Census Stuff
There are lots of reasons to dislike the Census, not the least of which is that you have to fill it out, or you'll get in trouble.
Next on my list of reasons to be upset by the Census is question 19. Question 19 is a question about ethnicity. It asks respondents to identify themselves as one of a list of ethnicities. My problem is that, although some people get specific options on this list ("Japanese", "Korean", "Chinese" are all options), some people don't ("Black" and "White" are the only option for many people). One can only hope that people will write hyper-specific things in the "Other" box: East Anglian, Provençal if they are stuck with one of the big choices, like "White", and that they'll be non-specific otherwise: Asian, e.g.. Maybe then we'll get some balance.
Then there's the homophobia on the questionnaire, which Stats Can tries to explain here. Egale Canada will walk you through the issue here. Basically, same-sex spouses are being treated differently than opposite-sex spouses for no good reason.
And then read countmeout.ca, which is a website that encourages minimum coöperation with the Census. Now, countmeout.ca is somewhat conspiracytheoryesque, but it also contains a hilarious list of inventive ways to screw up the Census process. Also, it points out that we've contracted out our Census-taking to American companies for no reason. Before you start spilling your coffee all over your Census form, though, have a read-through of Murray Dobbin's article The Census? Count Me In. He points out that having accurate public statistics is good for everyone, especially those who are working for social change.
The same week as the Census arrived at our apartment, we also received the Municipal Enumeration Form, which
"collects information that is provided to local municipalities and school boards for purposes of the November 2006 municipal and school board elections. The information is also used for determining the population of every municipality in Ontario and for municipal and school board planning purposes."
Why this form asks me my gender is a mystery. I hope it doesn't affect my municipal voting rights. Or whether they'll pick up my garbage or build me a sidewalk.
This form also asks me whether I want my taxes to go to public or Catholic schools. And then it asks me a separate question about whether or not I'm Catholic. Does this make sense to you? I didn't think the City of Toronto was in the Church business, so I don't know why they're interested....
I couldn't find the answers about the municipal enumeration on the website of the company (it seems to be a private company) that manages these forms. Here's the link, though, in case you want to have a look: mpac.ca.
Next on my list of reasons to be upset by the Census is question 19. Question 19 is a question about ethnicity. It asks respondents to identify themselves as one of a list of ethnicities. My problem is that, although some people get specific options on this list ("Japanese", "Korean", "Chinese" are all options), some people don't ("Black" and "White" are the only option for many people). One can only hope that people will write hyper-specific things in the "Other" box: East Anglian, Provençal if they are stuck with one of the big choices, like "White", and that they'll be non-specific otherwise: Asian, e.g.. Maybe then we'll get some balance.
Then there's the homophobia on the questionnaire, which Stats Can tries to explain here. Egale Canada will walk you through the issue here. Basically, same-sex spouses are being treated differently than opposite-sex spouses for no good reason.
And then read countmeout.ca, which is a website that encourages minimum coöperation with the Census. Now, countmeout.ca is somewhat conspiracytheoryesque, but it also contains a hilarious list of inventive ways to screw up the Census process. Also, it points out that we've contracted out our Census-taking to American companies for no reason. Before you start spilling your coffee all over your Census form, though, have a read-through of Murray Dobbin's article The Census? Count Me In. He points out that having accurate public statistics is good for everyone, especially those who are working for social change.
The same week as the Census arrived at our apartment, we also received the Municipal Enumeration Form, which
"collects information that is provided to local municipalities and school boards for purposes of the November 2006 municipal and school board elections. The information is also used for determining the population of every municipality in Ontario and for municipal and school board planning purposes."
Why this form asks me my gender is a mystery. I hope it doesn't affect my municipal voting rights. Or whether they'll pick up my garbage or build me a sidewalk.
This form also asks me whether I want my taxes to go to public or Catholic schools. And then it asks me a separate question about whether or not I'm Catholic. Does this make sense to you? I didn't think the City of Toronto was in the Church business, so I don't know why they're interested....
I couldn't find the answers about the municipal enumeration on the website of the company (it seems to be a private company) that manages these forms. Here's the link, though, in case you want to have a look: mpac.ca.
posted by Andreus @ 12:26 PM
4 Comments:
At 7:32 PM,
Richard said…
I'm gonna take a strong stand on this one; countmeout seems immature and unbased. Yes, outsourcing might not be great for canadian businesses, but when it comes to stats and info which will guide society, and even more, policy changes, I'd like to think that it went to the firm which would handle it the best, and if it's a company in Tibet, so be it. Again though, note the caveat. The best firm for the job. Is is Lockheed Martin Canada? That's the question to ask. The website just seems to get all huffy, alarmist and "ignorantly liberal," which is never good for anyone.
A government should have as much information as possible about the people it serves, and having an accurate census is part of the arsenal at its disposal. Including gay people in it is a tremendous step forward I think, and it should be expected that minor tweakings will need to be made.
At 2:14 PM,
Andreus said…
I agree that no one at Stats Can was actively trying to be evil; but they will need occasional reminders to be inclusive.
As for Lockheed Martin: they seem to be an American arms manufacturer that dabbles in other technologies. I don't think that we need to contract this sort of thing out at all (why can't Stats Can do this by hiring a bunch of Canadians?), but I certainly don't think that it's appropriate to give our money to them.
What you buy - and from whom - is political. At least in the Capitalist system. That Canada is buying technology services from a big American warmongering corporation is clearly inappropriate, as far as I'm concerned. I would rather have shoddy statistics, if it means there's less profit out there being used to lobby Washington to go to war more.
At 1:56 AM,
Richard said…
I agree with you in principle, and I want this to stay as far away from "ends justifying means" but rather that we don't know what the "means" are in this case. Isn't contract-giving supposed to be transparent when dealing with government?
I'm not a L-M fan at all, so maybe in my idealistic fantasy this would be a great step towards changing their directional Modus operandi. I thought Canada Post had a whole wing dedicated to polling and stats rolled into mail-out campaigns?
At 1:58 AM,
Richard said…
PS- thanks for this:
"What you buy - and from whom - is political."
As for this:
"I would rather have shoddy statistics, if it means there's less profit out there being used to lobby Washington to go to war more."
rock and a hard place . . .I'd rather not choose.
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