DFO under investigations for attempts to muzzle scientists
The Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, Harriet Solloway, is investigating attempts by officials from the Department of Fisheries & Oceans (DFO) to muzzle scientists from communicating their research showing open-net pen salmon farms cause harm to wild Pacific salmon populations.
Solloway’s investigation of DFO focuses on two main issues: 1) attempting to prevent scientists from communicating with both the public and the media, and 2) attempting to obstruct scientists from providing testimony before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.
These incidents would constitute serious breaches of the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector and DFO’s Policy on Science Integrity.
In 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to the transition ocean-polluting Atlantic salmon farms from coastal BC waters by 2025. It’s time to end the pens. The future of wild Pacific salmon depends on it.
Read front page article in The Globe & Mail here.