Industry committee  It seems to me that there's a consensus here that the country needs good information in order to run itself well. The question then comes down to the degree of compulsion and whether there are, both statistically and in other means, ways to get around the use of force. I believe there are, and if I were a member of the committee, I think I would be spending my energies developing those.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  Intuitively it does. I think it depends, to some extent, what information is being asked for. I think if you compel someone to give you information that the person knew was easily gotten, such as their address, their name, or how many people in their family, intuitively most of us would figure, “Well, they're going to find out anyway, so I'll give them that”.

Industry committee  No, I did not.

Industry committee  I certainly don't feel the need to defend anything I would say in the context of what the B.C. Civil Liberties Association might say. I think one judges an argument on its own strengths. The case we're hearing, as I think Mr. Noreau said, is that something like a 30% response rate would not be enough.

Industry committee  I disagree.

Industry committee  The experts who you've heard took the view that you gave. There are other experts who are equally credible, who've published peer-reviewed work, who take a different view.

Industry committee  I believe I agree, but carry on.

Industry committee  In the 2001 census—and it was all compulsory then, I guess—but in the compulsory short form, 20,000 Canadians identified themselves as Jedis. When the question was asked what their religion is, they said they support the Jedi religion. In other words, they've watched too many Star Wars movies.

Industry committee  I think the fundamental question here is how you keep a balance between the importance of information and the lengths to which you are prepared to go in order to get that information. I am sorry that I'm not with you. I am not able to fly or I would be happy to be there. But certainly in this debate the sense I'm getting is that whenever that question is confronted head-on, we're seeing some skirting around it.

Industry committee  Thank you. I have two or three quick points. We already have difficulty with the existing census and getting responses from native groups. Some native groups refuse to comply, in part because they don't like the element of compulsion. The United States carried out a voluntary survey some years back at the request of Congress.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll begin by saying that, although I write for the Times Colonist, I am here on my own behalf. There are three points that I want to bring to your attention. The first has to do with privacy. I've heard it said there is no issue of privacy, that because Statistics Canada anonymizes our data there is no invasion of privacy.