Mr. Speaker, one month from now Canadians will be asked to identify themselves by race in the 1996 census. We have the option of classing ourselves as white, Chinese, Asian, black, Arab, Filipino, Latin American, Japanese, Korean, or other. We do not have the option of skipping the question.
If an employer or a landlord demanded to know a Canadian's race, they would bear the full weight of the human rights law which prohibits racial discrimination and so they should. Yet incredibly the federal government requires the very same racial identification by law.
I would urge all Canadians to send a message to the federal government that in Canada we believe in the equality of all Canadians regardless of the country of their birth or the colour of their skin. Identifying our ethnic origin as Canadian on question 19 of the census will tell this Liberal government that Canadians want to be known as Canadians, nothing more and nothing less.
Census by race, what a disgrace.