RSSeNEWS to be determined...

Key players testified at a parliamentary committee hearing on 27 July as the furore over changes to the 2011 census and consequent resignation of Canada’s chief statistician Munir Sheikh continued.

Sheik, his predecessor RSS honorary fellow Ivan Fellegi, and industry minster Tony Clements were amongst those giving evidence at the day-long hearing, at which positions were restated but little new emerged.

Both former chief statisticians repeated their view that data from a voluntary survey that the government has said will replace the mandatory long form census will be less reliable. Clements reiterated that in announcing the change he had taken Statistics Canada’s advice on the best of three possible options.

He told the committee the government had to strike a balance between mandatory data gathering and personal privacy, so was not going to change its decision. But he was willing to make minor concessions – specifically to include questions on the official language in the short census form that were to have been part of the voluntary survey.

Throughout the controversy, the government has stressed its opposition to census rules under which “Canadians should be forced, under threat of fines, jail, or both, to disclose extensive private and personal information.”

According to a report in the Globe and Mail, Canada’s Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper is ideologically opposed to mandatory data gathering, and had considered making the entire census voluntary. It said that Harper’s graduate thesis supervisor at the University of Calgary, professor Frank Atkins, suggested that the PM saw the census “as a Big Brother manifestation of the intrusive state”.

Political scientist professor Tom Flanagan, who also works the University of Calgary and played a key role in Harper’s rise to power, has written that Harper believes that governments can change public philosophy through their policies and appointments.

Meanwhile, having said it was unable to communicate directly with Clements, Canada’s National Statistics Council has published its own recommendations for compromise (MS Word format - opens in new window). In the statement, chair Ian McKinnon proposes that the long-form census be restored for the 2011 count. In parallel, the Statistics Act should be rewritten removing possible prison sentences for non-completion of the census.

The council also calls for a thorough review of questions for the 2016 census to ensure to that all data sought meets criteria for specific applications. Responding to privacy concerns, the council recommends also that questions about household activities on the long form be removed.