Not so fast, Emperor Stephen Bonaparte Harper........

[marmar]

from the Toronto Star:




Les Whittington Ottawa Bureau


OTTAWA—Opposition to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s controversial census policy gained momentum today when a court agreed to quickly hear arguments from a francophone group trying to block changes to the census.

The Federal Court said it will fast-track hearings on a case initiated by the Federation de communautes francophones et acadiennes (FCFAC), which is seeking an injunction to halt Harper’s plan for the next census in 2011.

Arguments on the injunction will be heard on Sept. 27-28.

Harper plans to keep the short, eight-question census that is compulsory for all households but scrap the mandatory nature of the longer, 40-question survey that has traditionally gone to one-in-five households.

Making the 40-question census voluntary will undermine its credibility, according to experts. And the FCFAC is concerned that data on language use in the new voluntary census will lose validity, depriving Ottawa of information needed to support linguistic minorities. This would be a breach of guarantees in Canada’s constitution, the group argues. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/census/article/846463--court-to-fast-track-census-ruling?bn=1