Ottawa’s media rules muzzling federal scientists : The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age.

The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age.



Natural Resources Canada scientists were told this spring they need “pre-approval” from Minister Christian Paradis’ office to speak with national and international journalists. Their “media lines” also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation.



The documents say the “new” rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply to not only to contentious issues including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago.



They also give a glimpse of how Canadians are being cut off from scientists whose work is financed by taxpayers, critics say, and is often of significant public interest — be it about fish stocks, genetically modified crops or mercury pollution in the Athabasca River.



“It’s Orwellian,” says Andrew Weaver, a climatologist at University of Victoria. The public, he says, has a right to know what federal scientists are discovering and learning.



Scientists at NRCan, many of them world experts, study everything from seabeds to melting glaciers. They have long been able to discuss their research, until the rules changed this spring.



“We have new media interview procedures that require pre-approval of certain types of interview requests by the minister’s office,” wrote Judy Samoil, NRCan’s western regional communications manager, in a March 24 email to colleagues.



The policy applies to “high-profile” issues such as “climate change, oilsands” and when “the reporter is with an international or national media organization (such as the CBC or the Canwest paper chain),” she wrote.



The Canwest papers are now part of Postmedia Network Inc.



Samoil later elaborated, saying “the regional communications managers were advised of this change a couple of weeks ago.”



The documents show the new rules being so broadly applied that one scientist was not permitted to discuss a study in a major research journal without “pre-approval” from political staff in Paradis’ office.



NRCan scientist Scott Dallimore co-authored the study, published in the journal Nature on April 1, about a colossal flood that swept across northern Canada 13,000 years ago, when massive ice dams gave way at the end of the last ice age.



The study was considered so newsworthy that two British universities issued releases to alert the international media.



It was, however, deemed so sensitive in Ottawa that Dallimore, who works at NRCan’s laboratories outside Victoria, was told he had to wait for clearance from the minister’s office.



Dallimore tried to tell the department’s communications managers the flood study was anything but politically sensitive. “This is a blue sky science paper,” he said in one email, noting: “There are no anticipated links to minerals, energy or anthropogenic climate change.”



But the bureaucrats in Ottawa insisted. “We will have to get the minister’s office approval before going ahead with this interview,” Patti Robson, the department’s media relations manager, wrote in an email after a reporter from Postmedia News (then Canwest News Service) approached Dallimore.



Robson asked Dallimore to provide the reporter’s questions and “the proposed responses,” saying: “We will send it up to MO (minister’s office) for approval.” Robson said interviews about the flood study needed ministerial approval for two reasons: the inquiring reporter represented a “national news outlet” and the “subject has wide-ranging implications.”





Emails flew at NRCan as word of ministerial “pre-approval” rules spread.



“Gosh this is news to me . . . shouldn’t we have something explaining all this by an email from the upper ups,” Dallimore wrote in one message. His work on gas hydrates and permafrost in the Arctic has attracted national and international attention, and until this spring Dallimore had been free to discuss his research with reporters.



His boss was also baffled. “Can you direct us to the new media interview procedures?” wrote Carmel Lowe, director of the Geological Survey of Canada in NRCan Pacific region, on March 29 to Michael Buzzell, manager of NRCan’s ministerial communications branch in Ottawa.



Lowe said in a telephone interview that she never did receive clarification on the new procedures.



Robson has switched jobs and Micheline Joanisse is now acting media relations manager at NRCan. Joanisse says the “new media interview procedures” referred to in the documents fit with the government communications policy introduced in 2006.



“The minister is the primary spokesperson for Natural Resources Canada. As such, he needs to be made aware of issues in the media which involve the department so he can effectively fulfil his role,” Joanisse said in a prepared statement.



“Departmental officials speaking on behalf of the department are to consult the minister’s office in preparing responses,” Joanisse says. “While this may have been misinterpreted as being a new policy, it has been in place for years.”





The documents show several communications managers, policy advisers, political staff and senior officials were involved drafting and vetting “media lines” on the ancient flood study.



Dallimore finally got clearance to talk to reporters from Margaux Stastny, director of communication in Paradis’ office, on March 31, a week after NRCan communications branch was told the study was appearing in Nature, and two days after reporters began approaching Dallimore for interviews.



By the time Dallimore and the “media lines” got the OK, the reporters’ deadlines had passed and they had already completed their stories about the ancient flood. Canwest News Service, CBC, ABC, Reuters, and other organizations based their reports on interviews with co-authors of the study from other universities outside Canada that responded to interview requests promptly.



This effectively “muzzled” Dallimore by not allowing him to do timely interviews, says Weaver, at the University of Victoria, who says the incident shows how “ridiculous” the situation has got in Ottawa.



“If you can’t get access to a nice, feel-good science story about flooding at the end of last glaciation, can you imagine trying to get access to scientists with information about cadmium and mercury in the Athabasca River? Absolutely impossible,” says Weaver, in reference to growing controversy over contaminants downstream from Alberta’s oilsands.



Environment Canada and Health Canada now tightly control media access to researchers and orchestrate interviews that are approved. Environment Canada has even produced “media lines” for federal scientists to stick to when discussing climate studies they have co-authored with Weaver and are based on research paid for through his university grants.



“There is no question that there is an orchestrated campaign at the federal level to make sure that their scientists can’t communicate to the public about what they do,” says Weaver, adding that the crackdown is seriously undermining morale in federal labs. “Science is about generating new knowledge and communicating it to others.”





The control and micro-management points to a high level of “science illiteracy” in the upper ranks of the federal government, he says, and “incredible disrespect” for both the researchers and the taxpayers footing the government’s multi-billion-dollar science bill.



“The sad reality is that these guys in Ottawa think federal scientists work for them,” says Weaver. “They don’t, they work for the people of Canada.



“This is science funded by Canada for the public good,” he says. “It is not science funded to produce briefing notes for ministers so they can get elected in the next federal campaign.”







Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ottawa+media+rules+muzzling+federal+scientists/3513960/story.html#ixzz0zNT0PbY9

sex movie worm An email that purports to offer free pornography but actually contains a virus is spreading like wildfire across the internet, security experts have warned.

The email is entitled "Here you have" and holds within a link that appears to direct users to a PDF document.







In fact the link contains no documents but, if clicked, will enable the virus to access the user's Outlook address book and email itself to every contact contained within.




sending pornographic emailsIt will also attempt to disable any security programmes by deleting them, allowing it to remain hidden on the computer's hard drive.



The worm can also be passed on by unsecured links between computers sharing a network.



BBC News reported that companies including Nasa, AIG, Disney, Procter & Gamble and Wells Fargo are all having difficulties preventing the worm from spreading through their systems, with employees receiving hundreds of copies of the email.



The website on which the worm was based was shut down on Thursday evening, but it is expected that other forms of the virus will continue to spread.



Kaspersky, the security company, said the worm targeted Outlook in the same way as previous viruses such as the ILoveYou bug, which spread across the world in 2000.

G20: IS THERE A RIGHT TO PROTEST?

Abdelrazik torture has the green light from the Federal Court of Canada.

OTTAWA — A potentially groundbreaking case on federal responsibility in torture cases has the green light from the Federal Court of Canada.




The court has dismissed the federal government's attempt to strike out much of the lawsuit filed by Abousfian Abdelrazik.



The Montreal man was arrested but not charged during a 2003 visit to Sudan to see his ill mother.



Abelrazik alleges negligence on the part of Canadian Security Intelligence Service officials that resulted in his detention and caused him severe physical and mental injuries.



Paul Champ, Abdelrazik's lawyer, says the ruling is notable because it clearly recognizes torture as grounds for a lawsuit.



He says it also opens the court's door to other Canadian citizens abused in detention abroad "while Canadian officials did little or nothing to help."

Canadian Blood Services escapes Charter scrutiny Groups slam blood ruling.

Groups representing homosexuals, students and people with HIV are vowing to continue fighting a Superior Court judge’s ruling that Canadian Blood Services can refuse donations from men who have sex with men.




In dismissing a constitutional challenge, an Ontario Superior Court judge wrote that Canadian Blood Services, a private, not-for-profit charitable organization, is not a government body and its policies are therefore not governed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.



“That’s a dangerous decision. Governments are privatizing their activities all the time. If they can escape Charter scrutiny by setting up a corporation to carry out whatever program it is they’re concerned about… it will be an easy way (for governments) to insulate themselves,’’ said Doug Elliott, a lawyer who represented the Canadian AIDS Society in the case.



The judge also found the challenge would not have succeeded even if the policies were subject to the Charter because giving blood is not a defining element of Canadian identity.



Rather than focusing on sex between men, Canadian Blood Services should be asking potential donors—regardless of orientation —whether they’ve engaged in unprotected sex, says gay rights group Egale Canada.



Calling the organization’s blood services questionnaire and policies “discriminatory,’’ Egale spokesperson Helen Kennedy said that while some people in the gay community would be high-risk blood donors, “you have to also acknowledge those who aren’t.’’



Brent Farrington, a spokesperson for the Canadian Federation of Students, echoed the need for a questionnaire based on unprotected sex. About 15 to 18 per cent of blood in Canada is collected on university campuses.



“The question should ask if you’ve engaged in unprotected sex, and how many sexual partners an individual has had,’’ Farrington said, arguing that research is beginning to show these types of questions would improve the safety and security of the blood supply.



But Dr. Dana Devine, vice president of medical, scientific and research affairs for Canadian Blood Services, says details about unprotected sex can be dubious because condom misuse and breakage rates are thought to be between five and 20 per cent.



“Just because you used (a condom) doesn’t necessarily ensure that the practice was therefore safe relative to not using one. It may reduce the risk somewhat, but doesn’t get rid of it entirely. That’s one reason we don’t ask questions of that detail,’’ Devine said.

Natalie Gray, 20 launches G20 lawsuit against Toronto Police Services Board and unnamed individual officers.

woman who alleges she was shot with rubber bullets by Toronto Police during the G20 summit is at the centre of a lawsuit expected to be detailed Wednesday.




Natalie Gray, 20, is suing the Toronto Police Services Board and unnamed individual officers for more than $1 million in damages for her treatment during the massive summit in June, her lawyers announced late Tuesday.



“Natalie is suing for assault and battery, unlawful arrest and detention, malicious prosecution, and violations of a number of her constitutional rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” a press release from lawyers Clayton Ruby and Brian Shiller stated. “Mr. Ruby and Mr. Shiller call for an immediate criminal investigation of the police officer who shot Natalie.”



The lawyers alleged Gray was “protesting peacefully” on June 27 when “she was viciously shot twice by the Toronto Police with what she believes were rubber bullets.”



“Natalie sustained extremely painful injuries to both her elbow and sternum. The police initially denied, but later admitted, to using rubber bullets,” the lawyers stated. “Natalie was arrested and — without any basis in law — was charged with obstruction of a peace officer.”



Shiller and Ruby go on to state that Gray was driven around in a police car for 30 minutes before she was taken to hospital.



“She was then taken to the detention centre on Eastern Ave., where she was taunted by police officers, denied access to her asthma medication, strip searched and denied access to counsel despite her repeated requests to speak to a lawyer,” the lawyers state.



Gray said she was detained for 30 hours before she was released on bail the next day.



Charges against Gray were withdrawn on Aug. 23.



Gray said in a statement posted on mediacoop.ca she has never “been more terrified, more dehumanized or more in pain than I was that day.”



Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.



The lawsuit is the third one publicly announced since the June summit.



The allegations have not been proven in court.

Canada "Fox News North" Campaign -- Attempted Sabotage, Avaaz Responds! : Conservative Party of Canada, May be the one that did it!

Yesterday Avaaz experienced an attack on our “Stop ‘Fox News North’” petition consisting of fraudulent sign-ups of targeted individuals.



There is evidence of a deliberate and illegal effort designed to discredit Avaaz and violate an important form of democratic expression for Canadian citizens. If this is confirmed we will request a full investigation, and help to bring the perpetrators to justice.



It seems likely that the people behind this attack wanted the public to think that Avaaz is a spamming organization. They targeted key journalists in an effort to damage Avaaz’s reputation in the press.



But the truth, the law, and 414,000 very real Canadian Avaaz subscribers -- the largest online activist community in Canadian history -- will set the record straight, about us, and about the forces behind this attack.



It's deeply disturbing that in all Avaaz's years of campaigns against US President George Bush, Burmese, Zimbabwean and Sudanese dictators, irresponsible multinational corporations and corrupt politicians, no one has ever yet stooped to this kind of tactic to undermine our members' right to express their views.



We do not yet have all the facts, but it appears to speak to the poisonous political climate and deeply deceptive tactics that have been bred by the radical right in Canada and its progenitor in the US. It is precisely this kind of bare-knuckled, brazenly deceptive and often hateful political climate that Sun TV's "Fox News North" appears keen to promote.



Canadians understand this, which is why, in just over 36 hours, well over 50,000 Canadians have signed our petition against Stephen Harper's attack on the independence of the CRTC as it resists the Sun TV request for access to Canadian’s cable fees.