To the editor:
I am writing in response to I. Schreifel's reply, Reader tired of straw man arguments, on Page A12 of the March 13 edition of the Free Press.
My March 6 letter of protest against the censorship of scientists was certainly not a partisan form letter, it was written as an outraged citizen.
Schreifel asked for specific examples of censorship? David Tarasick was prevented from talking to journalists about the research he had been doing on the ozone hole. Kristi Miller could not talk about her sockeye salmon research despite it being published in the journal Science.
At the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Vancouver, a coalition of six science and communications organizations asked the Conservative government to "tear down the wall" between scientists and the public.
One panellist said many Canadian scientists are frustrated, but haven't spoken out with a collective voice for fear of being branded as radicals and losing their funding.
The world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal, Nature, published an editorial condemning the policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government on limiting reporter access to government researchers.
The point is we are getting attention from the international scientific community over our government's extremely heavy-handed control of the flow of scientific information.
Schreifel suggests scientists who don't like it are free to leave. This is a valid and troubling point. Scientists are a valuable resource, and some probably have considered leaving to work in a country where they could freely share their important findings.
Schreifel also suggested I am likely against foundation skills testing, implying my viewpoints are simply some left-wing party platform. I agree this would be a contradictory position, given I am arguing for the release of information.
Standardized testing is the only truly objective way to measure the performance of our education system. Only the teachers union and associates are against that information being gathered and released.
Gordon Laity
100 Mile House