Mr. Speaker, Statistics Canada is now busy distributing its questionnaires and guides to the public for the May 15 census.
Question 17, which deals with ethnic or cultural origin, will not yield any worthwhile responses. The guide indicates that this question refers to the ethnic or cultural group to which the person's ancestors belong. It adds that most people can trace their origins to their ancestors who first came to this continent, and that ancestry should not be confused with citizenship or nationality.
Yet Question 17 requires people to indicate the ethnic or cultural group of their ancestors, and the first example of a possible response is—guess what, Mr. Speaker—“Canadian”.
So the ancestor who came to this continent could come from Canada? This completely skews the results this question aims at, or is it perhaps a new propaganda exercise?