Five Saudi Students Accused of Rape and Murder Have Vanished Before Trial: Updated with Canadian case

2019/02/02 2 Comments

Yet another example of bad behaviour by the Saudi government:

New legislation introduced by Oregon senators aims to punish Saudi Arabia following shocking allegations that the kingdom has whisked as many as five young men facing criminal charges, ranging from rape to murder, out of the country from that state alone.

Speaking publicly for the first time Thursday, the parents of Fallon Smart, a 15-year-old victim of a hit and run by Saudi student Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah in 2016, said they were horrified to learn their daughter’s alleged assailant had disappeared two weeks before his trial with the help of the Saudi government. Noorah was charged with manslaughter, felony hit-and-run, and reckless driving in the teen’s death. He faced a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.

Federal investigators confirmed to the Oregonian/Oregon Live that a private lawyer hired by the Saudi consulate posted $100,000 of a $1 million bail for the 21-year-old and apparently arranged for a dark SUV to pick him up shortly after he left jail. His severed electronic bracelet was found at a nearby gravel yard. Authorities believe he was given a forged passport, since his was sequestered by Oregon authorities, and flown back to Saudi Arabia on a private jet. He was seen back in his home country a week after he disappeared.

“It’s like the laws of physics go out the door,” Fallon’s mother, Fawn Lengvenis, told Oregon Live on Thursday. “And it all starts from the beginning again.”

The teen victim’s father, Seth Smart, said he cannot help obsessing about his daughter’s killer. “The imagination runs wild,” he said. “Is he just leading his normal life somewhere? Does he even think about it? Does he even care?”

The cases of Saudi students disappearing from Oregon justice are hauntingly familiar. In 2014, Abdulaziz Al Duways was arrested on accusations that he drugged and raped a classmate in Monmouth, Oregon. He, too, disappeared after the Saudi consulate helped secure bail. Four of the young men who vanished have been represented by the same attorney, Ginger Mooney, according to local court documents.

The new legislation introduced by Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden would allow the federal government to actively investigate alleged disappearances and make it more difficult for foreign nationals to be granted bail arranged by consulates.

“When anyone within our nation commits a crime, they need to be held accountable—especially when that crime results in the death of an innocent teenager,” Sen. Merkley said in a statement “Saudi Arabia’s blatant disrespect for international norms cannot be allowed to stand. We should all be able to agree that any nation that helps their citizens escape from the law needs to be held fully accountable.”

Around 1,000 of an estimated 60,000 Saudi students currently studying in the United States live in Oregon, according to a recent report in Gulf News, which estimates that only 8,272 are self-sponsored. The rest are on stipends provided by the Saudi kingdom. Disappearances of Saudi nationals facing criminal justice have also been reported in Ohio and California as well as Canada.

Source: Five Saudi Students Accused of Rape and Murder Have Vanished Before Trial

Information on the Canadian case can be found here: Saudi embassy helped accused rapist flee Canada | Toronto Sun

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Le débat sur l’islamophobie au Québec fait des flammèches

2019/02/02 Leave a comment

Walking back his earlier remarks which nevertheless revealed his lack of understanding and awareness:

Y a-t-il ou non des manifestations d’islamophobie au Québec ? Oui, a concédé le premier ministre Legault vendredi, au lendemain d’une déclaration controversée qui lui a valu de vives critiques — mais aussi le soutien inattendu d’une élue municipale. Mais de là à reconnaître qu’il y a un « courant islamophobe » dans la province, il y a un pas que François Legault refuse de faire.

Jeudi, le chef caquiste était catégorique : « Il n’y a pas d’islamophobie au Québec. »

Il mettait ainsi un terme à la discussion autour de la création possible d’une Journée contre l’islamophobie.

Vendredi, le cabinet du premier ministre a précisé que « M. Legault voulait dire qu’il n’y a pas de courant islamophobe au Québec. Il existe de l’islamophobie, de la xénophobie, du racisme, de la haine, mais pas de courant islamophobe. Le Québec n’est pas islamophobe ou raciste. »

Cette décision de ne pas faire du 29 janvier (date anniversaire de la tuerie de la mosquée de Québec) une journée dédiée à la lutte contre l’islamophobie a été saluée vendredi par la mairesse suppléante de Gatineau, Nathalie Lemieux.

Dans une entrevue au quotidien Le Droit, l’élue a soutenu que « ce mot n’existe même pas. Justin Trudeau pense que l’islamophobie existe, mais c’est lui qui invente ce problème. Il tente de provoquer des problèmes où il n’y en a pas. Les Québécois ne sont pas aussi racistes que certains voudraient le faire croire. Quand un peuple veut s’intégrer, il s’intègre. [Mais] ce peuple ne s’intègre pas. »

Mme Lemieux a aussi ajouté que « ces gens-là font beaucoup de choses mal, avec leurs camions et toutes ces choses-là, et c’est normal d’en avoir peur ».

Ses propos ont été immédiatement dénoncés par le maire de la ville, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin. « Je me dissocie complètement et je dénonce les propos tenus par la conseillère Nathalie Lemieux à l’égard de la communauté musulmane. Je lui ai immédiatement demandé de se rétracter et de s’excuser », a indiqué M. Pedneaud-Jobin sur Twitter. Le député libéral André Fortin, élu dans la région, a pour sa part écrit que la mairesse suppléante « représente bien mal notre Gatineau, notre Outaouais, notre Québec ».

Des propos peçus comme une «trahison»

Même avec la précision de vendredi, les propos de François Legault ont été perçus comme une « trahison » par Boufeldja Benabdallah, le président du Centre culturel islamique de Québec. Un « coup de massue », même.

Dans une lettre envoyée aux médias, il a écrit vendredi que la sortie du premier ministre a représenté une « insulte à notre intelligence, nous qui luttons sans cesse pour abolir l’attitude de certains contre les citoyens musulmans afin que notre société soit la meilleure et la plus juste qui soit ».

« Avec tout le respect que j’ai pour vous, indique M. Benabdallah à l’intention du premier ministre, je me permets de vous dire que vous n’avez pas mesuré la gravité de cette phrase, 48 heures à peine après la deuxième édition de la Commémoration de la tuerie de la Grande Mosquée. »

En entretien avec Le Devoir, M. Benabdallah a « salué le fait que M. Legault se soit rectifié ». Mais sur le fond, ses critiques demeurent.

« Je me suis senti trahi parce que le 29 janvier, M. Legault a eu la grande amabilité de venir aux commémorations, il était compatissant et a eu des mots extraordinaires. Mais quand il dit qu’il n’y a pas de courant islamophobe tout en reconnaissant qu’il y a des gestes graves d’islamophobie, je lui demande : d’où viennent ces gestes ? Ils viennent de l’islamophobie. »

M. Benabdallah fait valoir que reconnaître l’existence de l’islamophobie au Québec ne revient pas à dire que le Québec est islamophobe. Il dit craindre que les propos de M. Legault « ne redonnent vie à l’amalgame que les islamophobes adorent, à l’effet que nous traitons toutes les Québécois d’islamophobes ».

Le « courant est soutenu par une minorité », estime le président du centre islamique. « Mais il existe et il faut en prendre conscience, ne pas cacher une évidence. Il y a eu six morts et des blessés ici. Il y a eu plusieurs gestes haineux [pamphlets, croix gammées sur les murs de la mosquée, tête de porc tranchée, etc.]. Doit-on nier tout cela pour dire qu’il n’y a pas d’islamophobie au Québec ? »

M. Benabdallah précise autrement qu’il n’a pas « d’objection au refus de la proposition d’une Journée contre l’islamophobie. Je ne me sens ni frustré ni trop malheureux, quoique déçu. »

Barrette nuance

Plus tôt dans la journée, le député libéral Gaétan Barrette avait lui aussi fait valoir que « l’islamophobie existe [au Québec] comme partout ailleurs. Je ne dis pas que c’est systémique, je ne dis pas que la société est islamophobe. Je dis qu’il y a des gens, sans aucun doute, qui le sont. De faire une affirmation aussi catégorique que celle de François Legault, ça m’apparaît être une assez courte vue d’esprit », a-t-il indiqué.

Son chef, Pierre Arcand, a bien accueilli la précision faite par M. Legault vendredi. « Il reconnaît qu’il s’est trompé […], c’est pas mal une excuse, il a corrigé le tir et moi je suis satisfait. »

Le Conseil national des musulmans canadiens (CNMC) avait quant à lui dénoncé des commentaires jugés offensants et inexacts.

Selon Statistique Canada, le nombre de crimes motivés par la haine déclarés à la police a fortement augmenté en 2017 au pays. Les incidents ciblant les Noirs, les juifs et les musulmans ont été à l’origine de la majeure partie de cette hausse.

Source: Le débat sur l’islamophobie au Québec fait des flammèches

In the Globe:

Quebec Premier François Legault has clarified his controversial comments about Islamophobia, now saying such discrimination exists but that it is not widespread.

In a statement Friday, the premier’s office said Legault meant to say that there isn’t an “undercurrent” of Islamophobia in Quebec.

“Quebecers are open and tolerant and will continue to be,” the statement said.

“Unfortunately, too many racist acts still occur today in our society, and everything must be done to denounce and combat hatred and intolerance. We will continue to honour the memory of the six victims of the tragedy of the Quebec mosque on Jan. 29.”

Friday’s statement comes after the premier told reporters Thursday that there’s no need for a day devoted to action against Islamophobia because it’s not a problem in the province. Legault was responding to calls for the anniversary of the Quebec mosque shooting to be established as an anti-Islamaphobia day.

“I don’t think there is Islamophobia in Quebec, so I don’t see why there would be a day dedicated to Islamophobia,” he said Thursday.

Those comments prompted an outpouring of criticism from Muslim groups. They want the province to take a stronger stance against anti-Muslim actions and rhetoric.

‘Out of touch’

Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said Legault’s initial comments were “clearly out of touch with the realities of Islamophobia on the ground in Quebec.”

​Karim Elabed, an imam at a mosque in Lévis, a small city across the river from Quebec City, said the premier’s comments were irresponsible.

“The general opinion is that there is no problem in Quebec. But the problem is real,” he said.

The province should be striving toward educating the future generations and teaching youth to accept cultural differences, said Elabed.

Liberal MP Gaétan Barrette also said Legault’s comments were out of touch with reality, though he too cautioned the problem isn’t “systemic” in Quebec.

“I’m not saying that society is Islamophobic. I say there are people, no doubt, who are,” he said.

At the federal level, the Commons heritage committee recommended last year that Jan. 29 be declared a “national day of remembrance and action on Islamophobia and other forms of religious discrimination.”

Toronto Mayor John Tory announced this week that the city was proclaiming Jan. 29 a day of remembrance and action on Islamophobia.

Like the ruling Coalition Avenir Québec, Quebec’s previous Liberal government also rejected the idea of setting aside a day against Islamophobia.

Former premier Philippe Couillard said last year he preferred to make a commitment against racism and discrimination, rather than single out a particular group or religion.

The latest controversy comes amid a renewed focus on the province’s longstanding debate over the accommodation of religious minorities.

Legault has promised legislation early this year blocking public servants in positions of authority, including police officers, judges, prosecutors, prison guards and teachers, from wearing religious symbols at work.

Source: As controversy swirls, François Legault concedes Islamophobia exists in Quebec

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US charges 20 people over Chinese birth tourism schemes

2019/02/01 Leave a comment

Provides an example of regulatory and legal approaches to reducing the extent of birth tourism. While the national security rationale given is overblown (“ridiculous” in the words of others), the fraud and misrepresentation of purpose of visit is not, although may be hard to prove in court.
Of course, in the Canadian context, if a women openly stated the purpose of her visit was to give birth with the intent to obtain Canadian citizenship for her child, and met the security, medical and financial requirements, there would be no grounds for visa refusal and no fraud or misrepresentation.
Will be interesting to see how this case is decided:
Dongyuan Li’s business was called “You Win USA,” and authorities say she coached pregnant Chinese women on how to get into the United States to deliver babies who would automatically enjoy all the benefits of American citizenship.

Over two years, the now-41-year-old raked in millions through her business, where mothers-to-be paid between US$40,000 and US$80,000 each to come to California, stay in an upscale flat and give birth, authorities said.

Li, who was arrested on Thursday, is one of 20 people charged in the first federal crackdown on birth tourism businesses that prosecutors said brought hundreds of pregnant women to the United States.

Jing Dong, 42, and Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 53, who allegedly operated “USA Happy Baby,” also were arrested. More than a dozen others, including the operator of a third such business, also face charges but are believed to have returned to China, the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles said.

While it is not illegal to visit the United States while pregnant, authorities said the businesses – which were raided by federal agents in 2015 – touted the benefits of having US citizen babies, who could get free public education and years later help their parents immigrate.

They also allegedly had women hide their pregnancies while seeking travel visas and lie about their plans, with one You Win USA customer telling consular officials she was going to visit a Trump hotel in Hawaii.

The charges include conspiracy, visa fraud and money laundering. But US authorities said the businesses also posed a national security risk since their customers, some who worked for the Chinese government, secured American citizenship for children who can move back to the United States and once they’re 21 and then sponsor their parents for green cards.

“I see this as a grave national security concern and vulnerability,” said Mark Zito, assistant special agent-in-charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s homeland security investigations. “Are some of them doing it for security because the United States is more stable? Absolutely. But will those governments take advantage of this? Yes, they will.”

Messages left for Li and Dong’s lawyers were not immediately returned. Derek Tung, Liu’s lawyer, said the growing interest among Chinese women to give birth to American babies drew attention to a phenomenon long employed by citizens of other countries.

His client had nothing to do with getting women visas from China but worked almost as a subcontractor to provide housing once they arrived, he said. “My client is merely the provider. The people who are in China are the ones in charge of everything,” he said.

Birth tourism businesses have long operated in California and other states and cater to couples from China, Russia, Nigeria and elsewhere.

In the past, operators sometimes ran into trouble with local code enforcement officials when neighbours in residential areas complained about crowding or excess trash, but they did not face federal scrutiny.

In 2015, federal agents in California raided roughly three dozen sites connected with the three businesses. More than 20 people were designated as material witnesses but some later fled to China and were charged with violating federal court orders, and a lawyer who helped them leave the country was convicted of obstruction of justice.

This week, a federal grand jury indicted four people who allegedly ran the birth tourism businesses until the 2015 raids, including Wen Rui Deng, 65, who is believed to be in China and accused of operating “Star Baby Care.”

That business dated to at least 2010 but advertised having brought 8,000 women to the United States – half of them from China – and claimed to have been running since 1999, prosecutors said.

Each business brought hundreds of customers to give birth in the United States and some didn’t pay all of the medical costs tied to their care, prosecutors said. One couple paid the indigent rate for their hospital bills – a total of US$4,080 – even though they had more than US$225,000 in a US bank account they had used to shop at luxury stores including Louis Vuitton, according to court papers.

Li, who operated You Win USA, told an undercover federal agent who was posing as a pregnant Chinese citizen that her company would train her to interview for a visa and pass customs, according to court filings.

At one point, the papers said, she also sent a text message to her husband about the business, saying “After all, this is not legal!”

Source: US charges 20 people over Chinese birth tourism schemes

Filed under Birthright Citizenship, Citizenship Tagged with , ,

Il n’y a pas d’islamophobie au Québec, affirme François Legault

2019/02/01 1 Comment

One thing not to support a commemorative day, another to deny that there is no Islamophobia or anti-Muslim attitudes in Quebec (especially when planned legislation is targeted at Muslims):

Après deux jours de réflexion, Québec ferme finalement catégoriquement la porte à ce que le 29 janvier – journée de commémoration de la tuerie à la mosquée de Québec, en 2017 – soit déclaré journée nationale contre l’islamophobie.

«Je ne pense pas qu’il y ait de l’islamophobie au Québec, je ne vois donc pas pourquoi il y aura une journée [qui y soit] consacrée», a tranché d’un ton sans appel le premier ministre François Legault, jeudi.

«Geneviève [Guilbault] a été prudente en disant qu’on allait regarder ça. On l’a regardé, y’en aura pas. C’est clair», a-t-il aussi affirmé.

Mardi, lors d’une réunion du conseil des ministres à Gatineau, la ministre de la Sécurité publique et vice-première ministre du Québec, Geneviève Guilbault, avait pourtant ouvert la porte à l’instauration d’une telle journée.

«C’est une discussion qu’on peut avoir», avait-elle brièvement dit, avant d’ajouter qu’elle était récemment présente à «un événement organisé par Louis Garneau pour avoir une journée nationale contre les textos au volant. Je trouve que c’est dans le même esprit d’essayer d’instituer cette pensée-là, cette mémoire-là.»

Le maire de Toronto a pour sa part déclaré cette semaine que le 29 janvier sera désormais désigné dans sa ville comme un «Jour de mémoire et d’action contre l’islamophobie» pour souligner la tuerie qui a frappé la mosquée de Québec en 2017.

Source: Il n’y a pas d’islamophobie au Québec, affirme François Legault

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Asylum-Seeker Barred From Entering Australia Wins Its Richest Literary Prize

2019/02/01 Leave a comment

Speaks for itself and the perseverance to be heard:

Back in August, when Behrouz Boochani was speaking with NPR over the phone, the Kurdish-Iranian journalist said his debut book, written mostly with texts he sent from an Australian detention center, was meant “to make a challenge against this system, to tell the truth to people.” He wasn’t motivated by money.

On Thursday, his work earned him some money anyway.

The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, which are among Australia’s most prestigious literary prizes, singled out Boochani’s No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison for their highest honor: the Victorian Prize for Literature. His book also won in the nonfiction category.

The Victorian Prize carries a purse of 100,000 Australian dollars, while the nonfiction award brings 25,000 on top of that — or about $90,000 in USD, all told.

But because Boochani remains detained on Manus Island, part of Papua New Guinea, at the same offshore facility where he’s been held since 2013, his translator, Omid Tofighian, picked the awards up at the ceremony in his stead. And Boochani had to deliver his remarks through a recorded video message.

“I have always said I believe in words and literature. I believe that literature has the potential to make change and challenge structures of power,” he said. “Literature has the power to give us freedom.”

Boochani himself has not enjoyed physical freedom for more than five years now. He has lived in a kind of legal purgatory since he fled from Iran to Indonesia and then tried to travel to Australia, where he had hoped to obtain asylum after his pro-Kurdish publication attracted the scrutiny of Iranian security forces.

Instead, the boat he’d been riding was intercepted by the Australian authorities, who eventually transferred him to Manus Island. It is there, at what the Australian government calls an “offshore processing centre” — and what what he calls a “prison” — that Boochani has lived for years.

Australia first reached an agreement with Papua New Guinea, back in 2013, to hold some asylum-seekers on its small northern neighbor. Since then the practice has received vehement pushback — including from Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court, which ruled it illegal in 2016, and from multiple international aid organizations.

In a report issued late last year, Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières, said dozens of the detainees had attempted suicide and still more had considered it.

“While many of our patients had experienced trauma,” said MSF’s Christine Rufener,“it was the Australian policy of indefinite processing that destroyed all their hope for the future and devastated their mental health.”

Despite the ruling of Papua New Guinea’s high court, and despite the Manus Island camp’s formal closure later, hundreds of asylum-seekers continue to languish on the island without much idea of what may come next.

During Boochani’s years-long detention, he wrote his book in Farsi, in dispatch after dispatch sent via WhatsApp, which Tofighian then translated into English and organized. The result is a hybrid text that eschews easy classification, combining journalism, poetry and critical theory to craft what the prize’s judges called “a new understanding both of Australia’s actions and of Australia itself.”

“Altogether, this is a demanding work of significant achievement,” they explained in their citation. “No Friend But the Mountains is a literary triumph, devastating and transcendent.”

In the end, Boochani told NPR, his work in some way is also a gesture of hope: “We all hope that finally, after five years, we get freedom in a place like America or other countries.”

Source: Asylum-Seeker Barred From Entering Australia Wins Its Richest Literary Prize

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Majority of Americans continue to say immigrants strengthen the U.S.

2019/02/01 Leave a comment

More data from Pew, confirming the highly partisan nature of views:

The American public’s views of the impact immigrants have on the country remain largely positive – and deeply partisan.

Partisan gap in views of immigrants as wide as at any point in at least 25 yearsAs in recent years, a majority (62%) say immigrants strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents. Just 28% say immigrants are a burden on the country because they take jobs, housing and health care, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center.

These attitudes have changed little in the past few years, but they are very different from a quarter-century ago. In 1994, attitudes were nearly the reverse of what they are today: 63% of Americans said immigrants burdened the country and 31% said they strengthened it.

An estimated 45.1 million immigrants were living in the U.S. in 2016, accounting for 13.9% of the nation’s population. Most (76%) are in the country legally.

Republicans and Democrats have never been further apart in their views of immigrants than they are currently. Democrats and those who lean to the Democratic Party overwhelmingly say immigrants are a strength to the nation (83% say this); just 11% say immigrants burden the United States. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 38% say immigrants strengthen the country, while nearly half (49%) say they burden it.

Generational differences in views of immigrantsThere also are sizable generational differences in opinions about immigrants. Three-quarters of Millennials (75%) say immigrants strengthen rather than burden the U.S. That compares with 63% of Gen Xers, 52% of Baby Boomers and 44% in the Silent Generation. In 1994, roughly comparable shares of Gen Xers, Boomers and Silents expressed positive views of immigrants.

Generational differences are evident in both parties but are particularly stark among Republicans. More than half of Millennial Republicans (58%) say immigrants strengthen the country, compared with just 36% of Gen Xer Republicans and even smaller shares among older GOP generations. Among Democrats, there are only modest generational differences in these views, with no fewer than seven-in-ten of those in all generations saying this, including nearly nine-in-ten Millennial (88%) and Gen Xer (87%) Democrats.

Note: See full topline results and methodology. 

Source: Majority of Americans continue to say immigrants strengthen the U.S.

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Statistics Canada is better than you might think. But it can still do better: Munir Sheikh

2019/02/01 Leave a comment

Sheikh comments on the Globe’s data gap series and offers some practical suggestions of his own:

Canada has huge gaps in our data. That’s the big takeaway from The Globe and Mail’s notable series examining the state of Canadian data, which tells us that we lag behind some other countries, particularly the United States; that these gaps exist because of constrained funding and Statistics Canada’s bureaucratic, secretive mindset; and that these gaps are having a negative effect on our decision-making.

Yes, Canada has problems. But then, who doesn’t?

Citizens and governments around the world make millions of daily decisions on a vast array of issues, and each of these can potentially benefit from more data. The existence of gaps, therefore, is a virtual certainty anywhere in the world. The much-lauded U.S., for instance, does not produce detailed monthly GDP data, while Canada does, and many experts and statisticians feel that Canada’s important GDP data are of better quality than those that the U.S. does produce and require fewer revisions. Canada is also one of just a handful of countries that produced financial flow accounts, which allows policy-makers to better understand the nature and economic impacts of the 2008 financial market crash.

Canada also does an extraordinary job in producing high-quality census data at a much lower cost compared with many countries, thanks to innovations like sampling in census and being among the first to use the internet to gather citizens’ responses. Canada can also boast of higher survey-response rates in many areas than the United States. And all this despite having roughly a tenth of the resources available to the U.S. federal statistical system.

That certainly doesn’t mean all is good and well here. We face serious challenges when it comes to acquiring the highest quality and most relevant data. The quality of data deteriorates automatically as the country evolves amid forces like the ongoing tech revolution (e.g. using cell phones instead of land lines) and efforts to gather survey responses suffer. Data also becomes less relevant over time as the country’s needs begin to differ from the available information. For instance, we continue to produce a disproportionately large quantity of data on manufacturing than on the services industry, even though services now represents two-thirds of the economy. And Canada’s long-form census was, for a time, replaced by a voluntary survey that produced all the information the longer census would have accumulated but with lower quality – and a higher cost, to boot.

In my view, this has produced data gaps in census information, but bad data may be more dangerous than no data at all, since giving credence to bad information can lead to bad policy. The debate around data would be most productive if it’s framed around both quantity as well as quality, which would enable policy-makers and Canadians to deal with the most pressing national issues in an informed way. On this count, Statistics Canada has struggled, as do many others.

There are three things that can be done to proactively deal with data deterioration.

  • First, the government can increase funding for Statistics Canada to close the most important gaps that exist now, including information that measures the digital economy.
  • Secondly, Statistics Canada should, over time, reallocate resources from less-needed data to those that are more important. Despite its efforts, the agency has not been able to establish an effective resource-reallocation mechanism, because it has had to bend many times to the users of existing data. Users of any data become vocally unhappy if theirs stops being collected.
  • Lastly, Statistics Canada should tap new data sources and new ways of collecting information that can replace or augment existing methods.

Indeed, on that last front, Statistics Canada’s paranoia around confidentiality and privacy makes its brass gun-shy in acquiring or sharing new data with researchers. I witnessed it firsthand. Despite best efforts during my tenure as chief statistician, confidentiality concerns made it a slog to make more business-sector microdata available. But while Statistics Canada’s record of privacy-preservation and confidentiality is excellent – better than many of the most sensitive institutions in the U.S. (we have not endured crises like Wikileaks or the Pentagon Papers) – those issues have thwarted attempts to maintain data quality. Through politicians’ invocation of the bogeyman of privacy to try to kill the long-form census and a Global News report that exposed its requests for Canadians’ detailed financial-transaction data, Statistics Canada ironically finds itself in a lose-lose situation – criticized for its poor dissemination of data because it is so concerned about privacy, and denied access to new sources of data because privacy concerns have bred mistrust.

But the institution itself might just provide the way forward. Recent amendments to the Statistics Act established a Canadian Statistics Advisory Council to support the minister and the chief statistician, and this council should be tasked with convincing data users that certain resources should be allocated better. By playing an oversight role on privacy and confidentiality issues, too, the council can earn the trust of Canadians who, knowing that their data are safe and secure, might be more giving with their information for the national good.

There are certainly ways to improve Statistics Canada. But if collecting data is all about getting the whole picture, we can’t lose sight of what we’re already doing well.

Source: www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-statistics-canada-is-better-than-you-might-think-but-it-can-still-do/

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