In my article Some Stats on Stats, I talked about my grief with the Conservatives who are relying on anecdotal evidence, rather than cold hard fact, in their pursuit of the elimination of the long-form census. I complained about Tony Clement’s assertions that Canadians have been complaining about the coercive and intrusive nature of the mandatory census. It was in defense of these Canadians, Clement said, that the government has been on the move against the long-form. Well, using statistics—of all damn things—I, and others, have shown these assertions to be false. Only three people have complained to the Privacy Commissioner about the long-form census over the past 10 years, and no one has ever been jailed for refusing to fill it out.
But, to be fair, I’ve dug even deeper and found some further statistics.
In total, there have been 50 complaints about the long-form census over the past 20 years. Most of these complaints, over half, originated in 1991 and were as a result not of the census itself but of the way Statistics Canada hired enumerators to review the census forms. That year, Canadians worried that because of a change in the hiring process, it could be their neighbours or friends reviewing their personal census data. In 1996, StatsCan report a total of 16 complaints out of the approximately 5.8 million people who received the mandatory long-form census and in 2001 the number of complaints was down to one, with two more complaints coming in 2006.
I was compelled to compile a few more facts, and include a follow-up to yesterday’s article after reading George Jonas’ full comment in the National Post last night. It’s worth a read, and despite disagreeing with a lot of his premises (e.g., the government is out to get you), he had me interested until the end. The end, where George dropped the ball, and where my heart just sunk in my chest.
Without hesitation, and without provision of any previous data, Jonas launches into his very own personal nugget of a census story featuring, of course, the little old lady next door. The lady next door who, in 1996, despite assurances from StatsCan, had her census form read by a neighbour and her privacy invaded. I’ll grant you that it must’ve been an unpleasant and intrusive experience for the woman, and Jonas is perhaps right to mention it, but again I stress this, too: Even the most stalwart opponents of the mandatory long-form census have nothing to stand on but anecdotes.
Like Clement and Harper who assure us that there are Canadians opposed the long-form census—somewhere out there—Jonas, who is evidently violently opposed to the long-form himself, relies on nothing more than hearsay evidence to make his case.
[...] In some cases, it seems the argument to scrap the long-form is based solely on anecdotes and as I’ve pointed out even those most vocally opposed to the long-form census have nothing to stand on but mere hearsay. [...]