Stephen Harper's Ministry of Propaganda

[marmar]

from the Toronto Star:



OTTAWA—Industry Minister Tony Clement was well aware that Statistics Canada had little use for a voluntary census when he was telling Canadians that StatsCan was onside with his decision to scrap the mandatory, long-form survey, internal government documents show.

In an email to the minister’s advisers in March, a StatsCan official says a self-administered voluntary survey “provides a response rate of 50 per cent.” The email goes on to say that, with follow-up and interviewer support, the response rate can be increased to 65-70 per cent, “which is still not an acceptable outcome for a census.”

Yet Clement publicly gave the impression that the respected federal data collecting agency supported the Conservatives’ move to scrap the mandatory nature of the 40-page, long-form survey that has traditionally gone out to one-in-five households at census time.

“We’ve come up with a way that is statistically valid, that StatsCan feels can work,” Clement said during an appearance at McGill University last month.

The new information comes from confidential government documents that detail the Harper government’s fierce effort to manage the messaging and political fallout arising from the census decision, which prompted former StatsCan head Munir Sheikh to resign and spawned a national controversy. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/census/article/846141--clement-misled-canadians-on-census-secret-documents?bn=1

[applegrove]

1. Apparently Tony Clement's office asked stats Canada to edit all their

correspondence removing any mention that it was the Harper government that wanted the change to a voluntary census. They knew it would be a political bomb and they tried to avoid any responsibility. They want to do creepy things to the country but they don't want to bear any cost for their actions. Juveniles!!

[time_has_come]

2. Harper's message control has been quite stunning. He's set up an entire beaurocracy to orchastrate

it.