I would go even further, Mr. Hachey. I would say, given what the Supreme Court ruled in the Mahe case, that this is practically a constitutional obligation, and that in order to identify the rights holders, we could hold a census.
Mr. Corbeil from Statistics Canada, stated that the census currently only meets the requirements of subsection (1) of section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and not subsections (2) and (3). That said, in light of part VII of the Official Languages Act, in my opinion, we are talking here about a quasi- constitutional obligation.
Given what the Supreme Court had to say and the wording of section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, could we even go so far as to say that this aspect of the census is practically unconstitutional? Has such an argument ever been made?