STATSCAN DOES DATA COLLECTION ON INDIVIDUALS IN BETWEEN CENSUSES. (this posting is incomplete )
A. THE STORY OF FRIENDS WHO LIVE IN SOUTHEAST SASKATOON: STATISTICS CANADA CAME INTO THE HOME, QUESTIONS FOR MORE THAN HALF AN HOUR, ENTERED RESPONSES ONTO A COMPUTER. HAD TO SEE THEIR ACTUAL INCOME TAX FORMS. JANUARY 5, 2010. NOT EVEN DURING A CENSUS.
B. PH.D. STUDENT RECEIVED A STATSCAN FORM THAT REQUIRED ETHNIC BACKGROUND, DETAILED INFORMATION. SHE THOUGHT “NO WAY”. STATISTICS CANADA SENT HER A LETTER TO SAY THAT IF SHE DOESN’T SUPPLY THE INFORMATION, SHE IS LIABLE TO JAIL TIME AND A FINE. NOT EVEN DURING A CENSUS.
C. SAME STORY FROM A WOMAN WHO LIVES A NUMBER OF BLOCKS UP THE STREET. HER FOCUS WAS ON THE INCOME INFORMATION THAT STATSCAN WANTS FROM HER.
Coincidentally (serendipitously), I had these three conversations immediately following trial days on Jan 11 and 12th, 2010.
Add to these:
2010-04-03 Sue Crowther Edmonton threatened with jail and fine over StatsCan survey
(Get the other 2 letters-to-editor, from Saskatoon people)
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A. THE STORY OF FRIENDS WHO LIVE IN SOUTHEAST SASKATOON: STATISTICS CANADA CAME INTO THE HOME, QUESTIONS FOR MORE THAN HALF AN HOUR, ENTERED RESPONSES ONTO A COMPUTER. HAD TO SEE THEIR ACTUAL INCOME TAX FORMS. JANUARY 5, 2010. NOT EVEN DURING A CENSUS.
These people:
– Received a letter from Statistics Canada in the busy time leading up to Christmas. Didn’t take time to read it.
– January 5th. Woman came to the house. Showed a badge and said she was from Statistics Canada. This woman was nice, a widow.
– My friend was hesitant about the questions. She was told it would take 15 minutes.
– The StatsCan worker had “a laptop computer and entered your responses”. It took at least half an hour.
– questions like How much you spend on clothes.
– How much is your income for the year.
– “Way more information than we wanted to give.”
– The StatsCan employee asked for permission to check out income information with Revenue Canada and “look at our Income Tax paper”.
– She said (to calm the hesitation) that the information would not be known by name.
My friend involved her husband at this point. Her husband was “leery”. I (Sandra) spoke with him today regarding the assertion made by the StatsCan employee that she had to see the actual Income Tax Return.
– “I had to get my income tax paper out. She looked at it. It was unbelievable. They wanted to know everything. I said it’s getting to be just like communism. There’s nothing secret (INSERT: private) at all.”
The family was left a diary to fill out that covered a 2-week period. The Statistics Canada worker “called back a couple of times, checking on information, to see if you have any troubles (with filling out the form).”
This is a StatsCan “survey”.
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B. PH.D. STUDENT RECEIVED A STATSCAN FORM THAT REQUIRED ETHNIC BACKGROUND, DETAILED INFORMATION. SHE THOUGHT “NO WAY”. STATISTICS CANADA SENT HER A LETTER TO SAY THAT IF SHE DIDN’T SUPPLY THE INFORMATION SHE WAS LIABLE TO JAIL TIME AND A FINE.
Again, this happened recently, not during a census. I only learned about it because I was waiting in a line-up and struck up a conversation with this young woman who was standing next to me. We had a lot of time to talk.
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c. SAME STORY FROM A WOMAN WHO LIVES A NUMBER OF BLOCKS UP THE STREET. HER FOCUS WAS ON THE INCOME INFORMATION THAT STATSCAN WANTS FROM HER.
In the course of two days I was surprised to come across these three cases when I wasn’t even looking.
The Statistics Act is explicit: the sanctions of jail time and a fine do not apply to “surveys”. (insert hyperlink)
(add Susan Crowther, etc.)