Canada Court Rejects Petition To Reinstate Long Census Form
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Statistics Canada will use the new but shorter census form when the agency conducts a head count next year.
The Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities in Quebec had attempted to secure a judicial review of the Ottawa decision to scrap the mandatory long census form. However, Federal Court Judge Richard Boivin on Wednesday dismissed the federation’s application.
The federation argued the use of the shorter voluntary survey form would result in less reliable information about minority French-speaking communities. This, in turn, would stand in the way of the federal government’s ability to fulfill its obligations under the Official Languages Act.
In rejecting the petition for a judicial review, Brown said the act did not specify the tools that government must use to support and serve minorities who use different languages. The justice added it is too early to judge if the voluntary survey form would yield unreliable data, as groups opposed to the change in census form point out.
Marie-France Kenny, president of the federation, was disappointed with the court’s decision, but said they have not yet decided if the group would appeal the ruling.
A similar petition has been filed by some First Nations group.
Industry Minister Tony Clement said that because of advice from StatsCan about the importance of questions pertaining to the Official Languages Act, the new census form would include questions about support for official languages. These questions will remain mandatory, according to Clement.
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