OTTAWA, May 10, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The short form of the Canadian Census for May 2001 asks about homosexual relationships.
Question Number 5 asks: “IS THIS PERSON LIVING WITH A COMMON-LAW PARTNER?” then goes on to explain that “Common-law refers to two people of the opposite sex or of the same sex who live together as a couple but who are not legally married to each other.”
Question Number 6 then asks for the: “RELATIONSHIP TO PERSON 1” and explains “For each person living here, describe his/her relationship to Person 1.” Each person in the house hold is numbered and under each person each space for a check is also numbered. For person 2—the space for check #13 reads: “Common-law partner (opposite- sex) of Person 1”, and the space for check #14 reads: “Common-law partner (same-sex) of Person 1.”
In the portion of the form: “Reasons why we ask the question” it says the following: “Questions 2 to 6 ask about the people living in each household. From these questions we can learn about the living arrangements of people living in Canada, family size, the number of children living with one parent or with two parents, and the number of people who live alone. This information is used for planning social programs, such as Old Age Security and the Child Tax Benefit. It is also used by towns and cities to plan a variety of services such as day-care centers, schools and senior citizens’ homes. ” The explanation says nothing about why information on homosexual couples is wanted.
LifeSite contacted a Census 2001 official who read from a prepared text saying “Individuals, organizations and governments have expressed a need for this information, in light of the growing legal and societal recognition of same-sex unions. Some federal, provincial and municipal legislations, as well as the private sector insurance plans now extend rights and benefits to same sex partners.” The official then noted several federal and provincial legislative decisions offering benefits to homosexual couples and then confirmed that the stats would thus be used to plan and budget for these programs.