.

The answer to that question is clear. As Prime Minister, Harper has become famous for tightly controlling his government's message and limiting the information available to the Canadian public. Science that doesn't echo his own beliefs is being shut down and the researchers behind that science are being fired en mass. A blunt message has been delivered to any scientist who does survive the cuts: they are now expected to owe their ultimate loyalty to the Prime Minister's Office, not to the evidence or to the Canadian public — anyone who openly disagrees with the Conservatives is putting their livelihood at risk. Knowledge that is supposed to be for the benefit of the Canadian people is now considered to be an extension of the official message, of public relations, of Harper's perpetual re-election campaign.

This is not the kind of thing we're used to seeing in this country. Canada has traditionally had one of the world's most robust democratic systems. But ever since his election, Harper has been steadily eroding the foundations of that system. His attacks on science have only been one front in his war on the free-flow of information — on the discussion, debate and dissent that fuels our democracy.

In the next post in this series, we'll take a look at one of the other key battlegrounds in Harper's War On Information: the civil service.

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Posted by Adam Bunch, the Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.

This post was originally conceived as a follow-up to a previous post: Rob Ford's War On Facts.