In 2012, he tried to defund government research centers in the High Arctic, and placed Canadian environmental scientists under gag orders. That year, National Research Council members were barred from discussing their work on snowfall with the media. Scientists for the governmental agency Environment Canada, under threat of losing their jobs, have been banned from discussing their research without political approval. Mentions of federal climate change research in the Canadian press have dropped 80 percent. The union that represents federal scientists and other professionals has, for the first time in its history, abandoned neutrality to campaign against Mr. Harper.
Harper, like many Christian fundamentalists, feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. They believe we are living in the End Time, when the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. They may also believe, along with millions of other Christian fundamentalists, that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed — even hastened — as a sign of the coming Apocalypse. - Grist .com
So many excellent articles and editorials have been written on this subject that i decided a reading list is better at this point than anything i can say on the subject:
'Feds penny-pinched on science libraries while lavishing funds on religion and oil', by Elizabeth McSheffrey and Jenny Uechi of the National Observer
'The Closing of the Canadian Mind', a New York Times editorial
But the nine and half years of Mr. Harper’s tenure have seen the slow-motion erosion of that reputation for open, responsible government. His stance has been a know-nothing conservatism, applied broadly and effectively. He has consistently limited the capacity of the public to understand what its government is doing, cloaking himself and his Conservative Party in an entitled secrecy, and the country in ignorance.
'It's Time for Action on Canada's Muzzled Scientists', an editotial at The Tyee
An excellent outline and list of examples of scientists who been muzzled and
'Stephen Harper's Covert Evangelism', by Andrew Nikiforuk
How an apocalyptic strain of Christianity guides his policies and campaigning.
'Canada's government should free its scientists to speak to the press, as its US counterpart has.', a Nature editorial
The data-antagonistic Harper government has so muzzled federal scientists that an editorial in the prestigious Nature magazine demanded that it was "time for the Canadian government to set its scientists free."
'Harper's Closing of the ELA is an Example of Christian Fundamentalism's War on Science'
Stephen Harper, like any good Christian Fundamentalist, doesn't need the advice of scientists because he already knows 'The Truth'. He knows that the imaginary being he calls God is sovereign over creation and therefore humans can do no permanent damage. Harper gets all the advice he needs from the Cornwall Alliance, a coalition of right-wing scholars, economists and evangelicals. The Alliance church informs him that the free market is divinely inspired and that non-believers are "lost." Harper knows that as The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship says environmentalist's and scientists are evil.
