I Thought Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Made The Long Form Redundant...

...for those who want to share how much toilet paper you use, the brand of condom, how much toothpaste, etc.

George Jonas: Your data or your freedom

George Jonas  August 14, 2010 – 11:00 am

 

KRT

Jonas: "An offer of un-coerced data to a statist is like an offer of consensual sex to Jack the Ripper."

Note to readers: The conclusion of my Wednesday piece on immigration is coming next Wednesday. The weekend belongs to the census. What fascinates isn’t the issue; it’s the argument. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, the argument is the issue.
Using my first computer in 1986, I suggested it was insolent for census bureaucrats to threaten Canadians with jail unless they revealed the number of bedrooms in their homes (and within four days, at that). Every 10 years or so, I re-visited the topic, arguing that for social engineers to hitch a ride on the compulsory short census was intrusive and unnecessary.
Twenty-four years later, a government agreed: This summer, Industry Minister Tony Clement instructed StatsCan to scrap the mandatory long form and replace it with a voluntary one. Social engineers could have their data; they just couldn’t expropriate it.

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Posted in: Canada, Full Comment, Policy  Tags: George Jonas, Tony Clement, census, statism, Munir Sheikh

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