I think that's a decision for the experts. As Privacy Commissioner, though, I can say that coercing people to give very sensitive information about themselves is clearly contrary to their privacy interests. Over the years, Canadians, I think, have shown increasing concern about some of the questions in the census, and in fact, my office has been working with census Canada over the last 20 years on Canadians' concerns, either about the questions or about the fact that their information is revealed after 92 years--previous to 2006--without their consent.
On July 27th, 2010. See this statement in context.