The threat of a francophone group's court challenge has forced the Harper government to blink, but it's still refusing to bend on its overall plan to scrap the mandatory long-form national census.
Industry Minister Tony Clement announced Wednesday that the government will add three questions on language skills to the obligatory short-form 2011 census.
Until now, the questions have been part of the long-form census, which the government has decided to turn into a voluntary survey, despite widespread criticism that the resulting data will be unreliable and unscientific.
Clement's move was aimed at short-circuiting a court challenge by a francophone group which maintains scrapping the mandatory nature of the long-form census will violate the Charter of Rights and the Official Languages Act ....
