Kent outraged by “misquote” – says scientists are “spreading the good news” about federal policies

OTTAWA-Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent is outraged about quotes taken from his own remarks about government efforts to control the free speech of scientists in his department.

After being taken to task by NDP deputy leader Megan Leslie for his remarks, describing the government’s policies as an “established practice,” Kent suggested the quote was taken out of context.

“That is an outrageous misquote I think it is fair to say,” Kent said Tuesday in the House of Commons.

One day earlier, he told the Commons: “It is established practice to coordinate media availability. In fact, many of our younger scientists seek advice from our departmental communications staff.”

He also suggested that the government was controlling interviews given by its scientists because it didn’t like questions raised by the media.

“Where we run into problems is when journalists try to lead scientists away from science and into policy matters,” Kent said on Monday.

But the next day, Kent, a former award-winning broadcast journalist, suggested that the dozens of scientists from his department at a Montreal conference on polar issues were, in fact, “spreading the good news of the policies of our government, both with regard to mitigation of climate change, both within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as well as outside, with a number of like-minded countries, to address short-lived climate pollutants.”

Leslie suggested the government policies contradict its efforts to promote an “open government.”

“A senior Environment Canada expert called the new media guidelines unethical and enormously embarrassing to our country on the world stage,” Leslie said in the Commons. “Will the minister explain how interfering in media access to our scientists fits in with the government’s so-called open government approach?”

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza