Natural Resources Canada wins Code of Silence Award from journalists

The Code of Silence Award is given by the Canadian Association of Journalists. It's meant to point out the Nation's most tight-lipped government agencies/departments.

Natural Resources gets the crown this year for muzzling an internationally-known Canadian geologist.
Scott Dallimore was kept from speaking about his work on the breaking of a prehistoric ice dam 13,000 years ago until vetted "media lines" could be approved by the minister's office.

The article goes on to say that British scientists had to be interviewed regarding Dallimore's work because the bureaucrats were worried about him giving 'unscripted' interviews.

The case resonated with editorial writers and was held up internationally as evidence of the Harper government's obsession with message control.
"What could be so secret about a 13,000-year-old ice dam that merits muzzling a top Canadian scientist?" said CAJ president Mary Agnes Welch."

The article mentions that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was nominated for his "continued vise-grip on the public's right to know."

Well, doesn't this just speak volumes on its own? ...And yet, he was just re-elected!

Source: The Canadian Press

reply to post by Invariance


I see the re-election of Harper as just as big of a mistake (even suspiciously so) as voting bush in twice (Still Debatable) and the 99% guarantee of Obama getting a second term.

It does not seem to matter how much they are all hated and despised by so many, they get in...again!

I give up.

reply to post by jude11



I agree, and I can complain about him all I want, I voted and it wasn't for him LOL

Well, at least he's "under the radar" and will perhaps loosen his death grip on information.. at least a little.. (I hope so)

It's too bad maybe if this information was made available, people in Canada would realize the destruction being caused in our country by the natural resource industry. Over the last ten years this country has been given over to companies to do what they please. They come take the resources, sell it to American or overseas companies, and then we buy it back and pay to clean up the damage they cause.


www.watershedsentinel.ca...

Development of Prosperity Mine at Teztan Biny can only proceed, according to Taseko Mines spokespeople, with the total destruction of the lake, because the multibillion dollar ore body of gold and copper lies right under the lake...

...This beautiful lake contains 85,000 fish belonging to a unique monoculture of rainbow trout, an important First Nation food fishery since before contact. It is also a significant recreational fishery for many non-native fishers from all over the province. The provincial Ministry of the Environment says it is one of the best fishing lakes in the Cariboo/Chilcotin region.

reply to post by jude11

As an American, I have to admit that I don't know enough about the Canadian system. Do you use electronic voting machines there? I know that's our problem here: They make it too easy to steal elections. In fact it's an open secret. (Link that follows is an ATS thread that I found in about 3 seconds; there are probably dozens more.)

Former Diebold Contractor Blows The Whistle On Election Manipulations

It's even been covered in the MSM. And yet nobody seems to know or care. You could ask any ordinary voting American, and their response would probably be: "Oh. Yeah. I heard something like that. They fixed the problem, though, didn't they?" Well, no, they didn't. Unless you consider making stealing elections child's play fixing the problem.

End of rant....

Originally posted by Invariance
reply to post by jude11

 

I agree, and I can complain about him all I want, I voted and it wasn't for him LOL

Well, at least he's "under the radar" and will perhaps loosen his death grip on information.. at least a little.. (I hope so)

Agreed, except for one thing. The `Under the Radar` ones are usually the ones we have to watch even more...and he`s a sly one IMO.

reply to post by dug88


I believe lack of transparency is the point of this award. Muzzling the scientist about his discovery is just one thing we now know about, I give myself a headache speculating on what more is being kept silent... but silence is nothing new either.

reply to post by Invariance


I didn't vote for him nor have I met anyone who did either. It's called bad faith when you promise something (transparency) and substitute distraction, deception, discrediting and demonizing those who oppose him. (He thus has earned a 4D report card, IMO) I would not be surprised at all if the election was fixed.

What gets me too though is why the press had to wait for an award show to publicize the fact that they are not getting answers. I remember how he used to refuse to give interviews to the press at all in the beginning, but if still has to vet questions ahead of time, the media should know by now that they are acting like sheeple.

reply to post by aboutface


I agree, but the sad thing is that people just don't know.

Sometimes they are so caught up in their everyday struggle that they fail to see the bigger picture. I'm just glad to find out that the Association of Journalists has an award of this nature to call attention to things like this,