The Politics of the Census: Lessons from Abroad
I late June, Minister of Industry Tony Clement announced the government’s decision to eliminate the mandatory long form of the 2011 Census and replace it with a voluntary survey to be sent to one-third of Canadian households. The decision was reportedly made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last December and has largely been framed by Conservative cabinet ministers as an important change to safeguard the privacy of Canadians. They maintain that the state has no business in the bedrooms of society, or, more specifically, that the state has no business asking Canadians how many bedrooms they have in their places of residence. The Prime Minister ’s Office has stated, “The government made this decision because we do not believe Canadians should be forced, under threat of fines, jail, or both, to disclose extensive private and personal information” (Valpy 2010). Clement, the minister responsible for Statistics Canada, argued before a parliamentary committee on 27 July that though the information gathered in the long form is “valuable,” a “balance must be drawn” between collecting data and the privacy rights of Canadians.
Why do we still need a census? Views from the age of “truthiness” and the “death of evidence”
This viewpoint reports on a multidisciplinary panel held at the 2012 CAG/Congress meeting that brought together a number of researchers with important expertise on census-related issues. They were asked to tackle the question: “Why do we still need a census?” Their presentations generated dialogue based on both Canadian and international experiences with recent changes in census data collection approaches. The article presents some cautionary observations regarding “the death of evidence” in an age of politicized “truthiness.” 
 
 
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Ce texte de perspective revient sur une reunion tenue dans le cadre du congres de l'ACG de 2012 et auquel un groupe d'experts pluridisciplinaires etait invite a discuter des enjeux qui entourent la tenue des recensements. La question suivante leur a ete posee: « pourquoi avons-nous encore besoin du recensement ? ». Les presentations ont donne lieu a des echanges portant sur les enseignements tires des experiences au Canada et a l'echelle internationale sur les recentes modifications apportees aux methodes de collecte des donnees de recensement. Il en ressort quelques observations incitant a la prudence sur la « fin des donnees probantes » a une epoque marquee par les « fausses verites » politisees.
2000 Review conference of the parties to the treaty on the non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, final document
4. The Conference notes that the non-nuclearweapon States Parties to the Treaty reaffirmed their commitment not to receive the transfer from any transferor whatsoever of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or of control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly, not to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, and not to seek or receive any assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. 2000 REVIEW CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS FINAL DOCUMENT