Federal scientists eager to share their research now that muzzles are off
It used to be that if you wanted to talk to a federal scientist who was monitoring salmon stocks in B.C. or studying the impacts of climate change on glaciers, you just called them up.
And then Stephen Harper became Prime Minister and a dark curtain fell across Canadian science.
The government’s media managers wanted to know the line of questioning in advance. Sometimes they’d ask for questions to be submitted by e-mail, and then hours or days later you’d get not a helpful scientist on the phone, but a written statement that seemed drafted by a team of bureaucrats.
But last week, Dr. Miller-Saunders and all her colleagues across the country learned they are no longer required to get approval from media handlers before talking to the media.
Science has been freed by the new government in Ottawa, just as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised in the Liberal election platform.
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Federal scientists eager to share their research now that muzzles are off - The Globe and Mail