The Munk Schook of Global Affairs is organizing a panel discussion on data and policy in Canada, moderated by the Toronto Star's Carol Goar. Speakers will include Former Chief Statistician of Canada Munir Sheikh, as well as Mel Cappe, and David Hulchanski. The panel is titled Imposed Ignorance: On what evidence does Ottawa base its policies?

Event description

What are the effects of lack of accurate information on businesses, social services, planners, providers of health care services, on all of us?

The mandatory long-form census used to inform us about ourselves as a country, not perfectly, of course, but it did provide important and reliable information about the people in our country as a whole as well as in specific areas. Its replacement, a voluntary survey, provides information that is inaccurate and cost more to administer. This is just one example of how Canadians are systematically made to be more ignorant about our country and ourselves than we were in the past. Government scientists are prohibited from speaking with the media and the public without political oversight. A number of environmental monitoring services have been abolished. The list goes on and is long.

Good policies must be based on solid evidence. Democracy requires an informed electorate. An uninformed or misinformed government and public put democracy at risk.

These are some of the issues that will be considered by the outstanding panel discussing the ignorance imposed on us and its consequences.

Date and time

Tuesday September 30, 2014. 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Location

Campbell Conference Facility
Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
1 Devonshire Place (at Hoskin Avenue)
Free admission (register online): http://bit.ly/imposedignorancetickets

Livestream:  http://bit.ly/imposedignorance

Panellists

Munir Sheikh
School of Public Policy, University of Calgary & former Chief Statistician of Canada

Mel Cappe
School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Toronto & former Clerk of the Privy Council

J David Hulchanski
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto & Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership