Defrosting Public Science | The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada

"In 2013, following numerous news reports that federal scientists were prevented by the Harper government from speaking publicly about their work, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) hired Environics Research to survey its science members (the majority of federal scientists) on the scale and impact of so-called "muzzling" and political interference in their work. The results were featured in a report, The Big Chill, [1] and included the staggering finding that nearly 9 out of 10 respondents did not believe they could speak freely to the media about their scientific work.

As the title of the report suggested, a “chill” had settled on federal public scientists due to the communications policies of the Harper government. The report’s findings made national news, were quoted in the House of Commons and made the muzzling of federal scientists a major political issue of the 2015 federal election...."