In my previous post I commented on the latest substantial right-wing conservative attack aimed at climate research efforts, this time it's the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) of Australia who are in the bullseye. In my introduction to that post I mentioned the carnage inflicted by Canada's faith-based Harper Administration.
This post is intended to support my claim with facts. Towards that end I'm sharing the following collection put together by John Dupuis of 'Confessions of a Science Librarian" fame. There's nothing else to add, except for: read it and weep. Of course, for Australia it's not too late, yet. Can you help?
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The Canadian War on Science: A long, unexaggerated, devastating chronological indictment
By John Dupuis | May 20, 2013 - last update - October 24, 2014 | http://scienceblogs.com
This is a brief chronology of the current Conservative Canadian government’s long campaign to undermine evidence-based scientific, environmental and technical decision-making. It is a government that is beholden to big business, particularly big oil, and that makes every attempt to shape public policy to that end. It is a government that fundamentally doesn’t believe in science. It is a government that is more interested in keeping its corporate masters happy than in protecting the environment.
As is occasionally my habit, I have pulled together a chronology of sorts. It is a chronology of all the various cuts, insults, muzzlings and cancellations that I’ve been able to dig up. Each of them represents a single shot in the Canadian Conservative war on science. It should be noted that not every item in this chronology, if taken in isolation, is necessarily the end of the world. It’s the accumulated evidence that is so damning.
Most of the items come from various links I’ve saved over the years as well as various other media articles I’ve dug up over the last week or so. This series at The Huffington Post has been particularly useful as has this article at the Wastershed Sentinal.
A long list of various environmental programs that the Harper government has discontinued or slashed funding to is here. I haven’t found individual media stories about all of them, so they aren’t in the list below. If you can help me find stories about some of those programs, etc, please let me know. As well, some stories are treated multiple times, with perhaps an initial story telling the big picture or introducing a large series of cuts and later stories fleshing out details.
Update 2013.05.27: Undated list of science or environmental libraries closed is here: Natural Resources Canada is set to close six of fourteen libraries in 2012-2013, Parks Canada will consolidate 5 libraries into one, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. Undated list of women’s programs cut since 2006, including many science or health-related, including: Assisted Human Reproduction Canada, Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health
Apr 2006. One Tonne Challenge funding stopped
Apr 2006. Tories muzzle environmental scientist Mark Tushingham, told not to appear to promote his novel about climate change (More info: 1.)
May 2006. Environmental Groups Call on Ambrose to Resign as Chair of International Kyoto Negotiations
Oct 2006. Circumpolar ambassador job axed
Oct 2006. Canadian Ambassador for the Environment (Karen Kraft Sloan) position abolished (More info: 1.)
Jan 2008. Office of National Science Adviser phased out
Jan 2008. Nuclear safety watchdog head fired for ‘lack of leadership’
Jan 2008. Nuclear safety watchdog Linda Keen head fired for ‘lack of leadership’ in blatant example of political interference (More info: 1, 2.)
Jan 2008. The Advisory Council on Science and Technology, the Council of Science and Technology Advisors, and the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee consolidated into the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC), which is housed within Industry Canada, is more concerned with business innovation and less independent that former organizations, including the Office of the National Science Advisor. (More info: 1, 2, 3.)
Jun 2008. 16 Canadian lakes are slated to be officially but quietly “reclassified” as toxic dump sites for mines
Jun 2008. It’s the Beginning of the End for Federal Science: Expert Panel on Lab Transfers/divestment (and here)
Oct 2008. Canada by 6 environmental groups for Failure to Protect Killer Whale Habitat. Groups are: the David Suzuki Foundation, Environmental Defence, Greenpeace Canada, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Raincoast Conservation Society and the Wilderness Committee (More info: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.)
Mar 2009. Navigable Waters Protection Act to remove objective definition of navigable and replace it with unaccountable Ministerial discretion (and here)
Oct 2009. Document delivery outsourced at The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (national science library)
Feb 2010. Layoffs at The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information
Mar 2010. Information restrictions brought in by government have severely restricted the media’s access to government researchers
Mar 2010. Interview approval rules introduced in at Environment Canada 2007 have lead to substantially reduced requests, especially about climate change coverage.
Jun 2010. Statistics Canada discontinues the mandatory long form census
Jul 2010. AIDS funding announcement insufficient and disappointing, out of step with international community
Jul 2010. After 18 months of deliberation and listening to expert testimony, the Standing Committee on Environment announced it will scuttle its own investigation of water pollution from the tar sands (More info: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.)
Aug 2010. Cuts to Environment Canada weather-service programs have compromised the government’s ability to assess climate change and left it with a “profoundly disturbing” quality of information in its data network.
Sep 2010. The prestigious international science journal Nature writes about the muzzling of Canadian scientists.
Mar 2011. NRC Press privatized to Canadian Science Publishing, removing Open Access to many articles
Mar 2011. NSERC reduces funding for basic research
Mar 2011. Tri-Council reallocates funds from discovery to industry research
May 2011. National Science Agency Axes Food Research including nine experimental farms such as the one in Frelighsburg, Quebec
Jun 2011. Blocks asbestos from hazardous chemicals list at UN summit
Jun 2011. 28 term scientists laid off at Environment Canada in Downsview
Jul 2011. Budget cuts to Climate Change and Clean Air, Substance and Waste Management, Weather and Environmental Services, Water Resources and Internal Services, Action Plan on Clean Water, the Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan, Chemicals Management Plan, the Clean Air Agenda, the Air Quality Health Index, Species at Risk Program
Jul 2011. NSERC Discovery Grants reduced
Aug 2011. DFO scientist Kristi Miller says that the Privy Council prevented her from talking to the media about her research into the 2009 sockeye salmon collapse in B.C.
Sep 2011. Arctic ozone monitoring & research unit & databases shut down as well as 40 year archive of ice cores
Oct 2011. Canadian Environmental Network closes
Oct 2011. Scientist David Tarasick speaks out after finding ‘record’ ozone hole over Canadian Arctic
Dec 2011. Withdraw from the Kyoto Accord
Jan 2012. Natural Resources Minister accuses foreign radical environmentalists of hijacking the system
Feb 2012. Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) loses funding (later partial reprieve)
Feb 2012. Closure of Kitsilano Coast Guard station
Feb 2012. Canada threatens trade war with EU over tar sands, over the bloc’s plan to label oil from Alberta’s vast tar sands as highly polluting
Feb 2012. Cuts to the ozone monitoring program are affecting ability to monitor air quality and ozone depletion, Canada is jeopardizing the scientific community’s ability to monitor for holes in the ozone, especially over the Arctic
Mar 2012. Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences closes
Mar 2012. Gutting the Fisheries Act
Apr 2012. Cereal Research Centre cut
Apr 2012. Muzzling of scientists at international conferences
Apr 2012. Repeal of Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, download to provinces
Apr 2012. Sustainable Water Management Division cut
Apr 2012. Transport Canada Aircraft Services cut
Apr 2012. The Centre for Plant Health relocated (later reprieve)
Apr 2012. Scientists monitored at polar conference
Apr 2012. National Aboriginal Health Organization’s funding cut
Apr 2012. Parks Canada cuts affect four national marine conservation areas
Apr 2012. 47 scientists and researchers at the NRC Institute for Biodiagnostics laid off in Winnipeg and Calgary.
Apr 2012. 2012 Budget cuts Women’s Health Contribution Program, Canadian Women’s Health Network, National Network on Environments and Women’s Health, Federal Tobacco Control Strategy
Apr 2012. 2012 Budget cuts Centre of Excellence at B.C. Children’s and Women’s hospitals in Vancouver, Quebec Network of Action for Women’s Health, Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence
Apr 2012. Budget cuts affect Canadian space programs such as RADARSAT (More info: 1, 2.)
May 2012. 1000 jobs cut at Department of Fisheries and Oceans (details follow)
May 2012. Ocean Contaminants & Marine Toxicology Program axed.
May 2012. Centre for Offshore Oil & Gas Energy Research cut
May 2012. Freshwater Institute cut
May 2012. Centre for Off-shore Oil, Gas, and Energy Research cut
May 2012. Maurice-Lamontagne Institute cut
May 2012. Smokestacks Emissions Monitoring Team cut
May 2012. Cuts to NSERC Discovery, Major Resources Support and Research Tools and Instruments programs
May 2012. Mersey Biodiversity Centre slated for closure
May 2012. Transport Canada library closed
May 2012. Environment minister Peter Kent accuses environmental charities ‘laundering’ foreign funds
May 2012. Killer whale expert out of work as Ottawa cuts ocean-pollution monitoring positions
May 2012. NSERC cuts to Canadian Neutron Beam Centre
May 2012. List of cuts to NSERC MRS program
May 2012. Limiting fish protection to “serious harm” is a serious problem, benefits oil & gas industry
Jun 2012. Eliminate Experimental Lakes Area program
Jun 2012. Addictions Research Centre cut
Jun 2012. When asked if he believes in evolution, Minister of Science and Technology refuses to answer question; suggests MP who asked the question has brain damage and here
Jun 2012. Canada falls out of top fifty in global freedom of information rankings with obvious implications for access to scientific, environmental and public health information
Jul 2012. Arctic Institute of North America’s Kluane Research Station cut
Aug 2012. Major Resources Support (MRS) Program Moratorium impacts National High Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Centre, the Canadian Centre for Isotopic Microanalysis and the Canadian Charged Particle Accelerator Consortium and others
Aug 2012. Tories have cancelled almost 600 environmental assessments in Ontario
Sep 2012. Revamp Species-at-Risk act
Oct 2012. DFO Habitat Management Program cut
Oct 2012. Declining grant success rate for Post Doctoral Fellows
Oct 2012. Ozone science group falls victim to government cuts
Oct 2012. Job cuts at NRC
Oct 2012. Navigable Waters Protection Act changed to weaken environmental oversight, changes sought by pipeline industry
Nov 2012. Bill C-45 weakens environmental laws and democracy, such as Navigable Waters Protection Act
Nov 2012. Salmon research lab run by Frederick Kibenge at the Atlantic Veterinary College-University of Prince Edward Island targeted
Nov 2012. Navigable Waters Protection Act altered to give developers more freedom to build around most Canadian rivers and lakes without obtaining permission from the federal government
Nov 2012. Environment Canada scientists Derek Muir and Jane Kirk discouraged from commenting on oilsands contaminant study
Dec 2012. Eliminating the Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission
Jan 2013. Very long list of scientist muzzlings from Democracy Watch
Jan 2013. Canadian Space Agency battered by budget cuts, Steve MacLean leaves, sweeping changes expected
Jan 2013. Oil & Gas Industry thanks government for changing a series of environmental laws to advance “both economic growth and environmental performance.”
Jan 2013. Leona Aglukkaq, MP for Nunavut and Minister for the Arctic Council, prioritizes resource development in her vision for the North’s potential rather than issues such as food security, community health or engaging youth. (and here)
Jan 2013. Canada’s space agency spirals towards Code Red: CSA battered by funding cuts, criticism from government, and loss of leader
Feb 2013. Restrict how researchers can share data
Feb 2013. Department of Fisheries & Oceans muzzles its scientists
Feb 2013. Information commissioner investigates ‘Muzzling’ of federal scientists, called a threat to democracy
Feb 2013. Prairies Regional Office: Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency closes
Feb 2013. US Scientist Andreas Muenchow Caught in Canadian Muzzle, fears he won’t be allowed to publish about a joint US/Canada project (More info: 1, 2, 3.)
Mar 2013. Muzzling of scientists
Mar 2013. Experimental Lakes Area environmental research project loses funding
Mar 2013. The government votes against public science, basic research and the free and open exchange of scientific information are essential to evidence-based policy-making
Mar 2013. $100 million cut from Department of Fisheries & Oceans over three years
Mar 2013. National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy closes
Mar 2013. Centralizing, Slashing Federal Web Info
Mar 2013. Quit UN anti-drought convention
Mar 2013. Unnecessarily sabotaging ongoing research at the Experimental Lakes Area and deliberately robbing international and domestic scientist of the 2013 field season
Mar 2013. Environment Canada/Peter Kent give mixed messages to First Nations and oil industry about reform of conservation laws
Mar 1013. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says that Canadian oil imports are greenest option for US, as rationale for Keystone XL support
Mar 2013. Burrard Inlet Environmental Action Program and the Fraser River Estuary Management Program (BIEAP-FREMP) closing
Mar 2013. 2013 Budget cuts: Health Canada’s Controlled Substances and Tobacco Program, Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, Drug Treatment Funding Program, Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund, Public Health Agency of Canada, Patented Medicines Prices Review Board
Mar 2013. ELA research programs being prematurely wound down
Mar 2013. Federal Government move to privatize management of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (More info: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.)
Apr 2013. Create barrier to public participation in pipeline hearings
Apr 2013. Environment Canada name removed from its weather website, replaced with government promotional links
Apr 2013.Closure of Department of Fisheries & Oceans libraries
Apr 2013. Prime Minister & cabinet take over power to dictate collective bargaining and terms for other salaries and working conditions at the CBC and three other cultural or scientific Crown corporations
Apr 2013. <