Dear APLA Members:
I am writing to share the following news that has just come to my attention.
Liberal MP Ted Hsu (Kingston and the Islands) introduced a private member’s bill earlier this month, Bill C-626, which, if passed, would reinstate the long-form census. The bill is currently being debated and
will come to a vote in the House of Commons at the beginning of February 2015 or thereabout. The Canadian Medical Association has already endorsed the bill, as have others.
You will remember that the long form was eliminated by the Harper Government in 2011, despite the outcry of many groups and individuals across the country. APLA joined the protest at the time; you can read then-president
Sarah Gladwell’s letter to the minister responsible for Statistics Canada in the July/August 2010 issue of the
APLA Bulletin.
Mr. Hsu is asking librarians to support his effort—by talking to their local MPs about the bill, by writing letters of support, or by educating the public about the negative consequences of eliminating the mandatory
long-form census.
For more information, please see Mr. Hsu’s open letter to Stephen Harper urging the reinstatement of the long-form census:
Another great source of information is a tutorial prepared by Data, Map and Government Information Librarian Gail Curry which can be accessed here:
http://libguides.unbc.ca/content.php?pid=256781&sid=2911086
I would encourage us all to get behind this worthy initiative, in whatever way we can.
Jocelyne
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Jocelyne Thompson
Convener, Advocacy Interest Group
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