Scientists muzzled by Trudeau?

Archival Photo, QMI Agency
The prime minister of Canada Justin Trudeau

Andrea Valeria ,
Marie-Christine Trottier and
Émilie Bergeron

Saturday, 24 February, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Saturday, 24 February, 2018 01:00

Look at this article

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The STATEMENT

The canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was committed to put an end to the muzzling of government scientists, who reigned in the era Harper. Two years after his arrival in power, has he succeeded ? Let’s say that there is still a lot of work to do.

In a commitment in its election platform in 2015, the liberal leader promised ” gives back[r] to science and scientists with their letters of nobility “.

But a survey of the union of federal scientists, we learned this week that more than half of the scientists by the professional Institute of the public service (PIPSC) feel they always face constraints when it comes time to express themselves freely in the media or respond to citizens.

The Trudeau government has taken several actions as a result of his promise. The checks made, the liberal members of parliament have repeated at least 450 times in the Room the importance of basing government decisions on scientific evidence.

THE FACTS

The communications policy of the government, which set a iron curtain between the researchers and the public, has also been cancelled, and collective bargaining agreements have been revised to this effect.

On the other hand, the liberals have put almost two years to fill the position of chief scientist after having made the announcement of the return of the function, which was abolished under Harper.

Why, then, 29 % of the federal scientific say they are they still able to name instances of political interference leading to the dissemination of an inaccurate picture or deceptive reality ?

The comment of one respondent in the survey provides part of the answer : “A certain group of managers remains very comfortable with the strict rules of the Harper government and hangs on “.

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