Groups opposed to the introduction of a voluntary long-form census this year are making arguments in a federal court. Canadian Press

The mandatory, long-form census may be gone, but groups were in Federal Court on Wednesday to make sure parts of it are not forgotten.

The Canadian Council on Social Development wants the short-form census to include questions about ethnicity and cultural heritage, aboriginal status and disability.

Those questions do not appear on the shorter census form and the council is arguing that exclusion means the government does not have the information it needs to serve all Canadians.

"It is the shortest of short forms, just a dozen questions," said the council's lawyer, Paul Champ.

"It is the least inclusive census in Canadian history."

Champ argued the census has a long history of asking questions about ethnicity, religion and disabilities, going back to the country's first census in 1871.

That first survey included questions about a respondent's sex, age, religion, country of origin, occupation, marital status, education, if they could read, and if they were deaf or blind.

Champ argued the 2011 census discriminated against Canadians from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, as well as aboriginals and people with disabilities. He said this census would be fine if Canada were a homogeneous country of able-bodied, white people -- but it's not.

"Some groups are included, some groups are not," Champ said.

Simply including these additional questions on the voluntary National Household Survey would not suffice, Champ added, calling the census an important part of Canadian society.

"It is the fundamental picture," he said.

Government lawyer Robert MacKinnon disagreed, arguing that the National Household Survey does in fact collect all the information that the council claims is no longer available to policy makers.

MacKinnon also argued there is no legal or constitutional requirement to collect any cultural, religious or ethnic data on the census. The census, he said, is only meant to count people.

"There's been no benefit denied" to these groups, MacKinnon said.

The Conservative government scrapped the mandatory, long-form census, claiming it was an unjustifiable imposition on privacy.

The government argues that it has struck a balance between the need for data and concerns expressed by some Canadians that the census process was too invasive and unnecessarily coercive.

The council is joined in its challenge by a dozen social, community and legal organizations.