Publication Items

Liberals Unmuzzle Canadian Scientists; Will U.S. Scientists Be Next? [1]

The speed and ease of this Canadian revolution by incoming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau belies the "common wisdom" among many jaded reporters and PR professionals that muzzling of U.S. government scientists and officials is somehow inevitable and woven into the culture of government.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [3]
Fish & Fisheries [4]
Government [5]
Science [6]
Region:
Canada [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Liberals Unmuzzle Canadian Scientists; Will U.S. Scientists Be Next? [1]
Canadian Public Not Allowed To Know Kinder Morgan Pipeline Emergency Plan [9]

The expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline in Canada by the multibillion-dollar Houston firm Kinder Morgan is, to say the least, controversial. So it did not help instill public confidence when Canada's National Energy Board on Jan 16, 2015, ruled that Kinder Morgan did not have to make public its emergency response plans for spills and fires.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [10]
Energy & Fuel [11]
Region:
Canada [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Canadian Public Not Allowed To Know Kinder Morgan Pipeline Emergency Plan [9]
"The War on Science: Muzzled Scientists and Willful Blindness in Stephen Harper's Canada" [12]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [3]
Journalism & Media [14]
Science [6]
Region:
Canada [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about "The War on Science: Muzzled Scientists and Willful Blindness in Stephen Harper's Canada" [12]
Reporters Curious About Tar Sands Not Very Welcome in Canada [15]

Reporter Emily Atkin of the Climate Progress blog told recently of flying into Fort McMurray, Alberta to see the tar sands and being hassled for some 45 minutes by "security" officials because she was a journalist — including being told "We might have to send you back to the States."

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [11]
Environmental Politics [3]
Journalism & Media [14]
Natural Resources [16]
Region:
Canada [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Reporters Curious About Tar Sands Not Very Welcome in Canada [15]
Environment Canada Denied 22% of Requests for Scientist Interviews in 2013 [17]

The startling admission only bolsters critics who say the conservative Harper government is suppressing science which does not support its politics — for example, its policies on global warming or oil sands.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Science [6]
Environmental Politics [3]
Region:
Canada [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Environment Canada Denied 22% of Requests for Scientist Interviews in 2013 [17]
Canadian Scientists Can't Speak Freely: Survey [18]

Eighty-six percent of the 4,069 scientists surveyed by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada said "that, if faced with a political decision putting public health, safety or the environment at risk, they do not believe they could speak out without repercussions."

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Science [6]
Government [5]
Region:
Canada [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Canadian Scientists Can't Speak Freely: Survey [18]
Canadian Info Watchdog Probes Harper Govt's Muzzling of Scientists [19]

Canada's Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault will be investigating the muzzling of Canadian scientists — a perennial complaint of SEJ's Canadian members who can not freely interview tax-funded scientists about subjects like climate. SEJ has twice urged Environment Canada to end such media policies, receiving no answer.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Science [6]
Government [5]
Region:
Canada [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Canadian Info Watchdog Probes Harper Govt's Muzzling of Scientists [19]
Whodunit? The Case of the Disappearing Dilbit [20]

InsideClimate News' Lisa Song notes that US EPA's website had originally shown 1,149,460 gallons of oil recovered from the 2010 Enbridge spill near Kalamazoo, Michigan. Sometime in mid-March 2013, she reports, that number was removed from the EPA site and replaced by one much lower, the amount Enbridge claims was spilled.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [11]
Disasters [21]
Region:
Canada [7]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [22]
National (U.S.) [23]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Whodunit? The Case of the Disappearing Dilbit [20]
Canada, Not Content To Gag Its Own Scientists, Urges US To Do Same [24]

Some U.S. scientists are refusing to sign nondisclosure agreements called for by the Canadian government's Fisheries and Oceans department on an Arctic science project. The story was reported by Margaret Munro for Postmedia News.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Region:
Canada [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Canada, Not Content To Gag Its Own Scientists, Urges US To Do Same [24]
Reporters, Researchers at AAAS Say Canada Muzzles Climate Scientists [25]

The complaints came out at the Vancouver meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) this month — the main multidisciplinary science conference held yearly on the continent. Also during the meeting, a letter from six journalism and science groups called on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to end the muzzling-scientists policy was released.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Science [6]
Climate Change [26]
Region:
Canada [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Reporters, Researchers at AAAS Say Canada Muzzles Climate Scientists [25]

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