Lifelong activist and former Saskatchewan Green Party leader, Sandra Finley, has now been convicted of refusing to fill out her long form census in 2006. She is facing a maximum of three months in jail and/or a $500 fine. All this for, as the pro-census lobby keeps pointing out, “refusing to tell the government how many bathrooms she has”.
Of course it’s not really about bathrooms is it? It’s the principle of the matter. What if others also refused to share this kind of vital information? How long can we expect a nation to endure when nobody knows if people of colour have fewer bathrooms than those who are colourless, or whether Jehovah’s Witnesses take the bus more often than single, bilingual women over 50?
But seriously, the real issue is about the parameters we set regarding the kind of personal information the government can gather, as a matter of course, for no particular reason, under threat of prosecution. For example, should citizens face prosecution for declining to answer a question that would reveal their sexual orientation? And this is not something that could happen some day, such a question is on the 2011 census (short form), i.e., Are you in a same-sex, common-law relationship?
Personally I think this question goes too far, but when I am asked about my marital status: single or married, statute or common law, opposite or same sex, I will not refuse to answer. I am planning to refer the matter to the Federal Privacy Commissioner (PrivyCan?). I will be very interested to hear what StatsCan has to say about this, what PrivyCan has to say, and I’d especially like to be able to hear what they say when they talk to each other. Do they ever talk to each other?
It’s time Canadians had a serious discussion about all of this, and perhaps we can get such a conversation started. So, if you’d like to join this little experiment just take the census form when you receive it, answer whatever questions you wish, red-circle any you do not wish to answer, add a brief note explaining your concerns, and mail it to:
Jennifer Stoddart
Privacy Commissioner of Canada
112 Kent Street
Place de Ville
Tower B, 3rd Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1H3
On her website she says, “My commitment to Canadians is to be passionate and persistent in defending their privacy rights ...”, so I’m sure she will be delighted to hear from us all.
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