So I really, really, really, wanted to write about something else, but Tony Clement's staff is making it hard not to.
I woke up this morning to discover that, at some point over the weekend "an online discussion about Canada's census mysteriously vanished from a federal consultation on the digital economy." See the full article here with some fantastic coverage by Jennifer Ditchburn.
So what has happened?
Well, for the past few months the government has been running an online consultations about the digital economy, asking people what they think should be done. During this process, Canadians, who must register, can vote ideas up or down.
Well, since the digital economy is part of the information economy (information - like that created by the census), someone suggested that part of the digital economy strategy should to reinstate the long form census. The proposal, only submitted a few days ago (others have been around for months) garnered enough votes to quickly shoot up and become the number 2 proposal on the site.
So rather than engage the 360+ Canadians who voted for the proposal (far more than who ever likely complained about the Long Form Census) the government simply removed the discussion from the site. If you know the specific URL you can still get to it, but there is no link to the discussion from anywhere else on the site.
So, in short, the government's definition of a "public consultation" is to say we want to consult and hear from you, until you say something we don't like. Then we will bury it.
How are Canadians supposed to have confidence that any contributions will be listened to and engaged. This seems to confirm what many citizens suspected after the copyright consultation: That this process is a sham, and that the government isn't looking for ideas, but that it has its own agenda and is going to pursue it regardless of what Canadians ask or tell it.
So, in summary, when the data (in this case the votes) don't support your conclusions, the solution is to get rid of the data. Kind of like the Long Form Census.
If you want you can still go to the discussion and vote up the recommendation that the government keep the long form census. It could end up that the most requested contribution is one the Government tries to hide and denies exists.
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1 Tweets that mention We want to consult, until you say something we don’t like | eaves.ca -- Topsy.com // Jul 13, 2010 at 9:30 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Adriel Hampton, Fiacre O'Duinn, Progressive Bloggers and others. Progressive Bloggers said: #cdnleft #cdnprog We want to consult, until you say something we don’t like (http://www.eaves.ca): So I… http://dlvr.it/2bBnd #cdnpoli [...]
2 Michael Lenczner // Jul 13, 2010 at 11:37 am
Hello David,
Tracey (Lauriault) has been following this closely through on her blog DataLibre
http://datalibre.ca/2010/07/12/conspiracy-about...
and I guess this would be an update to the story – the response from Industry Canada
http://datalibre.ca/2010/07/12/industry-canada-...
3 Guest // Jul 13, 2010 at 12:05 pm
I've found that many governments want to hear what you have to say; just as long as what you have to say is what they want to hear.
4 Tim Bonnemann // Jul 13, 2010 at 12:43 pm
It's legitimate to define the scope of a consultation more narrowly and exclude certain topic areas. However, the edge cases (where convener and participants disagree on whether something is on topic or off topic) probably require more pro-active communication than what occurred here.
5 David Eaves // Jul 13, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Tim – I agree, consultations have to be defined and exclude certain areas. Interestingly, they were happy to have people talk about sharing census data and have that part of the strategy, but collecting it is somehow not allowed. Interesting distinction…
6 Gov 2.0 Radio Hot Links – July 14, 2010 « #2010Left // Jul 13, 2010 at 7:41 pm
[...] David Eaves: We want you to consult, until you say something we don’t like [...]
7 Gov 2.0 Radio Hot Links – July 14, 2010 « Adriel Hampton: Wired to Share // Jul 13, 2010 at 7:41 pm
[...] David Eaves: We want you to consult, until you say something we don’t like [...]
8 Gov 2.0 Radio Hot Links – July 14, 2010 | Gov 2.0 Radio // Jul 13, 2010 at 7:42 pm
[...] David Eaves: We want you to consult, until you say something we don’t like [...]
9 digEcon scandals « Oh! Canada // Jul 17, 2010 at 12:35 am
[...] eaves.ca: We want to consult, until you say something we don’t like [...]
10 Thom Kearney // Jul 17, 2010 at 7:49 am
I suppose its easier to make decisions based on ideology when there is no data…
11 Thom Kearney // Jul 17, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I suppose its easier to make decisions based on ideology when there is no data…
12 Thom’s Top Ten #g2e 2010 edition « NuSum // Jul 18, 2010 at 10:22 am
[...] about your intentions and follow through. Be sincere and prepare for the unexpected. See this post from David Eaves for some perspective on what can [...]
13 Census Privacy is the Harper gov’t’s Girl-Power Barbie « Social Justice Librarian // Jul 23, 2010 at 12:39 pm
[...] although second top rated issue by participants in the recent digital economy econsultation, was buried on the site. (Although I wouldn’t vote for this very specific issue to be the top concern [...]
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