Is Canada muzzling its scientists?

[Cirrus]

A few days ago I went to a series of movies about the oil sands project in Alberta and proposed Enbridge pipeline into British Columbia ( http://www.straight.com/article-607...waters-evening-screens-documentaries-about-ta ). I learned that the area around the Athabasca river - basically much of Alberta stretching into Saskatchewan - is prone to serious droughts. The demand of the oil sands project for water is already huge and could double in near future with all the new projects slated for development. When a drought hits, all of the industry, people, and ecosystems that depend on the Athabasca river system will be in big trouble. On top of that, cancer rates are up for First Nations living all along the Athabasca river right up to the Mackenzie delta. Water samples indicate the presence of many carcinogenic chemicals related to the oil sands project. Coupled with the toxicity of the tailings ponds, the fact they are viewable from space, the fact that if one of the tailing ponds ever breached its berm and fed into the Athabasca it would be an environmental nightmare - and it leaves me feeling a lot more scientific research and public discourse is needed. And yet, the current government wants to rush ahead with expansion of the oil sands project. And just when we have this need for more scientific research, I read this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16861468

Now I see the CBC has picked up the story too: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/02/17/science-federal-muzzling-scientists.html