Editorial - 27-5

"Those are the facts". It's an oft-repeated phrase that's routinely abused in the rough and tumble game of politics. Take the recent Budget. Much is devoted to the current government's efforts in support of research and innovation. Funding is going up and times are good, despite the pressures of deficit elimination and an economy that's still shaking off the effects of the economic downturn.

But is funding for research and innovation increasing in Canada? One would think the facts would settle the matter. But as the recent debate in Parliament demonstrates, facts are often not as clear cut as they appear.

During debate over an NDP motion on science and science communication (see page 5), science critic Kennedy Stewart cited Statistics Canada data (also reported in the Sept. 20/12 issue of R$) detailing a decline for federal support of S&T over the past three years. Yet his "facts" were attacked by Gary Goodyear, minister of state for S&T, who stated that Kennedy's research was wanting.

Then there's the increasingly worrisome issue of the limits placed on federal scientists to speak publicly about their areas of expertise — an issue the Federal Information Commissioner has agreed to investigate (see page 5).

The Harper government has a communications problem and a welcome first step would to strike a panel to examine the Obama's directive for US federal agencies to establish "scientific integrity policies". Canada's reputation for openness and transparency is taking a beating and a change in communications policy would go along way towards improving it.