After years of research and compilation, and the payment of $50,000 (Canadian) to a public relations firm to carefully plan its release, Health Canada released a high-profile new report last week detailing the human health implications of climate change. So far so good, but the circumstances surrounding the report's release just scream of shenanigans.

The report was posted in an inconspicuous corner of the Health Canada website with no press release, no fanfare, and no announcement, after the close of business hours on a Thursday afternoon. This came after a leak of the report to the press and accusations that the Canadian government was stonewalling on its release.

"Frankly, as rollouts go, I so would have like to see this go way differently and way better," said Rita Smith, head of Health Canada. However, the report has been completed since spring, and its former release date came and went without comment from the agency. While a 3-4 month delay is amateur hour stonewalling compared to the professional performance of American environmental agencies, the greater concern is that the report would be simply released without fanfare and quickly forgotten -- a fate that befell another climate change report by Natural Resources Canada earlier this year. Smith protests that HC was "scrambling" to release the report by late August, which we'd believe if we saw it.

A minor story, perhaps, but it's always instructive for us American EnviroWonks to realize that politicization of scientific information, and a certain fear of candor, is not limited to Washington D.C.