APLA Folks
Some of the libraries which work with the Census a lot have
already pass on to Statistics Canada and the Government what a foolish decision
the termination of the long form census is. I would encourage groups like
APLA and CLA to join the growing chorus, from minority groups, geneologiests,
social services planners and social researchers, oppositing this arbitrary
change which will have very adverse effects on social research in Canada.
Peter
Webster
Associate
University Librarian, Information Technology
Patrick
Power Library, Saint Mary's University
902-420-5507
[log in to unmask]
From: APLA-List List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anne L Van
Iderstine
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 9:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [APLA] 2011 Census issue: interview with Ivan Fellegi, former
Chief Statistician... [today`s CBC Radio One`s show, `The Current`]...
Forwarded from
another listserv posting earlier this week; apologies for cross-posting.
*******************************************************************
Anne Van Iderstine
Manager of
Information Services
Nova Scotia
Legislative Library
2nd Floor, Province
House
1726 Hollis Street
Halifax, NS B3J 2P8
(902)722-5043;
(902)424-0220 (fax)
>>> HELENE
LEBLANC <[log in to unmask]> 2010-07-14 6:32 PM >>>
|
[PLEASE EXCUSE
ANY CROSS-POSTINGS.] The two
interviewees were Ivan Fellegi, former Chief Statistician @ Stats Can, and
Dean del Mastro, the Conservative MP for Peterborough and a
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage. (They
couldn't get Mr. Clement from Industry Canada.) Try to listen to
this part of the interview without cracking a tooth!
Wilfrid Laurier
University Waterloo,
Ontario. WRITE-UP: We started
this segment with a clip from Christopher Walken giving a census worker the
run-around in a Saturday Night Live skit. The Canadian census isn't the sort
of thing you'd expect to stir intense passions. But that's exactly what's
happening. Three weeks
ago, the Federal Government cancelled the mandatory long-form census. That's
the more detailed census that was sent to 1 out of every 5 Canadian
households ... the one with 53 extra questions tracking information such as
ethnicity, disabilities, religion, education and income. The
government cited complaints that the long-form census was an invasion of
privacy. So starting next year, Ottawa will send a more detailed census to 1
out of every 3 households. But filling it out will be voluntary, not
mandatory. At first,
that change didn't seem to cause much of a fuss. But the opposition has been
building steadily from think tanks and municipal governments to genealogists,
economists and academic experts such as Richard Shearmur. He is a professor
of urban and regional economics at the Universite du Quebec. And he's just
one of the people making the case to keep the mandatory long-form census.
Another is Ivan Fellegi ... Statistics Canada's Chief Statistician for 23
years. He retired in 2008 and he was in Ottawa. Census -
Dean del Mastro We requested
an interview with Industry Minister Tony Clement, the Minister who oversees
Statistics Canada. He's unavailable because he is traveling this morning. But
he did issue a statement yesterday explaining the reasons for the change. It
reads: "In the
past, the Government of Canada received complaints about the long-form census
from citizens who felt it was an intrusion of their privacy. The government
does not think it is necessary for Canadians to provide Statistics Canada
with the number of bedrooms in their home, or what time of the day they leave
for work, or how long it takes them to get there. The government does not
believe it is appropriate to force Canadians to divulge detailed personal
information under threat of prosecution." For more on
the government's position, we were joined by Dean del Mastro, the
Conservative MP for Peterborough and a Parliamentary Secretary to the
Minister of Canadian Heritage. He was in Peterborough, Ontario. |