• Toronto Star: Axing census questions adds up to trouble for Tories
  “Truly a stupid decision,’’ Liberal critic says
• The Province: Liberals want to recall committee to study census
• Liberals Art and Culture: Census 2011: Mauril Belanger Supports the Commissioner of Official Languages
• Canadian Institute of Planners: Letter
• Canadian Urban Institute: Proposed Changes on How Canada Collects Census Data Not in the Public Interest
• Lumina: 2011 Census (Reprise)
• The Contrarian: Harper’s Reformers vandalize the census
• The Kingston Whig Standard: Privacy watchdog satisfied with 2011 census
• Canadian Medical Association Journal: Ideology trumps evidence with new voluntary survey
• The Progressive Economics Forum: Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
• The Calgary Herald: Census censure
• Canada.Com: Tony Clement willing to testify before MPs about census
• Canadian Marketing Association: CMA calls on government to retain mandatory detailed census form
• Radio Canada: Québec désapprouve à son tour
• Le Soleil: Recensement: non à l’abandon du questionnaire long
• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Blame Stats Canada!
• G&M Poll:
• Individual Action: do something really boring today
• National Post: National Post editorial board: Leave the long-form census alone
• Creative Class: by Richard Florida Politics vs. Data
• Canadian News Wire: La CREPUQ s’oppose fermement à la décision du gouvernement fédéral d’abolir l’obligation de remplir la version longue du questionnaire du recensement de 2011
• Gouvernment du Quebec: RECENSEMENT 2011: IMPACTS POUR LE QUÉBEC
• Ottawa Citizen Editorial Board: Admit the mistake
• The Progressive Economics Forum: Jewish, Evangelical groups oppose census change
• CTV news: Jewish, Evangelical groups oppose census change

Lists:

• CAPDU: List of media stories from CIQSS at l’Universite de Montreal
• Canada Social Data Strategy
• David Eaves: Save the Census Coalition
• Canadian Council on Social Development
• Previous Post (Cumulative List of Media)

Conservative Bloggers:

• Pragmatictory: Big Census
• Doubleblind: Long Form Census-changes
• Barrelstrength: The Long Form Census What Were They Thinking

Here are a bunch more reads on the Census Cuts. I glean these from information people send me, twitter @ these tags #census #cdnpoli #statcan and from goodle alerts.

• Canada.com: Privacy commissioner sees few complaints about census form
• Le Devoir Recensement – L’État n’a rien à faire… dans les salles de bain! Les conservateurs estiment qu’il est répressif de demander aux gens le «nombre de salles de bain» que compte leur maison
• CBC Inside Politics Blog: Behind the numbers: Taking Census: privacy versus the public good
• CBC: Man. Francophones upset over census move
• The Montreal Gazette: Coalition urges Tories to reverse census stand Long form provides vital information to society: groups
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek: Canada Won’t Reconsider Making Census Form Voluntary
• Best Growth Stock: UPDATE 1-Canada under fire for statistics agency changes
• C.D. Howe Institute: Cancelling the 2011 Census Long Form: Libertarians Take Out the Wrong Target
• Settlement.org:  Commissioner Launches Investigation into Decision to Eliminate Long-Form Questionnaire for 2011 Census
• The Province: 2011 census changes hit
• Guelph Tribure: Optional long census will hit the community
• Ottawa Citizen: Change in census law could affect city planning Federal government plans to make long form voluntary.
• Winnipeg Free Press: Less information to cost more: expert Manitoba statistician pans census change
• Canada East: Official languages commissioner launches investigation into census change
• Globe and Mail: Privacy commissioner not consulted on plan to scrap compulsory census
• Globe and Mail: Good information comes at a price
• Winnipeg Free Press: Privacy commissioner not consulted on decision to scrap ‘intrusive’ census
• Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association and the BC Non Profit Housing Association: Statements
• Financial Post: Privacy commissioner sees few complaints about census form
• Royal Ontario Institute: Government Digs In Their Heels on 2011 Census Changes
• Globe and Mail Ottawa Report: Liberals want Tony Clement called on carpet in census feud
• The Mark: The Conservatives’ Census Fail There’s an easy way the opposition could expose Tony Clement and the Conservatives for lying about long-form census complaints.
• Macleans: The census coalition
• Canada.com: Liberal Marc Garneau calls census changes a ‘secret, manipulative’ move
• Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MIRA) Letter: Cancellation of the Mandatory Long-Form Census Questionnaire
• Institute for Economic Affairs: The census only serves to perpetuate the illusion that central planning is possible
• Montreal Gazette: Coalition urges Tories to reverse census stand Long form provides vital information to society: groups
• Toronto Star: Siddiqui: PM facing revolt over census change
• Radio Canada: Trois plaintes en dix ans
• National Post: Census changes a ‘manipulative’ move: Liberal
• The Corch: Supporting Good Data
• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Tony Clement makes a statement – perhaps not the one he intended.
• Global News: Privacy commissioner sees few complaints about census form
• Le Devoir: Recensement: les raisons d’Ottawa taillées en piècesAucune question sur le nombre de salles de bain. Une seule plainte en 2001, deux en 2006.

Previous posts on the Census:

1. Census Hide & Seek and Language Watch Dogs
2. Consultation (real) Results
3. Conspiracy about the Census & the Consultation?
4. Industry Canada says the census is not part of the Digital Economy
5. More Media on Political Gerrymandering of the Census
6. More on the Census Cuts
7. 2011 Census severely slashed

It is done folks!

And now we know that it was a consultation gone bad. One where the second most popular item was voted off the island by the technocrats in charge – Media relations no doubt – the new source of Canada’s wisdom, truth and knowledge. It was also a consultation that was extended right when the Census submission was moving up the ranks, open data was in the lead and out of nowhere comes an HPC submission that rises to prominence on the day the consultation is extended.

We were never informed why the consultation was extended. I thought it was because it was broken for a weekend. I can’t confirm that because, well, we do not know who is in charge, I was told my Media Relations Official Michel Cimpaye that the ‘Sector’ is in charge. But alas, I think it was something more sinister, like, Clement did not like the Thorn in his side, the Census win, so he ordered the extension and then hid the Census submission. Or, maybe someone lobbied to extend so they could submit, maybe they listened to citizens (not). We may never know with this government.

Here are the real top 4:

463 votes – To Compete You Must Compute submitted by Susan Baldwin 2010-07-08 08:32:20 EDT, Susan Baldwin (Ex Officio) Executive Director of Compute Canada. Submitted on the same day the Consultation was extended. It rose very fast.

389 votes – Reinstate our Census Long Form aka Questionnaire 2B, Submitted by CCSD 2010-07-06 22:52:21ED, by Peggy Taillon Executive Director of the Canadian Council on Social Development and the Lead of the Canadian Social Data Strategy. Submitted 2 days before the consultation was extended, it rose higher than Open Access did and based on email logs it disappeared around Friday July 9th. It remained accessible via a direct link http://de-en.gc.ca/2010/07/06/reinstate-our-census-long-form-aka-questionnaire-2b/ but was removed (1) (2) (3) from the front page in the top 3 and from Theme: Canada’s Digital Content.

338 votes – Open Access to Canada’s Public Sector Information and Data, Submitted by Tracey Lauriault 2010-06-10 11:28:30 EDT, CivicAccess List and datalibre.ca. It was submitted in June and rose slowly up the ranks, beat by Census and then HPC.

197 votes – Improved access to publicly-funded data, Submitted by rakerman 2010 2010-06-03 22:49:09 EDT. Richard Akerman, his was the early submission, it was at the top for a long time and remained in the top 3.

Saturday July 17, from 11am-4pm

Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue

The tag/hashtag for the event is #cco10

You can register through EventBrite, or contact us at changecampottawa@gmail.com

ChangeCamp is a free participatory web-enabled face-to-face event, which addresses the demand for a renewed relationship among citizens and government. The mission of ChangeCamp is to innovate how Canadian governments engage with citizens in an age of mass participation on the Internet. The event aims to develop action plans, for initiatives to improve participation in municipal governance utilizing web-technologies.

Building on the success of ChangeCamp 2009, ChangeCamp 2010 is an event being organized by the Ottawa community to bring together citizens, technologists, designers, academics, policy makers, political players, change-makers and government employees to discuss participatory governance at the municipal level in a web-enabled world. The key theme of this event is:

Data liberation and open, transparent and participative government

Are you interested in exploring ways better your community through improved access to information managed by various governments in the National Capital Region? Imagine being able to combine budgetary, health and voting information from all three levels of government to better understand how your tax dollars are being spent. Recently the City of Ottawa adopted the principles of Open Government and approved a contest for the creation of mobile and web applications to make use of its data with $50 000 in prizes and incentives.

ChangeCamp is a solutions playground open to anyone, where admission and ideas are free. ChangeCamp Ottawa is a unique opportunity. It is taking place in one of the most technologically connected and politically charged environments in the country.

ChangeCamp Ottawa is looking for those interested in e-governance, communications and policy. Are you in?

Register now: http://changecampottawa2010.eventbrite.com/

A Senate question on language issues has resulted in

Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser say[ing] he wants to see whether the government respected its legal obligations when it made the decision.

(Canadian Press)

and

Graham Fraser, commissaire aux langues officielles, a annoncé aujourd’hui qu’il allait procéder à une enquête sur la décision d’Industrie Canada d’éliminer le questionnaire complet du Recensement de 2011.

(Site Officiel du Commissariat)

Phew! Some are taking their offices seriously to ensure that Ministers follow law. The Census has many legislative obligations and one can’t just change it. Those laws are there for a reason, and even the Industry Minister can’t change that. Fortunately for us, there are many dedicated former Statistics Canada employees and Chief Statisticians who stand up for what is right. There are also numerous other organizations working on this issue:

The Canadian Economics Association, the Canada Census Committee, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Statistical Society of Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and multiple newspaper editorial boards are among those that have spoken out against the decision.

While others such as

representatives from business and finance, health and social services and other levels of government say the long form is vital to the country’s health and well-being

are forming coalitions to call on government to reverse the census decision. Even the cartographers, archivists and librarians are on the case with the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA) and have written a letter to Mr. Clement on this issue. Data pundits, experts, academics, associations, cities, and business people have spoken loud and clear – do not politically interfere with the Canadian Census.

And so, what does the minister do when his smartest citizens provide him with advice on what not to do? On his own public consultation, he removes the #2 most popular submission and relegates it to outcast status as his Media Relations personnel claims that:

changes to the Census are important, [but] they are not directly related to the development of a digital economy strategy for Canada

So there we have it. The nations smart people speak and the nation’s leaders play hide and seek with consultations, make up evidence to make decisions and forget to check and see if they might have broken any laws. This is the state of our democracy folks. Media relations people are the new spokespeople. Democracies are fragile indeed.

References:

Here is the response I received just moments ago from Industry Canada:

The Government of Canada is interested in the ideas and views of all Canadians.

While the changes to the Census are important, they are not directly related to the development of a digital economy strategy for Canada.

Hence, the post was moved to the off-topic section of the site. It is still available for reading and can be accessed by searching the consultation web site and at its original URL (http://de-en.gc.ca/2010/07/06/reinstate-our-census-long-form-aka-questionnaire-2b/).

The site’s Terms of Use clearly state that all postings are expected to be on-topic and relevant, and off-topic ideas will be moved to an off-topic section.

All the best

MC
Michel Cimpaye
Media Relations
Industry Canada
613-943-2502
email: media-relations-medias@ic.gc.ca

I responded with the following questions:

Thank you.

Can you please explain explicitly how this is off topic? I have read the consultation paper at least 3 times and based on what I have read it fits perfectly in Canada’s Digital Content theme.

The Census and its digital data inform and direct the knowledge economy, the digital economy for which it is the purpose of this consultation.

You indicated that there may have been duplication of content. Can you please point me to where such duplication exists? And if that is the case, could you not use the votes received on the Census submission and add them to the duplicate?

Also, can you please advise who precisely made this decision? Who is responsible for this file and who is responsible for the decision you sent?

When was the decision made using precisely which criteria?

How were the 337 +/- Canadians who voted on this submission advised that they were voting on a submission that was removed?

Is there a public announcements?

Can you advise if the person who has submitted this has been advised?

Sincerely
Tracey

1984 comes to mind as does the movie Brazil!

Here is the latest on Media pick-up on cuts to the Census. I am sure I have missed some, and may even have repeated one or two. Please do not hesitate to send more or to point out errors.

Previous Posts with media links:

Ok! Something is afoul, and I am not sure it can be solely explained by technological glitches!

The Reinstate our Census Long Form aka Questionnaire 2B, at 310 votes, can only be seen at this link, but should be the #1 ranked submission on the:

Canada’s Digital Content Page

and should be the number two ranked overall on the Consultation home page

but does not appear on either! What is up with that!

I have screen captures from that night and this morning.

Contact Industry Canada here:

So far I have contacted: David Louden 613-947-5972, I have spoken to Francine Quevillon at Brian Spurling’s Office, Kim Montpellier at Helen McDonald’s Office, and numerous people at the Client services of the IC site, Genevieve Sigouin 613-952-5480, IC IT Communications, Telephone: IC IT general Web Info 613-954-5031 email: info@ic.gc.ca; attention Phil Boulay

Communications and Marketing Branch Director General
Brian Spurling
Telephone: 613-947-2597
Fax: 613-947-3390
Email: brian.spurling@ic.gc.ca

Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications Assistant Deputy Minister
Helen McDonald
Telephone: 613-998-0368
Fax: 613-952-1203
Email: helen.mcdonald@ic.gc.ca

I have also emailed the following people at media relations:
nicole.barsalou@ic.gc.ca, media-relations-medias@ic.gc.ca, julie.iannetta@ic.gc.ca

Overall! Industry Canada does not seem to have a point person on this file, or, at least, no one seems to know who that is.

Please vote!

Open Access to Canada’s Public Sector Information and Data

and

Reinstate our Census Long Form aka Questionnaire 2B

I am on holiday now and will update DataLibre with a ton of the new media material on the Census next week.

Actions:

Vote on the Digital Strategy Submission: Reinstate the Census Long Form

Letter Writing: Canadian Institute of Planners

Petition: Keep the Canadian Census Long Form Petition

Facebook Page: Keep the Canadian Census Long Form

Opinion: Survey

Media links:

MaCleans: Former StatsCan head slams census decision by Tories

Macleans: Alarm on cuts to detailed census questionnaire spreads to business groups

Canadian Council on Policy Alternatives: CCPA Senior Economist calls Statistics Canada’s census decision “senseless”

Montreal Gazette: Canadians must be able to count on Statistics Canada Information allows us to make informed decisions

The Montreal Gazette: Ottawa may revamp restrictive new census rules

The Progressive Economist Forum: Statistics Canada’s Senseless Census Decision

The Montreal Gazette: Census overhaul rethought Historians, genealogists raised outcry

Winnipeg Free Press: Don’t count on long census data: Tories scrub mandatory form

The Winnipeg Free Press: Alarm on cuts to detailed census questionnaire spreads to business groups

Toronto Star: Tories eliminate compulsory long census form

Stephen Gordon: An incredibly stupid decision on the 2011 census and Why making the 2011 census long form voluntary is a bad idea.

CBC As It Happens (July 5, 2010)

CBC Metro Morning: Long Form Optional?
Matt Galloway spoke with Eric Miller, about replacing the census long form with a voluntary version. He is the director of the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto.

Social Policy in Ontario: Wrong move on census

Family History for Beginners: Family History for Beginners

Martin Prosperity Institute Blog – Harper’s Elimination of Census Long Form Hurts All Canadians

Phantom Observer: On Next Year’s Census – And Its Implications For The Harper Agenda

The Galloping Beaver: Census Lobotomy and Censlessness

Montreal Gazette: Canadians must be able to count on Statistics Canada: Information allows us to make informed decisions

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