Canada's closure of science libraries riles researchers

Canada's closure of science libraries riles researchers

Postby Oscar » Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:46 am

Canada's closure of science libraries riles researchers

[ http://phys.org:80/news/2014-01-canada- ... riles.html ]

Jan 11, 2014 by Clément Sabourin

Canada's closure of science libraries containing a vast repository of environmental data dating back more than a century has researchers worried that valuable books and reference materials are being lost in the name of cost-cutting.

Unique in its shore access to three oceans (Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific) and with the largest number of freshwater lakes in the world, Canada over the years has amassed a huge cache of books and scientific reports on fisheries, meteorology and wildlife—on everything from beluga whales to songbirds.

Until recently they had been stored at seven Fisheries and Oceans and 12 Environment Canada libraries and reading rooms across the country.

But the federal government last year ordered most of them closed and fired dozens of librarians as they began consolidating the materials at three locations—in Sydney, British Columbia and in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (both Fisheries libraries), as well as at Environment Canada's National Hydrology Research Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where a single librarian with the help of a couple of students have reportedly been tasked with sorting through and cataloguing hundreds of boxes of materials transferred there, to date.

The closure of a government library at the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba in particular was mourned by many marine scientists because it held unique data on freshwater lakes dating back to 1880.

More worrying, according to researchers, is that excess and outdated materials have ended up in dumpsters, which local media reports likened to book burning.

"This is a national tragedy," said Peter Wells, a professor at Dalhousie University and senior research fellow at the International Ocean Institute, both in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The government however says the impact of the closures has been exaggerated, and that the libraries were frequented by a mere dozen people (other than government staff) annually, and that it also plans to digitize much of the books to allow a larger audience to access them online, more cheaply.

"It is absolutely false to insinuate that any books were burnt," Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said in a statement.

Shea explained that the department's collections of information on fisheries, aquatic sciences and nautical sciences—which it claims are "one of the world's most comprehensive"—will be preserved and new materials will continue to be added.

Only duplicate books have been discarded after being rejected by other libraries, staff and the general public, Shea said.

The minister's reassurances however have done little to quell the controversy with scepticism running high, after several other controversial policies enacted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government in recent years—including withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol and gagging government scientists—raised the ire of scientists. Researchers have called the measures attacks on science itself, and efforts aimed at silencing critics of the government's agenda, which is focused on jobs and the economy, with environmental stewardship arguably playing second fiddle.

This now widespread view—rightly or wrongly—that Harper has an anti-science bias even provoked a march on Parliament by scientists in laboratory coats, waving anti-Harper placards, in 2012, accusing the government of a lack of evidence-based decision-making.

"This government doesn't like scientific information (being out there) on environmental issues," Wells summed up.

The federal government has taken an "ideological decision" on the libraries, accused Jeff Hutchings, another maritime researcher at Dalhousie University and past chair of a Royal Society of Canada panel on marine biodiveristy.

"It's symbolic in a bad way," he said.

Hutchings told AFP he worries especially about the loss of marine data that stretches back before climate change and modern commercial fishing.

As well, he dismissed Shea's suggestion that the books and research would become more widely available online, as only works specifically requested have been scanned and digitized, according to him.


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Changes to fisheries legislation have removed habitat protection for most fish species in Canada

[ http://phys.org/news/2013-11-fisheries- ... tml#inlRlv ]

Nov 07, 2013

Federal government changes to Canada's fisheries legislation "have eviscerated" the ability to protect habitat for most of the country's fish species, scientists at the University of Calgary and Dalhousie University say in a new study.

The changes were "politically motivated," unsupported by scientific advice – contrary to government policy – and are inconsistent with ecosystem-based management, fisheries biologists John Post and Jeffrey Hutchings say.

Their comprehensive assessment, in a peer-reviewed paper titled "Gutting Canada's Fisheries Act: No Fishery, No Fish Habitat Protection," is published in the November edition of Fisheries, a journal of the 10,000-member American Fisheries Society.

"The biggest change is that habitat protection has been removed for all species other than those that have direct economic or cultural interests, through recreational, commercial and Aboriginal fisheries," says Post, professor of biological sciences at the University of Calgary.

Before, "there used to be a blanket habitat protection for all fish species," he says. "Now there's a projection just for species of economic importance which, from an ecological standpoint, makes no sense."

Studies cited by Post and Hutchings show that not protecting habitat is the "single greatest factor" for the decline and loss of commercial and non-commercial species on land and in water.

Yet the changes to the Fisheries Act removed the "mandated legal protection" of habitat even for fish species that are in decline, Post says.

About three-quarters of approximately 80 freshwater fish species in Canada listed as being at risk, threatened or endangered "are not going to receive the protection that they did in the past," Post says.

Hutchings is a former chair of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada while Post is a current member. Both scientists' research is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

One reason the federal government gave for making the changes last year was to streamline environmental reviews and make the regulatory process more efficient for development projects.

But Post and Hutchings' paper cites peer-reviewed scientific studies which found that between 2006 and 2011, only one project proposal among thousands was denied by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Only 1.6 per cent of 1,238 convictions under the previous Fisheries Act between 2007 and 2011 pertained to the destruction of fish habitat.

Also, environmental review times for projects under the previous Fisheries Act were found to be already in line with new review times mandated by the federal government last year.

There were some improvements made to the Fisheries Act, Post and Hutchings say. This included recognizing recreational and Aboriginal fisheries as being important, provision for policy on invasive species, and increased fines for contravening the legislation.

But at the same time, the federal government has closed many regional Fisheries and Oceans offices – including one in Calgary – and eliminated about 30 per cent of fisheries personnel who manage habitat issues, "so they no longer have the capacity to police infractions," Post says.

"Politically motivated dismantling of habitat protection provisions in the Fisheries Act erases 40 years of enlightened and responsible legislation and diminishes Canada's ability to fulfill its national and international obligations to protect, conserve, and sustainably use aquatic biodiversity," their paper says.
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Scientists Speak Out Against Canada's "War on Science&q

Postby Oscar » Mon Jan 27, 2014 5:36 pm

[b]Scientists Speak Out Against Canada's "War on Science"[/b]

[ http://www.truth-out.org/video/item/214 ... on-science ]

Sunday, 26 January 2014 12:00 By Peter Rugh, Waging Nonviolence | News Analysis

Seven of Canada’s most prized scientific libraries are being shut down and some of their contents have already been burned, thrown away or carted off by fossil fuel consultancy firms. This development is part of a Harper administration plan to slash more than $160 million in the coming years from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, or DFO — an agency charged with protecting the country’s vast waterways.

The Harper government has portrayed the move as necessary in order to reduce the country’s deficit and provide Canadians with greater access to scientific information through the Internet. But alongside the cuts, the Harper administration has doled out billions in subsidies to the fossil fuel-dominated energy sector — $26 billion in 2011, according to a recent International Monetary Fund report. As for accessing the information at the shuttered libraries, an internal DFO document labeled “secret” obtained by Postmedia News in late December, along with the scientists who utilize the research facilities, tell a different story.

The once-secret DFO document speaks of “culling” materials in the libraries, a term that critics believe to be far more devastating than it sounds. Much like its original meaning — the killing of animals with undesired genetic traits — they see the budget cuts as a way to do away with undesirable science.

“The Harper government is not simply influenced by the fossil fuel industry, it is the fossil fuel industry,” said Brad Hornick, a lead organizer with of the Vancouver Ecosocialist Group.

MORE:

[ http://www.truth-out.org/video/item/214 ... on-science ]
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Fisheries science books disposal costs Ottawa thousands

Postby Oscar » Fri Jan 31, 2014 11:16 am

Fisheries science books disposal costs Ottawa thousands

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fisheri ... -1.2515962 ]

7 Fisheries and Oceans libraries to close, sending books, documents to trash

By Margo McDiarmid, CBC News Posted: Jan 30, 2014 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Jan 30, 2014 5:00 AM ET

- - - - -

QUOTE: "But May isn't convinced and is considered legal options, including a complaint to the RCMP."

- - - - -

It's costing the federal government more than $22,000 to dispose of books and research material from Fisheries and Oceans scientific libraries across the country, according to new documents.

The information comes from the office of Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea. It was prompted by a request from Liberal MP Lawrence MacAulay last October, after reports surfaced that seven Fisheries and Oceans libraries were being closed and the materials destroyed.

Read the DFO response to Liberal MP Lawrence MacAuley
[ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents ... aulay.html ]

"These numbers prove it that was a destructive process," said MacAulay in an interview with CBC News.

Fisheries and Oceans is closing seven of its 11 libraries by 2015. It's hoping to save more than $443,000 in 2014-15 by consolidating its collections into four remaining libraries.

Shea told CBC News in a statement Jan. 6 that all copyrighted material has been digitized and the rest of the collection will be soon. The government says that putting material online is a more efficient way of handling it.

But documents from her office show there's no way of really knowing that is happening.

"The Department of Fisheries and Oceans' systems do not enable us to determine the number of items digitized by location and collection," says the response by the minister's office to MacAulay's inquiry.

The documents also that show the department had to figure out what to do with 242,207 books and research documents from the libraries being closed. It kept 158,140 items and offered the remaining 84,067 to libraries outside the federal government.

Shea's office told CBC that the books were also "offered to the general public and recycled in a 'green fashion' if there were no takers."

The fate of thousands of books appears to be "unknown," although the documents' numbers show 160 items from the Maurice Lamontagne Library in Mont Jolie, Que., were "discarded." A Radio-Canada story in June about the library showed piles of volumes in dumpsters.

And the numbers prove a lot more material was tossed out. The bill to discard material from four of the seven libraries totals $22,816.76.

MacAulay said there's no proof it saved any money.

"When these seven libraries were in place there was information that was very important to the fishing industry, and now they're gone," he said.

Fisheries and Oceans is just one of the 14 federal departments, including Health Canada [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/health- ... -1.2499217 ] and Environment Canada, that have been shutting physical libraries and digitizing or consolidating the material into closed central book vaults.

'Care and control'

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May thinks that it may be illegal.

"These materials are not the property of any government of the day to dispose of casually," said May in an interview with CBC News. "The government or the department is not allowed to dispose of them willy-nilly."

May said the handling of library material contravenes sections of the Library and Archives Canada Act. Section 16 of the act says that "all publications that have become surplus to the requirements of any government institution shall be placed in the care and control of the Librarian and Archivist." [ http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts ... age-1.html ]

Section 12 points out publications can't be disposed of without the "written consent of the Librarian or Archivist."

"The purpose of the act is to stop what has happened here," said May. "Material of value to Canada has been cast to the four winds and that violates the act."

May said she talked to Hervé Déry, the interim librarian and archivist of Canada, and it's clear to her the rules weren't followed.

MORE:

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fisheri ... -1.2515962 ]
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Was Harper's gutting of DFO libraries illegal?

Postby Oscar » Fri Jan 31, 2014 11:44 am

Was Harper's gutting of DFO libraries illegal?

[ http://www.canadians.org/blog/was-harpe ... es-illegal ]

January 30, 2014 - 8:53am

CBC reports, "Green Party Leader Elizabeth May thinks that it may (have been illegal for the Harper government to dispose of books and research material from Fisheries and Oceans scientific libraries across the country)." [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fisheri ... -1.2515962 ]

The article highlights, "'These materials are not the property of any government of the day to dispose of casually,' said May in an interview with CBC News. 'The government or the department is not allowed to dispose of them willy-nilly.'"

"May said the handling of library material contravenes sections of the Library and Archives Canada Act. Section 16 of the act says that 'all publications that have become surplus to the requirements of any government institution shall be placed in the care and control of the Librarian and Archivist.' Section 12 points out publications can't be disposed of without the 'written consent of the Librarian or Archivist.' 'The purpose of the act is to stop what has happened here,' said May. 'Material of value to Canada has been cast to the four winds and that violates the act.' May said she talked to Hervé Déry, the interim librarian and archivist of Canada, and it's clear to her the rules weren't followed."

"May is considered legal options, including a complaint to the RCMP."

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has commented, "The Harper government is gutting all and any tools, rules, and science projects that stand in the way of corporate abuse of our freshwater heritage." [ http://canadians.org/blog/harper-closes ... -libraries ]

Public Service Alliance of Canada president Robyn Benson has written, "Libraries being trashed, books being burned? Reminds one of another century—or of Ray Bradbury’s classic novel, Fahrenheit 451, about an age when books are banned and “firemen” are sent out to burn them. But this is now reality in Stephen Harper’s Canada." [ http://www.aec-cea.ca/2014/01/wanton-co ... alism.html ]


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Wanton Conservative vandalism

[ http://www.aec-cea.ca/2014/01/wanton-co ... alism.html ]

By Robyn Benson on January 7, 2014 11:00 AM

- - - - -

QUOTE: "Facts can be so darned inconvenient. Why should they stand in the way of what this government deems progress? The Harper government has shown that it simply won’t tolerate any such thing—even if whole libraries have to be shut down and their contents tossed into the flames."

- - - - -

Libraries being trashed, books being burned? Reminds one of another century—or of Ray Bradbury’s classic novel, Fahrenheit 451, about an age when books are banned and “firemen” are sent out to burn them. But this is now reality in Stephen Harper’s Canada.

Like the elimination of the long-form census and the long gun registry, destroying books is likely not a wedge issue for voters; but it makes my top twenty list of reasons why the Harper Tories must go in the next election.

To the horror and dismay of scientists, seven regional libraries of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) are being closed, and most of the books, papers and other materials they housed have been destroyed or given away.

Some have sent to other libraries. Some holdings were opened up for scientists, consultants and the general public to scavenge what they could.

The rest ended up in dumpsters, and thereafter, landfills or bonfires. [ http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/12/23/Canad ... Libraries/ ]

MORE:

[ http://www.aec-cea.ca/2014/01/wanton-co ... alism.html ]
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