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Stats Canada Advisory: E-mail Spreading Incorrect Information About Census Questions on Language |
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Written by Stats Canada
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Monday, 01 May 2006 |
An anonymous email is currently circulating on the Internet regarding the language questions from the upcoming 2006 Census. It spreads false information and encourages bilingual Francophones to not mention their knowledge of both official languages in the Census, on May 16, supposedly to prevent the federal government from reducing its services to Francophones.
But in the case of bilingual Francophones, the federal government doesn’t use the knowledge of both official languages but mother tongue – the first language learned at home during childhood and still understood – as its criteria to estimate the number of people on which to base its delivery of French-language services outside of Québec. In addition, contrary to what is alleged in this email, Statistics Canada never determined that “50% of bilingual people are Anglophones and 50% are Francophones”. Moreover, it is not within Statistics Canada’s mandate to make such decisions. The Census information collected on the issue by Statistics Canada is publicly available on its Internet site.
The Census is designed to paint an accurate statistical picture of the Canadian population. Because of the extensive use of data on bilingualism, including by the federal government, other levels of government and private businesses in search of bilingual staff, it is in the interest of Canadians to answer accurately to the Census questions. Delivery to Canadian households begins Tuesday May 2 and continues until May 13.
Information collected by the Census is publicly available on the Agency's Web site at www.statcan.ca .
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