Muzzling scientists leads to mistrust of government says physicist MP

Canadian MP Ted Hsu believes in free speech for government scientists.

By Hamish Johnston at the CAP Congress in Edmonton, Canada

Yesterday I caught up with Ted Hsu, who is member of the Canadian parliament for Kingston and the Islands – and a former physicist. Hsu is a member of the Liberal party, which means he sits on the opposition benches. There he has been an outspoken critic of the current Conservative government over its apparent “muzzling” of scientists on the federal payroll. He believes that when governments seek to silence their experts it leads to more public mistrust of government.

Why are scientists being prevented from speaking to the public about their work? For the most part, Hsu believes that it is about control of information rather than being a concerted effort to suppress scientific evidence that puts Conservative policy into question. Simply put, the government believes it has better things to do than comment on statements made to the press by its scientists: “When you are explaining, you are losing,” he quips. However, he also admits that there have been cases where climate scientists appear have been silenced by a government with a very laissez-faire attitude towards the environment.

Hsu says that government obfuscation uses bureaucracy to its advantage. Instead of forbidding a scientist to speak to a journalist, the case is often “reviewed” for several days, by which time the journalist has lost interest. This behaviour has come to light because some journalists are so frustrated by the process that they have lodged freedom of information requests to see e-mails related to government discussions of specific requests.

Hot off the press: Liberals call for unmuzzling.

Canadians will elect a new government in October and Hsu has decided not to run again for personal reasons. But he is very pleased that the Liberal party want to take the muzzles off. Indeed, the issue is mentioned explicitly in a new policy document. Hsu had a draft with him and you can read what it says in the photo above.

While the Liberals have a very long way to go before they could form a government – they currently have 19% of parliament seats – Hsu says that the other opposition parties also back an end to muzzling.