What lessons can Canada offer the US on the suppression of scientific research?
March 12, 2017 · 3:30 PM EDT
When President Donald Trump came into office in January, staff at several government agencies were told not to send out news releases or to communicate by social media, and most mentions of climate change disappeared from government websites.
Changing the message on issues that could affect policy is standard procedure with a change of administration, but many saw this as censorship of government scientists — akin to moves taken in Canada under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Simon Fraser University biologist Wendy Palen, who witnessed the suppression of science under Harper, has some advice for her American colleagues.
“The lessons we learned in Canada are very relevant to the United States right now, and there are a couple of key messages that I would have for scientists in the US,” Palen says. “One is that you need to find ways to document the abuses or cases where there's unethical behavior happening within agencies, or scientists being individually censored or told that they need to change something in a report, or that they can't speak to the media.”
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-12/what-lessons-can-canada-offer-us-suppression-scientific-research
There's also audio accompanying the article.
