As I write this, the results of Canada’s 2011 long-form census are about to be released. For the first time, those results will be based on the statistically inaccurate method of relying on voluntary rather than comprehensive data, an affront to professional integrity sufficient to cause the resignation of the chief statistician of our country almost two years ago. The Harper government does not consider accurate data to be a priority over perceived government intrusion in our lives, so we will now be planning cities, parks, housing, transit, social services and shopping centre locations based on inaccurate information.
This is part of a highly disturbing pattern of fact denial that, if practised in the business world, would be a job-killer for any CEO who tried it. Businesses that pretend they live in a fantasy world that gives them an imaginary competitive advantage die early when reality lands on the bottom line. In politics, we all ultimately share in the failures of policies based on fiction – but politicians gamble on short-term political gains.
This is different from lying in political campaigns, which has been around since the word propaganda was invented. What’s different here is that public policymakers are actually investing our public resources where the evidence shows serious repercussions that are being ignored. The key to pulling off that mismanagement strategy is to cut off access to the evidence.
At the provincial level, we saw it in the gradual strangling and now choking death of the Therapeutics Initiative, which lost the last of its provincial funding last month. The UBC-based initiative is a group of internationally acclaimed drug researchers who evaluate prescription drugs before they’re approved for Pharmacare. Their work has been instrumental in B.C. being able to boast the lowest per-capita drug costs in Canada. They probably also saved lives and human suffering by banning drugs with harmful side-effects. The evidence of the Therapeutics Initiative will no longer be available to us, meaning industry-generated data will rule the day, drug costs will likely go up and public health will be compromised.
Based on recent lawsuit filings, the firing of health ministry staff involved in drug monitoring also appears to be closely linked to a comparable unearthing of inconvenient truths about the effects of certain pharmaceuticals.
But the kings of mind control are in Ottawa, where a government desperate to reap short-term economic gains spurns evidence of their impact on future generations. Maybe if we stop talking about evidence of climate change and environmental impacts of resource extraction, everything will be fine? So the government muzzles taxpayer-funded federal scientists whose research could challenge government policy initiatives.
It’s working. Internal Environment Canada documents unearthed by Climate Change Network Canada show that there have been 80% fewer media stories on federal climate change research since access to government scientists was severely restricted during Prime Minister Harper’s first mandate. The pending layoffs of 1,900 scientists will put even more invaluable data even farther out of sight. A former Department of Fisheries and Oceans biologist told Maclean’s that “it’s like an iron curtain has been drawn across the communication of science in this country.”
In B.C., that curtain came down between renowned fisheries researcher Dr. Kristi Miller and the media after her lead article in the journal Science suggested the drop in the number of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River might be due to a viral infection connected to fish farms. She was finally allowed to testify 18 months later at the Cohen Commission. Its findings – including “that climate change is a significant stressor for sockeye and in combination with other stressors, may determine the fate of the fishery” – are still in cold storage in Ottawa, six months after being tabled.
Making decisions without the facts, or, worse, knowing the facts and suppressing them, is not only a recipe for failure. It’s also deeply insulting to voters. •
