The depoliticization of knowledge enduring since the positivist turn has given rise to ‘evidence-based policy’ (EBP) so that policy making would be “optimal, legitimate and publicly accountable” (Frieberg, 2010). However, EBP operates in a context of sustained political efforts to shape knowledge framing while retaining control over public data collection and dissemination (Pinto, 2013). At the same time, the EBP literature often assumes policymakers’ access to information and elides public accessibility (Leicester, 1999; Lancaster, 2014). In this paper, I seek to excavate the politics of agnotology (the construction of ignorance) through an analysis of how the Canadian government has politically insulated policy from knowledge, undermining policymaking and public access to data. Examples include defunding research programs, shutting down national libraries, censoring scientists, and making the national census voluntary. In this way, policy narratives take precedence over EBP, public knowledge, and government scrutiny in the absence of consistent data.
