{"id":119,"date":"2015-10-01T02:26:49","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T02:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catsforharper.ca\/?p=119"},"modified":"2015-10-01T02:26:49","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T02:26:49","slug":"muzzling-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/?p=119","title":{"rendered":"Muzzling scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nothing demonstrates the Harper government&#8217;s contempt for real facts and impartial analysis more than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/technology\/faq-the-issues-around-muzzling-government-scientists-1.3079537\">their attitude towards scientists<\/a> in the employ of the Federal Government.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/technology\/faq-the-issues-around-muzzling-government-scientists-1.3079537\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-120\" src=\"http:\/\/catsforharper.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/hi-science-02933931.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/hi-science-02933931.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/hi-science-02933931-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While technically, being their employer, it is within the government&#8217;s rights to tell scientists what they can or cannot tell the public or the press, the extent to which Mr. Harper tries to control the message is frightening.<\/p>\n<p>This is yet another example of the Harper government creating lasting damage, fundamentally underlying the integrity and trustworthiness of our government institutions. When a government scientist speaks to the public the next time about a politically controversial topic such as the changing climate (which really shouldn&#8217;t be politically controversial, but that&#8217;s a story for another day) you feel compelled to wonder: is the scientist telling the real story, or is he simply delivering a message of his political masters?<\/p>\n<p>It should not be this way. Science has only one real currency: its integrity. And government should not be trying to shape the facts; it should shape policy to match the facts.<\/p>\n<span id=\"post-ratings-119\" class=\"post-ratings\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/cats\/rating_on.gif\" alt=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" title=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/cats\/rating_on.gif\" alt=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" title=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/cats\/rating_on.gif\" alt=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" title=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/cats\/rating_on.gif\" alt=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" title=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/cats\/rating_on.gif\" alt=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" title=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/cats\/rating_on.gif\" alt=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" title=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/cats\/rating_on.gif\" alt=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" title=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/cats\/rating_on.gif\" alt=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" title=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/cats\/rating_on.gif\" alt=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" title=\"1 vote, average: 9.00 out of 9\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/> (average: <strong>9.00<\/strong> cats out of 9<\/em>)<br \/><em>You need to be a registered member to rate this post.<\/em><\/span><span id=\"post-ratings-119-loading\" class=\"post-ratings-loading\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/loading.gif\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/>Loading...<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nothing demonstrates the Harper government&#8217;s contempt for real facts and impartial analysis more than their attitude towards scientists in the employ of the Federal Government. While technically, being their employer, it is within the government&#8217;s rights to tell scientists what they can or cannot tell the public or the press, the extent to which Mr. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/?p=119\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Muzzling scientists<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cats.vttoth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}