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Tenure, the Canadian Tar Sands and ‘Ethical Oil’

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Tenure, the Canadian Tar Sands and ‘Ethical Oil’ Vol. 15: 55–57, 2015 ETHICS IN SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS Published online April 14 doi: 10.3354/esep00155 Ethics Sci Environ Polit Contribution to the Theme Section ‘Academic freedom and tenure’ OPENPEN ACCESSCCESS AS I SEE IT Tenure, the Canadian tar sands and ‘Ethical Oil’ Daniel Pauly* Fisheries Centre, 2202 Main Mall, Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada ABSTRACT: Canada, despite its long democratic tradition, has a record of attempts to suppress inconvenient scientific findings. This has intensified since 2006, when the new conservative government of Canada began its systematic and well-documented assault on the functioning, independence and integrity of the environmental science performed in federal governmental lab- oratories, which is largely attributed to its focus on developing Canada’s tar sands and Arctic off- shore oil, while denying the reality of global warming. Academic tenure, still a major feature of Canada’s research universities, appears to be one of the few obstacles to this strategy of silencing environmental scientists concerned about this course of action. KEY WORDS: Oil development · Climate change · Muzzling of scientists · Fisheries act INTRODUCTION laboratories to prevent ‘their’ scientists from speak- ing up about issues in their areas of expertise (see Academic tenure is a difficult topic and while it is Hutchings et al. 1997). This tendency was vividly easy to get on one’s high horse and claim that it is a illustrated to the author, then new to Canada, by a vital element of higher education, it may also be that, former high ranking official of the Canadian Depart- with some, tenure encourages sloth. This contribu- ment of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) at a public tion, however, does not address the fraught relation- debate at the University of Ottawa, who asserted that ship between tenure and education, but the role of DFO staff owe loyalty to the Queen (this is Canada!) academic tenure at research universities in con - and thus to the Queen’s Minister, and not to the citi- temporary Canada, and, even more specifically, its zenry. This occurred only a few years after the 1992 potential role in maintaining the integrity of the collapse of the northern cod fishery, which put 50 000 environmental sciences. people out of a job (but not the Queen) and required Canada, despite its long democratic tradition, has a immense amounts of taxpayers’ money to mitigate. record of attempts to suppress inconvenient scientific findings. One well-known case is the ‘Olivieri Affair’, which outlined the extent of the ethical swamp into PRE- AND POST-2006 CASES OF MUZZLING which university leaders — especially in medicine — SCIENTISTS will step to protect lucrative associations with the pharmaceutical industry (Viens & Savulescu 2004). Thus, a well-known DFO scientist who had the Here, however, this paper will emphasize the plight audacity to argue that the collapse of northern cod of the beleaguered scientists in Canadian govern- was not due to abnormally cold temperatures, and ment laboratories. not to hungry seals (the perennial villains in Canada, Since 2006, Canada is benighted by a conservative see Pannozzo 2013), but to government-sanctioned government which has magnified a pre-existing ten- overfishing, was officially reprimanded for speaking dency for the heads of government agencies and up, although it is now well established that he was © The author 2015. Open Access under Creative Commons by *Corresponding author: [email protected] Attribution Licence. Use, distribution and reproduction are un - restricted. Authors and original publication must be credited. Publisher: Inter-Research · www.int-res.com 56 Ethics Sci Environ Polit 15: 55–57, 2015 right (Walters & Maguire 1996), and that fisheries so), stories such as this abound. There are too many management in Canada is below par (Hutchings et cases of government scientists being able to speak to al. 2012). R. A. Myers, the scientist in question, then the press only with government minders present, i.e. took refuge at a university, where he became a 21st century political commissars. Entire laboratories tenured faculty member, and played a critical role in specialized on ecotoxicology and Arctic ecology have convincing the world that northern cod had not been been closed, so that no one is left to study the effects the only formerly abundant fish stock reduced by on the health of humans and ecosystems of exploiting overfishing to a shadow of its former self (Pauly the Canadian tar sands and drilling for oil in the high 2007). Arctic. The Fisheries Act was defanged, i.e. the pro- While it is legitimate for governments everywhere tection of freshwater fish and their habitats was lifted to expect restraint from civil servants, the conditions (Ecojustice 2013, Hutchings & Post 2013), and so oil under which Canadian government scientists, and development can proceed without hindrances such particularly those working on environmental issues, as laws protecting the environment. Obviously, the are now so constrained (see Anonymous 2006), at Canadian cabinet is, with regard to global warming, least in comparison to those of other Western democ- firmly in the denialist laager, despite the absurdity racies, that they have become a topic in respected and destructiveness of this position (Oreskes & Con- international scientific outlets (O’Hara 2010, Jones way 2010, 2014), which has diminished Canada’s 2013), a book titled ‘War on Science’ (Turner 2013), standing in the world community. and numerous articles and editorials in Canadian media (e.g. The Globe and Mail 2013, Bolen 2014a,b). A KEY ROLE OF TENURE The question now is, under these circumstances, TWO CANADIAN DISCOVERIES: VIRUS IN who can speak truthfully for science in Canada? To FARMED SALMON AND ‘ETHICAL OIL’ the extent that the autonomy of universities is still re- spected and the tenure system still works, there is at The absurdly high level of pressure exerted on gov- least one group of scientists in Canada who can object ernment scientists may be illustrated here in the to the silencing of scientists and to what appears to be events following the discovery of a viral signature in preparing the ground for turning the country into a (wild) sockeye salmon (Miller at al. 2011), already petro-state. Indeed, one might argue that tenured fac- threatened by the metazoan parasites emanating ulty, because they can express their finding and views from farming operations relying on introduced At - with relative impunity, have a duty to do so when their lantic salmon (Morton et al. 2008), and also the likely colleagues in governments are being muzzled. By source of the virus in question, via infected eggs extension, scientific organizations, comprised of imported from Norway, where it is common. DFO is mostly tenured academics, such as the Royal Society mandated to encourage this risky form of aquacul- of Canada (Academy of Science), and/or the Canadian ture, and thus the first author of the paper in ques- Association of University Teachers, can bring egre- tion, a DFO staff member, was not permitted to talk gious breaches of scientific integrity to the attention of about her discovery publicly, under the pretext that the media and the public. Indeed, such groups, which, she would later testify at the ‘Cohen Commission’, set for environmental science, would include the Cana- up to investigate the decline of wild Pacific salmon in dian Society for Ecology and Evolution, the Society of British Columbia. Her eventual (filmed) deposition, Canadian Limnologists, and the Canadian Society of consisting mostly of monosyllabic answers, was typi- Zoologists, among others, have communicated with cal of what occurs when people are afraid (see the media about the matters discussed here. The soci- www.salmonconfidential.ca); such degrading situa- eties provide an important vehicle for non-tenured to tions should not occur in science and certainly not in add their voices to the debates and discussions democracies. without risking retaliation. Since the ascent of a government which, after its Generalizing, one can also note that academia, as successful renaming of ‘tar sands’ to ‘oil sands’, shaped by tenured faculty, is one of the few sectors in attempted to rename the muck extracted from Cana- Canada (and even more so in the US) that is not in the dian tar sands ‘ethical oil’ (because it originates in a hands of corporations — though the increasing privati - country where women can drive cars, as opposed to sation of the higher education sector, and reliance on Saudi Arabia, where women are not permitted to do non-tenured or sessional lecturers (Stergiou & Tsikli- Pauly: Tenure, the Canadian tar sands and ‘Ethical Oil’ 57 ras 2013) is gradually undermining this bulwark as Jones N (2013) Canada to investigate muzzling of scien- well. Similar considerations will apply in many other tists. 02 Apr 2013. http:// blogs. nature. com/ news/2013/ 04/ canada-to-investigate-muzzling-of-scientists. html parts of the world, and they may also be relevant Miller KM, Li S, Kaukinen KH, Ginther N and others (2011) when discussing the tenure system in education. Genomic signatures predict migration and spawning failure in wild Canadian salmon. Science 331:214−217 Morton A, Routledge R, Krkosek M (2008) Sea louse infesta- Acknowledgements. I thank Dr. Jennifer Jacquet and 2 tion in wild juvenile salmon and Pacific herring associ- thoughtful referees for comments and bits of prose. ated with fish farms off the east-central coast of Vancou- ver Island, British Columbia. N Am J Fish Manag 28: 523−532 LITERATURE CITED O’Hara K (2010) Canada must free scientists to talk to journalists. Nature 467:501 Anonymous (2006) Communication policy of the govern- Oreskes N, Conway EM (2010) Merchants of doubt: how a ment of Canada. www. tbs-sct. gc.
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