Sure, we all like to tell our intimate secrets in our daily lives to others, especially those individuals in the government ranks. Yeah, it’s a bit deceitful to make a statement like this, isn’t it?
But that’s exactly what the federal government Opposition members and other organizations seemed to be advocating last week. Why even Canada’s Chief Information Officer resigned over it.
What has these people all upset is the federal Conservative government has opted do away with the ‘mandatory long census form’, issued every five years by Statistics Canada.
It delved into such ‘needed’ information as whether you or your wife spend more than one hour a day in your garden last week? Wow, real necessary information for a government to know on how to base its policies for running the economic affairs of this great nation.
Now, this is not a view to advocate getting rid of ‘mandatory’ census forms. It is an argument for not having 40 pages of essentially meddling information, which the federal government does not really need.
After all, it was one of this country’s greatest Prime Ministers, Liberal Pierre Trudeau, who said (paraphrasing) “The State has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.”
People are not interested in giving away all their personal information on some ‘non personable’ data sheet, so others can pry into their lives. (It’s shades of Wells’ 1984 movie about ‘big brother’ – government – is watching.)
There should be ‘mandatory’ census forms, which outline the basic information about a family entity – income, marital status, number of children, relatives living with you, etc. – but in a concise and limited format.
A government needs to know how its citizens are doing and reacting to its policies and programs. That’s a given; it’s a basis for formulating services that residents need and want.
However, it shouldn’t be a tabloid inquiry on how many times you and your wife/husband or playmate had an intimate liaison during the past month, or how much time you spent over housekeeping duties last week!
Alright it’s only ‘yes/no’ (checkbox) or limited responses for the most part, and doesn’t take an overly long period of time to complete. That’s not the point though.
It’s certain freedoms and privacies that should not be infringed upon by even the government.
The long form mandatory census form was nothing more just a way of prying into the lives of Canadian families; it was ‘not’ simple information gathering.
There is information about other people that a neighbour or the ‘Average Joe’ should ‘not’ be able to access. Although government insists it is private, there have been information leaks/accesses that have not been prevented.
Canadians deserve a government(s) that serves their needs, not citizens that serve the desires of government(s).
.jpg)
