Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about that. I believe it's very important. It was a real battle. Maria Barile was very disappointed when the long-form census was shortened. We were not very aware of it, but the more time went by, the more we could see how important these statistics were. We want to be more than just a number, but numbers are important as we draw up plans and, as you pointed out, policies.
She worked hard. She wrote articles about it. She complained about the new version of the now very short census. I remember being very disappointed when I received the form, because there was not enough space to include all the information that I thought was important and that represented me. It meant that my right to inform my political representatives, my MPs, and the government that I existed had been taken away.
Using such a short and simple census makes the most vulnerable groups invisible. But it's important to make these groups more visible. We therefore feel that it's very important for the long-form census to be used. Unfortunately, that requires some work. In our organization, we work a lot with statistics. We rely heavily on what Statistics Canada produces, even here in Quebec, to demonstrate the importance of working with vulnerable and more marginalized groups. For our decision-makers, unfortunately, the numbers matter.
In short, we would like the census to be much more accessible and much longer, and to include the space we need to describe our reality. It's an ongoing battle for us.