Mr. Speaker it is a pleasure for me to speak on Motion No. 277 which has been introduced in the House by my colleague from Beaver River.
The motion reads:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should return the word "Canadian" among questions of ethnic origin on the Canadian census.
There has been some interesting debate on this. I was very interested to listen to the previous speaker, my colleague from the Bloc, who said it was a shame there was no discernible Canadian culture, that our culture had been fractured into hyphenated Canadianism, recognizing all kinds of hyphenated Canadians but not working to make sure we affirm and encourage Canadian unity and identity. She makes a very excellent point. We need to stop doing exactly what question 19 does, which is divide and fracture and hyphenate Canadians based on ethnicity.
The Liberals make a big thing of a pejorative word called racism. Yet here the Liberals, in a brand new question conceived and written by a Liberal government, does exactly that, differentiates Canadians on the basis of race. If that is not racism I would like to know what it is. Perhaps when the Liberals use the word "racist" and "racism" as loosely as they do, they would bear in mind that their actions do not always match their deeds.
As you know, Mr. Speaker, there has been some hot debate and some concern that Canadian is not one of the categories of ethnicity or race or background that is a choice on the census form in question 19 which is kind of interesting.
I have a very interesting and helpful letter from the chief statistician commenting on Motion No. 277. It very helpfully sets out this information. I am sure Canadians will be very interested in this information because it sheds a new light on concerns that Canadian is not one of the categories listed in question 19.
The chief statistician states: "I would like to emphasize that a person answering Canadian for question 19 would not be prosecuted". That is good news. We can be Canadians. We can identify ourselves as Canadians even on census forms and not be prosecuted. We should stand up and cheer about that. That is very reassuring to me.
The letter goes on to state: "Individuals who felt that Canadian was the most appropriate response to the question and who wrote in this answer in the space provided are considered to have complied with the requirements of the Statistics Act". This is once again affirming if you identify yourself as a Canadian in the census form you will not be prosecuted. It is very nice to have that freedom. I am sure most Canadians will feel very happy.
The letter goes on to say this. "Statistics are needed by both governments and employers to administer and assess the impact of the employment equity legislation passed by Parliament in 1986". Two interesting points come out of this letter, in addition to the relief we call feel knowing that we can in fact identify ourselves as Canadians. One is that Canadian is not an obvious and clear choice. In fact, the only way that one can identify oneself as a Canadian in question 19 is if one writes it in the blank.
Canadian is kind of an afterthought in this question. It is a fill in the blank kind of thing and not a natural and normal designation for Canadians. A person may be designated as almost anything else, but only if they really feel strongly about it and decide to fill in the blank can they really be a Canadian in that question.
The second piece of information in this letter, which I believe is accurate, is that the purpose of question 19, which asks for the ethnicity of respondents, is for the purpose of administering the employment equity legislation passed by the government.
Mr. Speaker, did you indicate I have only one minute left? Oh, I am finished.
That is a little background to support this motion. I am pleased to put that forward. I suggest this motion be passed and that Canadians be free to designate themselves as Canadians on our census forms in any manner that they choose.