Scientific Integrity Demanded by Canadian Government Scientists

May 18, 2015 – In what must be a first for Canadian scientists working in the public service, its union as part of its collective bargaining has demanded that researchers be allowed to speak openly about their work. If accepted as a condition of employment for federally employed scientists and researchers, it will be a first.

The Canadian government employs 15,000 scientists and engineers in the public service and today, with the current federal government, their everyday right to talk to the press and public about findings in their research has been muzzled.

The scientists want to be able to speak on the science they do, not necessarily on behalf of the government of the day, but because research done on behalf of the public in a democratic society should be openly shared. But trying to talk to Canadian scientists doing work on climate change and the Arctic, for example, has turned out to be difficult for journalists who must direct enquiries to government public relations departments.

I recently heard a CBC news item in which a journalist seeking an explanation for the explosive growth of “rock snot,” also known as “sea snot,” (when suspended in the ocean as in the picture below) off Canada’s eastern and western coasts, when approaching a Canadian researcher found herself routed to media relations where she was asked to fill out a questionnaire along with a list of  the questions to which she was seeking answers. The communication exchange involved hundreds of emails before she finally could get some answers. When she made a similar approach to American scientists working on the same subject, and on behalf of their own government, they were open and transparent.

The question about the sensitivity of “rock snot” goes back to correlation and causation, two principles within the scientific method. The presence of it in growing amounts along Canadian shorelines points to a warming ocean. It also points to a disruptive trend because growing amounts of “rock snot” does not reflect a healthy ocean biome, but rather the opposite. And it may also, although not yet proven, be an unforeseen outcome of increasing ocean acidification, not just warming. So it is a climate change issue.

You see Canadian journalists have found themselves blocked from talking to any Canadian scientist working with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), or any research for that matter on the larger issue of climate change. In contrast, American researchers have been approachable with an open door policy. Even more astounding in Canada, is that the restriction to journalists on accessing scientists, is not just limited to stories that shed a bad light on federal government lack of policy. Even good science stories that shine a positive light on the government get blocked.

So when the collective bargaining begins in the next week, the scientists are expressing their concern by putting language into the labour agreement enshrining open communication, prohibiting governments from coercive behavior, and giving scientists the ability to refute government policy wonks who misinterpret findings in the public space.