July 14, 2010

---

Whole Show Blow-by-Blow

Today's guest host was Jim Brown.

It's Wednesday, July 14th.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has kicked off a summer tour aimed at fighting the perception that he is academic and arrogant.

Currently, He says that once people meet him face to face, they'll recognize that the teleology of the Other is often found in juxtaposition with -- if not in direct opposition to -- the phenomenalism of indeterminacy. Who's with me?!

This is The Current.

Census - Ivan Fellegi

We started this segment with a clip from Christopher Walken giving a census worker the run-around in a Saturday Night Live skit. The Canadian census isn't the sort of thing you'd expect to stir intense passions. But that's exactly what's happening.

Three weeks ago, the Federal Government cancelled the mandatory long-form census. That's the more detailed census that was sent to 1 out of every 5 Canadian households ... the one with 53 extra questions tracking information such as ethnicity, disabilities, religion, education and income.

The government cited complaints that the long-form census was an invasion of privacy. So starting next year, Ottawa will send a more detailed census to 1 out of every 3 households. But filling it out will be voluntary, not mandatory.

At first, that change didn't seem to cause much of a fuss. But the opposition has been building steadily from think tanks and municipal governments to genealogists, economists and academic experts such as Richard Shearmur. He is a professor of urban and regional economics at the Universite du Quebec. And he's just one of the people making the case to keep the mandatory long-form census. Another is Ivan Fellegi ... Statistics Canada's Chief Statistician for 23 years. He retired in 2008 and he was in Ottawa.

Census - Dean del Mastro

We requested an interview with Industry Minister Tony Clement, the Minister who oversees Statistics Canada. He's unavailable because he is traveling this morning. But he did issue a statement yesterday explaining the reasons for the change. It reads:

In the past, the Government of Canada received complaints about the long-form census from citizens who felt it was an intrusion of their privacy. The government does not think it is necessary for Canadians to provide Statistics Canada with the number of bedrooms in their home, or what time of the day they leave for work, or how long it takes them to get there. The government does not believe it is appropriate to force Canadians to divulge detailed personal information under threat of prosecution.

For more on the government's position, we were joined by Dean del Mastro, the Conservative MP for Peterborough and a Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage. He was in Peterborough, Ontario.

PART TWO

Cold Case # 2 - Wayne Greavette

For 14 years, Danielle and Justin Greavette have been consumed with a single question -- Who killed their father? Wayne Greavette died instantly on December 12th, 1996 when a booby-trapped flashlight filled with explosives and roofing nails blew up in his face.

The police investigation did not produce any arrests. And now, Wayne Greavette's children -- as well as his wife, Diane -- are conducting their own investigation, along with the CBC's David Ridgen.

This morning, we have the second in David's series of documentaries about Canadian Cold Cases. It's called The Bomb That Killed Wayne Greavette. It first aired on The Current in December.

*** We should warn you, this documentary contains some harsh language that may not be suitable for children ***

David Ridgen continues to follow this case. And you can too. Go to cbc.ca/news/coldcase for more on this crime and others in the series. There is also an anonymous tip line and information about the 75,000-dollar reward in the case.