Francophone census challenge thrown out

A francophone group had been arguing that the decision to scrap the mandatory census would harm French language services.

The Federal Court of Canada rejected a case presented by the Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities today, finding that the government's decision to eliminate the mandatory census does not contravene the Official Languages Act. The mandatory long-form census has been replaced by a voluntary survey that experts say will yield less accurate data and that the federation said will depict a skewed picture of where and how many French Canadians are living in Canada. The group feared this would impair the government's ability to provide them with French language services. The government's census changes have been extremely unpopular, and the Liberals tabled a bill last week to force the Conservatives to reinstate the mandatory form.