urging governments to make data about canada and canadians free and accessible to citizens
Wendy Watkins, From MADGIC at Carleton University and one of the founders of the Data Liberation Initiative has kindly shared her Statistical Society of Ottawa Presentation on the Cancellation of the Long-Form Census in Canada.
It looks like a biased toward industry monitoring agency Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP) has left the public in the dark about fish abnormalities in waters in and around the oil sands sites. It is also a case where the monitoring agency is aggregating the data into annual reports and not providing the raw data for others to scrutinize.
“That is the problem. To get the actual data, you need the raw data,” not just annual reports, said Kevin Timoney, an Alberta ecologist and oil sands researcher. “They release just enough so they can say that they did, but they don’t give you enough to see what’s really going on.”
Pembina Institute: “An essential component of any credible monitoring program is that all the data should be available to the public,”
Hundreds of deformed fish found in rivers running through the Alberta oil sands have been collected and documented by an industry-led monitoring body, The Globe and Mail has learned, but the findings were not shared with the public or key decision makers in government.
That body, the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP), has been criticized in scientific quarters as secretive and is under the scrutiny of three reviews. Former environment minister Jim Prentice ordered one of those reviews after being shown photos this fall of a few malformed fish, and it was delivered Thursday to Environment Canada.
The Monitoring agencie’s Steering Committee is mixed between Oil industry, public health agencies, First Nations and government with very heavy emphasis on big oil industry:
I tried to find out who the members of the technical committee are but only found the following org chart which illustrates that the 3 non government stakeholders are First Nations or Metis Groups and these are dwarfed between industry and government. On the Government side you also see an Energy and Utilities Board, while on the industry side, by the largest number representatives, is the petroleum & energy industry:
The following are the labs RAMP states it subs it’s work to. I do not know enough the science to assess them. I do wonder if they would have the raw data in their shops and if they would release these to the public. A lab that is sub-contracted may or may not be the owners of the data and may or may not have given up the rights to publish them. This is often the issue with the procurement of data, for instance, survey engineers claim IP on their data and share them with a city only for city assessments, but the city has to send citizens back to the survey engineer to view those data and the city cannot share these with citizens openly. In this case, it would be more trustworthy to acquire the raw data from the labs directly. However, it also depends who owns these labs. They could very well be owned by the industries that need tests done, or they could be biased toward those industries as they would be their major source of revenue.
RAMP shares its information only in annual monitoring reports. There is an interactive web map of their monitoring sites. The legend indicates fish tissue monitoring site, and I only found 2 fish tissue sampling sites that do not provide much data except that a sample was taken. According the the G&M article:
Much of the raw data collected by RAMP is kept private, deemed proprietary because of the industry funding. But even among its members, it has faced pressure to open up. Syncrude, which did much of the testing before RAMP’s inception, has called for data to be released, spokeswoman Cheryl Robb said.
In RAMP’s news section there is reference to an article indicating that they would make their database available to the public. I could not find this database on their site and have sent them an email requesting to see it. The email I recceived regarding this request is as follows:
Good morning Tracey,
Thank you for your e-mail.
As indicated by the media post you pointed out, the database will be available to the public by the end of the year and that is still our intention. Please check back next week.
Best regards,
Hailey
RAMP Communications
This is a classic lack of transparency situation and a seeming stacked deck leaning heavily toward meeting industry interests. It is very reminiscent of the Environment Canada refusal to share Mine Pollutant Data, a government agency supposedly overseeing the public interest not sharing key data.
It is good to revisit the fundamentals. These reports were part of the original discourse starting in 1992 on making data accessible. The Earth Summit created Chapter 40. Information for Decision-Making which quite nicely lays out the importance of access to data. Down to Earth is the result of Rio +10. The GEOSS Data Sharing Action Plan brought together private sector, nations, research centres and NGOs to produce this comprehensive plan. You can read about the Data Sharing Principles of the multi million dollar data sets starting on page 137 of this document. It is a nice reminder that Open Data did not just show up as an idea in 2009 in Canada. It has been simmering into a good broth for some time. Open data has become the base for a variety of soups appearing on actual menus and leaving the kitchen to nourish some real minds.
Info shared by a fan of datalibre.ca who would like to remain anonymous.
Carolyn Bennett’s private member’s bill C-568 to make the mandatory long form census. er, mandatory again…. passed.
www.liberal.ca/newsroom/news-release/liberal-census-bill-passes-harper-conservatives-voting/
via: ChanK@parl.gc.ca, Parti libérale du Canada
Pour diffusion immédiate
Le 8 décembre 2010
OTTAWA – Malgré le fait que le projet de loi libéral visant à sauver le formulaire détaillé de recensement obligatoire ait franchi l’étape de la deuxième lecture, les conservateurs de Harper ont voté contre à l’unanimité. Ces derniers continuent d’ignorer la volonté de la majorité des Canadiens qui n’ont cessé de lutter contre les attaques idéologiques portées contre le recensement, a déclaré aujourd’hui la députée libérale, Dre Carolyn Bennett.
« Aujourd’hui, chaque député conservateur devrait avoir honte de ses actes », a affirmé la Dre Bennett, dont le projet de loi d’initiative parlementaire vise à enchâsser dans la loi le formulaire détaillé sur le recensement obligatoire. Ce projet a été adopté en deuxième lecture aujourd’hui lors d’un vote à la Chambre des communes.
« La victoire d’aujourd’hui démontre clairement que la majorité des parlementaires soutiennent l’enchâssement du formulaire détaillé sur le recensement dans la loi ainsi que la préservation de l’intégrité des données nécessaires à l’élaboration efficace des politiques et à la prise de décisions reposant sur des données probantes. Seul ce gouvernement idéologique veut l’éliminer et dépenser 30 millions de dollars de plus provenant de l’argent des contribuables pour obtenir des renseignements moins fiables sur la base d’un questionnaire court non obligatoire. »
En votant contre le projet de loi d’initiative parlementaire de la Dre Bennett, les conservateurs continuent d’ignorer les appels des gouvernements provinciaux, territoriaux et municipaux, des économistes, des groupes communautaires, des associations médicales et des organisations religieuses qui utilisent les renseignements recueillis par l’entremise du recensement afin de prendre des décisions reposant sur des observations factuelles et qui aident les Canadiens dans leur vie quotidienne.
La semaine dernière, il a été confirmé que ce projet de loi ne nécessitera pas de recommandation royale pour poursuivre sa démarche parce que son adoption économisera en réalité 30 millions de dollars au gouvernement. Ceci signifie que le projet de loi n’exige pas que le gouvernement conservateur le soutienne pour qu’il devienne loi s’il celui-ci est adopté par la Chambre des communes et le Sénat.
La question est maintenant de savoir si Stephen Harper respectera la volonté de la chambre élue. Si l’on se fie aux événements passés, nous demeurons sceptiques. Mais nous n’abandonnerons pas. Ce qui est en jeu, c’est l’intégrité des statistiques officielles du Canada et l’élément essentiel de la prise de décisions d’ordre économique dans les salons et les salles de conférence de la nation.
« Ce projet de loi est important car si le recensement n’est pas rétabli, Stephen Harper pourra mettre en œuvre son ordre du jour idéologique et réduire d’importants programmes pour les Canadiens. Il ne s’intéresse pas aux renseignements précis sur des choses telles que les niveaux de chômage, le multiculturalisme ou le travail non-rémunéré, parce qu’il préfère réduire des programmes tels que l’assurance-emploi, les services d’intégration pour les immigrants et les programmes destinés aux aidants naturels. »
Grâce à l’initiative libérale pour un gouvernement ouvert, un futur gouvernement libéral demanderait à tous les ministères et organismes fédéraux afin qu’ils adoptent le principe par défaut du gouvernement ouvert quand il s’agit d’échanger les renseignements et de rendre gratuites les données statistiques canadiennes.
Renseignements :
Bureau de l’hon. Dre Carolyn Bennett, députée, 613- 995-9666
OTTAWA – Although the Liberal bill to save the mandatory long-form census passed second reading today, the Harper Conservatives unanimously voted against it as they continue to ignore the will of the majority of Canadians who have been fighting against the government’s ideological attack on the census, Liberal MP Dr. Carolyn Bennett said today.
“Every single Conservative member should be ashamed by their actions today,” said Dr. Bennett, whose Private Member’s Bill to enshrine the mandatory long-form census in law passed at its second reading today during a vote in the House of Commons.
“Today’s victory clearly demonstrates that the majority of parliamentarians support enshrining the long-form census in law and preserving the integrity of the data needed for effective policy-making and evidence-based decisions. Only this ideological government wants to scrap it and spend $30 million more of taxpayers’ money to get less reliable information from a voluntary short form survey.”
By voting against Dr. Bennett’s Private Member’s Bill, the Conservatives continue to ignore calls from provincial, territorial and municipal governments, economists, community groups, medical associations, and religious organizations that use the information collected in the census to make fact-based decisions that help Canadians in their daily lives.
Last week, it was confirmed that this bill will not require a royal recommendation to proceed because its passage will actually save the government $30 million. This means the bill does not require the Conservative government to support it in order for it to become law if passed by the House of Commons and the Senate.
“The question now is: will Stephen Harper respect the will of the elected Chamber? Based on his track record, we’re skeptical. But we will not give up – what’s at stake is the integrity of Canada’s official statistics and the lifeblood of economic decision-making in the living rooms and boardrooms of the nation.
“This bill is important, because if the census is not reinstated, Stephen Harper will be able to implement his ideological agenda and cut important programs for Canadians. He doesn’t care about accurate information on things like unemployment levels, multiculturalism or unpaid work because he’d prefer to cut things like Employment Insurance, immigrant settlement services and programs that help family caregivers.”
Through the Liberal Open Government Initiative, a future Liberal government would direct all federal departments and agencies to adopt a default principle of open government when it comes to sharing information, and make all Statistics Canada data available free of charge.
Contact:
Office of the Hon. Dr. Carolyn Bennett, MP, 613- 995-9666
Save the Census Update:
Below you will find an update on a variety of issues, including: recent media coverage surrounding the campaign and the census; an update from Ottawa; a summary of our by-election campaigns in Vaughan and Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette, Manitoba; and progress on our Charter challenge.
Vaughan and Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette by-elections:
On November 29th a by-election was held in Manitoba and Ontario. Individual members of the campaign have registered as a “third party” advertiser with Elections Canada. In Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette, radio ads ran during the final week of the by-election, while in Vaughan, 15,000 leaflets were distributed to homes. In both ridings the message we sent to voters was to “vote for your right to be counted”.
Moving forward we are establishing a robust social media presence and building a riding-by-riding capacity to make sure that MP’s from every party, right across Canada, know that the Census is an important issue in their backyard.
From Parliament Hill
Media Coverage:
— December 5, 2010–Professors may need more funding after census changes
The elimination the mandatory long-form census has been in the media quite a bit over the past month. Listed below are some of the more recent news items that appeared over the past week that discuss the Conservative decision. The first article indicates what our campaign has been arguing since July—that data collection and analysis is going to be much more difficult for researchers to access. This article focuses on University educators:
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20101205/professors-funding-census-changes-101205/
— December 2, 2010–Federal Departments detailed potential census impact a year ago:
This article outlines that the necessary (census) data that is usually compiled for deciding EI eligibility, understanding program performance and efficiencies, and improving immigration and settlement are all at risk because of the Conservatives intentions to implement the National Household Survey:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/federal-departments-detailed-potential-census-impact-a-year-ago-111221589.html
—Other articles about the census and our campaign:
The Ottawa Citizen: EU scolds Harper government for StatsCan controversy
The Tyee: Pro-census group applies pressure in federal byelections with radio ads, flyers
The Ottawa Citizen: All Canadians should be concerned
Canadian Press: Huge demand for mandatory long-form census data to aid minorities, women
Winnipeg Free Press: Group takes long-census fight to byelections
The Capital Works: Census change ignores women’s unpaid work, advocates say
Save the Census is on Facebook and Twitter:
We’ve started a new Facebook page as the “Keep the Long-Form Census” page reached its capacity leading to restrictions being put on our ability to communicate with members. By joining the Save the Census Facebook page, you can stay up-to-date on where we’re at, what the media is saying and any other important correspondence we may have to bring you. Please encourage your friends to join, as well: http://tinyurl.com/37stgh7
You can also follow us and receive important updates by following the Save the Census campaign on twitter:@savethecensus
Charter Challenge:
CCSD, the Canadian Council on Social Development, has joined with twelve other organizations to launch a legal challenge to protect Canadians’ “Right to be Counted.” Our Charter challenge has been accepted by the Courts, however we have not been given a date yet for our hearing. We will keep you informed of any progress on this piece.
Donate!
Continuing our battle takes—surprise—money! If you would like to donate to the Save the Census campaign please visit our website by following this link: http://tiny.cc/mn57f
Find out more at www.savethecensus.ca, www.datalibre.ca, and www.ccsd.ca. For more information or to get actively involved with the campaign email us at info@savethecensus.ca.
Thank you for taking the time to read this important update.
John Campey (Social Planning Toronto) and Peggy Taillon (Canadian Council on Social Development)
In between two big deliverables and a trip tomorrow with the gang of Montreal Ouvert to le Salon du Logiciel Libre du Québec I thought I would go back a little to my other love beyond open data – thinking about infrastructures. The best place to tap into the pulse on the international scene of blogging, libraries, cyberdissidents, the Internet and human rights, free speech and infrastructure, is Ethan Zucherman‘s blog My Heart is in Accra. This is where I read the best line I have I have come across in quite sometime:
Hosting your political movement on YouTube is a little like trying to hold a rally in a shopping mall. It looks like a public space, but it’s not – it’s a private space, and your use of it is governed by an agreement that works harder to protect YouTube’s fiscal viability than to protect your rights of free speech. Even if YouTube’s rulers take their function as a free speech platform seriously and work to ensure you’ve got rights to post content, they’re a benevolent despot, not a representative government. (Here I’m borrowing a formulation from Rebecca MacKinnon, who’s working on a book on this topic.) (Via blog post: Public Spaces, Private Infrastructure – Open Video Conference)
It reminded me once again why we need to think critically not just about the content on the Internet – Open Data – in the case of this blog, but also reflecting on the infrastructure that deliver those data. Open data is a practice and a philosophy, for some an ideology. I, like many others get wrapped up in the practice and forget to look up, pause and think about the political economy, principles, and grounding practice in theory.
For example, during open access week where I was giving a talk on Open Data and Research, at Ottawa U I was surprised to hear that some were dissing the City on how it delivers content while proclaiming that Google is open data. Well, Google ain’t open data! They let you play with their content, and use it as a platform to showcase yours, but make no mistake, Google can decide to close the shop tomorrow and go fishing. Ergo your content goes with them. For instance, the hydrographic community lobbied Google to remove the ice layer in Canada’s north and instead to show water features and coast lines. Good for them, except that people live on the ice more than 60% of the year and it meant that their content – home, sled & skiddo routes – were now in the middle of the ocean. Google listened to the formal scientific community while the Inuit were left stranded in the water so to speak. Climate change does not help with that either.
Open data is also not just about apps – which makes me sound scrooge like on International Hackathon day btw – it is about the data that go into these, how these are delivered, not just formats & standards, but licenses, fibre optic cables, telephone towers, radio wave signals, phone and data plans etc. It is also about the policies around access and who is at the table doing the asking, their demographics and why they are asking. Most of the apps we will see coming out of today, will be delivered on iPhones, some for iPads. Few will have regular websites, most will be around the faster and better delivery of services and few will be about critically reflecting on who gets and does not get access to those same services.
For instance, the bus apps are great for the business commuter, not so great for seniors, refugees, those who survive on fixed incomes such as disability pensions or social assistance etc. That group cannot afford an IPhone, can barely afford the cost of a bus pass and do not really care about predicting the exact second the bus will come, but, do care about bus fees, off peak hour transit times and whether or not their social housing project or suburban home is on a bus route that will take them to the grocery store in the dead of winter, school, work or library. Also, they just hope their #2, or #14 will actually show up. There will be no apps to show us where the buses do not go, where they should go, nor apps that will inform transit committees on how to better serve non commuters.
I have really liked the transparency apps, spending visualizations and those focusing on electoral accountability
I look forward to accessing demographic data, health data, environmental data, spending data, administrative data, research data, and seeing those rendered in ways where we have to rethink policy and redirect efforts (Atlas of the Risk of Homelessness or ecological footprint calculators and ideas like Random Hacks for Kindness). I was also really happy to see Apps4ClimateAction and workshops like Mapping Environmental Issues in the City. You need subject matter expertise, grounded theory, scientific models, great data and more time to develop, which makes them harder to produce, but well worth the challenge if they improve our lot just a bit more. I think I will also need to lay low for a while and think more about theory and infrastructures surrounding open data and less about the shiny tinsel and more about the intersection of society and technology.
All over the world people will be playing with lots of open data and creating new apps at the International Open Data Hackathon.
This documentary takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power they have to change our understanding of the world, presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening, mind-expanding and funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend.
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