Not to go over old ground again, but I just want to clarify, since Mr. McTeague referred to my questions and my comments.... We don't have the blues yet, unfortunately, but I know that there are many members of the media here, and many of them spoke with the Privacy Commissioner following her testimony.
I stand by my testimony. Mr. McTeague seems to suggest that because there have been a limited number of complaints over the last 20 years, it's okay to use threats and to try to coerce Canadians into answering the mandatory long-form census. In effect, that is exactly the opposite of what Ms. Stoddart said. She stated under direct questioning from Mr. Anderson that she felt that it was inappropriate, and should not be allowed, to coerce, threaten, cajole--call it what you will--Canadians into answering questions that they don't want to.
That is her position as the Privacy Commissioner of this country, yet the Liberals and the opposition seem to want to ignore that. I think it's unacceptable.