The Harper petro-Tory government's money comes from the people who got rich from the tar-sands, the dirtiest oil on the planet, and they've done everything they could to suppress science critical of Alberta crude; finally a scientist who wasn't under their thumb published his work and they started maneuvering behind the scenes to discredit him.
Queen's University prof John Smol was shocked to read an internal Natural Resources Canada memo smearing his work and calling him biased — the memo was released after an Access To Information Act request.
The study, jointly conducted by Smol’s lab and Environment Canada, found that levels of hazardous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in six regional lakes ranged from 2.5 to 23 times greater than they were before oilsands development. The study was published in January 2013 in the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences.
“I’m allowed to talk about my science, and everything I said was pre-read by my Environment Canada colleagues,” he said.
The memo to the Natural Resources minister was signed by deputy minister Serge Dupont, who was appointed to a post at the International Monetary Fund in Washington earlier this summer.
Government Memo Criticized Top Biologist For Comments On Oilsands [Sunny Freeman/Huffington Post]
(Image: Oil Slick Pool (WTLGNN075) (morning, 6 June 2013) 3, James St. John, CC-BY)
