Well-informed deliberation by all concerned parties is a cornerstone of democracy. For public deliberation about policy responses to scientific findings, it is essential for citizens to have access to full information relevant to those decisions.

A recent study by Evidence for Democracy found that current media policies in Canadian federal science departments impede open and timely communication between scientists and the media, and fail to provide protections against political interference in science communication.

In order to ensure that Canadians are in a position to make well-informed democratic choices, we call upon the Federal Government of Canada to formulate and put into practice explicit policies that will ensure the freedom of scientists to communicate the results of taxpayer-funded research to the Canadian public.

We invite researchers with positions in academic institutions to add their names to this petition, and to explain their reasons in the comments below.