No it doesn't. If it's published, it's not confidential. It doen't matter who paid for it once it's published and anyone can see it. The example I gave of Kristi Miller is a prime example. A big paper published on something non-commercial, and lots of media were interested at the time due to the very poor return of Fraser River sockeye. It still had to go through the government channels to be published in the first place. Now, the contents of that paper are out there, anyone can see it if they want. But the government stopped her from speaking to the public. There is no confidentiality issues, yet they stopped her anyways. That is why this blather about NDA is a red herring. You can read the article yourself.
Ms. Miller required approval from her employer to publish her paper to begin with, meaning that she was in fact bound by some form of agreement.
You're repeating what I already said. I'm not disputing that employees have agreements with their employers. I have one. I'm not disputing that scientists have to go through channels to publish. I do too. I'm disputing that this example, and many others, are about protecting information. I work for an industry where protecting information is paramount. The first rule is I don't talk about it. The second rule is I don't talk about it. So when someone is saying something is about protecting information, when it's clearly not the case, I have a pretty good eye for what that looks like. If I can read the investigation from my computer at home, it's not information that has been deemed worthy of protecting. If I can go to a library, pull it off a shelf, and read all about it, it's not information deemed worthy of protecting.
The confidentiality of that information
was protected by a non-disclosure agreement between Miller and DFO. When it was published, the protection was nullified. They already gave her permission to communicate the work. Therefore referring to an agreement which is intended to control the flow of information, to keep things confidential, is moot. The government has no control over that information once the paper is published, and anyone can do whatever they like with it.
The government is only looking to protect their CPC message. That, is partisan. If you can't see that, well that's kinda troubling. If you can, then it's really ironic.