Posts Tagged privacy

A Toronto Globe and Mail article 30 June 2010 attributed to The Canadian Press was headed: “Don’t Count on Census Detail: Tories Scrub Mandatory Long Form.” The article stated “The move (to make the long form voluntary) is a response to protests from some Canadians who resented the personal questions in the long form.”

The article centered on the executive government’s portrayal of the policy change, citing objections from “some Canadians” — the source presumably being the Ministry who could cherry-pick. A StatsCan official said, “We do acknowledge that (in making responses voluntary) that we may not get the same level of detail as that of a census.”

Insiders speaking to the Canadian Press on condition of anonymity “decry a new world order within the agency since the Conservatives came to power in 2006”, with commendable analyses being dropped and total information reduced for “dozens of provincial governments, community groups and other organizations that depend on the data for developing policy.” Said one StatsCan source: “It will be a disaster. A lot of policy across Canada has been based on that long form.” As well, the voluntary aspect, through bias in who answers and is saying what, can be expected to skew the results. Read the rest of this entry »