Free Speech for Scientists!

Its a sad state when scientific facts have to be vetted by the government, but that is what the Harper government is all about now. The article below gives examples of how the federal government has been restricting scientists trying to do interview with journalists and other forms of media.

We got used to hearing about how the current PMO (prime ministers office) muzzled MPs and gave them strict speaking points to follow. Fair enough, that is politics, while you may not agree with it you can at least see the sense. Now though it seems that even scientist have to pass the scrutiny of senior government officials. You can read the article for the facts, it doesn't make sense for me to repeat them here, but I do need to comment about this really disturbing situation.

You could argue it makes sense, theoretically, to censor and tightly control the party message and what exactly MPs are spouting off about to the rest of the world. What doesn't make sense, and is to be blunt reprehensible, is trying to censor scientific "facts". The article makes reference to how "Orwellian" this situation is, and unfortunately it is right. This behaviour is more akin to what the Ministry of Truth would attempt, direct perversion and manipulation of facts, than what a modern democratic government should participate in.

This isn't even an issue of free speech. This isn't someones opinion, spouted off in an argument with no proof or verification available. This is fact, supported by a body of evidence. The goal of science is to enhance mankind's understanding of the universe, and while knowing a flood happened 13, 000 years ago isn't exactly crucial, it is still part of the process of understanding the wider world around us.

Now this may look like a bit of an over reaction to something which doesn't really seem like a big deal, but this isn't just about this incident, its about the growing trend of censoring science. Science is one arena where a chilling effect on speech should never be felt.

Trying to hide information and prevent people from gaining knowledge is wrong, plain and simple. Any government who tries to do this should be removed, because the minute scientists cant come forward with their findings is the minute we shrug off the progress of the past 300 years. We go back to the irrational mindset which dominated the thoughts of man when they burned Galileo, we reject the idea of rational, empirical evidence, for the kinds of constructed reality of a totalitarian utopia.

I know I don't want to live in a world like that, do you?

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ottawa+media+rules+muzzling+federal+scientists/3513960/story.html