My Canadian readers may be familiar with this common phenomenon: I have a few American readers of this blog, and even among them, it is not uncommon to hear frustrated expressions of desire to become Canadian when their politics adds another razor-wire loop to the loopiness that it is. My Canadian readers will also be familiar with the both the feeling of flattery tinged with a small amount of guilt: justified guilt that it is not deserved.
Via ReWind.it at Bread'n'Roses, we find this charming bit of news in the Notional Pest:
Until now, Environment Canada has been one of most open and accessible departments in the federal government, which the executive committee says is a problem that needs to be remedied.
It says all media queries must now be routed through Ottawa where "media relations will work with individual staff to decide how to best handle the call; this could include: Asking the program expert to respond with approved lines; having media relations respond; referring the call to the minister's office; referring the call to another department," the presentation says.
Gregory Jack, acting director of Environment Canada's ministerial and executive services, says scientists and "subject matter experts" will still be made available to speak to the media "on complex and technical issues." He would not explain how "approved lines" are being written and who is approving them.
This sort of thing will be no surprise to anyone following the saga of the frankly excellent Linda Keen, the Canadian nuclear regulator who stood up to a Canadian government presently dominated by an unadulterated Bushian neocon. (Her total smackdown testimony linked from here.) And by dint of that, these tactics should be highly familiar to American readers, as they were learned from You Know Where.
Please don't go wrecking my dream of becoming a citizen of Canadia. I don't have all that much to hang on to nowadays.
Posted by: Snag | February 01, 2008 at 12:21 AM
The sooner Harper is out of office, the better. The newly appointed president and CEO of the Wheat Board (Harper fired the last guy)is an expert in repositioning agri-industry agencies in an environment of deregulation. And one of the first people fired by Harper was scientist and civil servant with the National Geographic Survey (I think) because he refused to use "Canada's New Government" on his published materials.
Posted by: Beijing York | February 01, 2008 at 02:02 PM
Maybe I should remove my reservation at Ches Mendacious.
Posted by: Chuckles | February 04, 2008 at 02:12 PM
No tub for you! Snag now has dibs.
When's the next election, anyway? Hasn't it been, like, a week already?
Posted by: Mendacious D | February 04, 2008 at 04:53 PM
Last I heard, an election would just give us the same Parliament. Apparently, the media is saying that Dion has not managed to get his message out.
...
Posted by: Mandos | February 04, 2008 at 07:00 PM
...and it gets worse. The Office of the National Science Advisor? Canned.
Posted by: Mendacious D | February 05, 2008 at 03:49 PM
It is depressing to think that the US's approach to science information is one to be emulated.
Posted by: fish | February 13, 2008 at 02:05 PM
Enough of this brainiac talk. Go do the meme I left for you.
Posted by: Snag | February 19, 2008 at 01:49 AM