The census of population is certainly mandatory. I loved it when I was Privacy Commissioner. I had an employment survey, and they were all nervous about what was going to happen, but I was quite happy to participate. I watched them like a hawk. They didn't do anything wrong. Again, in the footnotes to my essay, I've cited Ivan Fellegi, the Chief Statistician of Canada since kingdom come, as an excellent example of a model person who's put privacy mechanisms in place at Statistics Canada to manage privacy quite well. I used to get a lot more work from them, and I'm not getting it now because they've put their own house in order.
On May 8th, 2008. See this statement in context.