February 10, 2003
Statistics Canada has announced that they are going to begin to compile data on the sexual orientation of Canadians. People will be asked if they are heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, and in keeping with the government’s practice of appealing to the lowest denominator, definitions of these terms will be provided. As soon as the proposal became public, radio talk show lines lit up with irate callers who expressed shock and outrage that the government would dare to question their sexual preferences or orientations.
You have to wonder what all the fuss is about. Questions concerning sexual orientation, or "lifestyle choices" as the trendy like to refer to it, are no more intrusive than many other types of information that StatsCan elicits from people all the time. There can’t possibly be more people who object to the government wanting to know if they’re homosexual, than those that are upset that big brother wants to know how much money they make or what assets they have. And unlike income, at least the feds haven’t figured out a way to tax sexual orientation. At least not yet. Other than those who are in the closet, people should not be objecting to the questions. Probably many of those objecting to the proposal are people who think that there is nothing wrong with homosexual or bisexual activities--they just don’t want the government to ask "them".
Statistics Canada gathers information so that they can compile statistics that will be used in formulating policy and planning programs. With the government already paying out same sex benefits and the probability of same sex marriages being just around the corner, there is nothing wrong with the government trying to compile data on the nation’s sexual preferences.
It is interesting to compare the outrage that some ordinary Canadians had to StatsCan’s announcement with other proposals being made by the government. Legislation is now before Parliament regarding the collection and dissemination of airline passenger information. It is being proposed that information that airlines have; who is travelling with whom, where a passenger is flying to, how a ticket is paid for, and a person’s past itinery, be able to be released to law enforcement agencies. This is all under the guise of fighting terrorism, but there are no restrictions on what an agency that receives this information can do with it. Then there is the not-to-smart Immigration Minister going on and on and on about the so-called "smart card", which he would like all of us to carry. While a lot of people are upset about being asked about their sexuality, other than the Privacy Commissioner and civil rights groups, few people seemed concerned about other proposed government intrusions into their lives.
When I was listening to a talk show on the StatsCan proposal, I wondered how long I would have to listen until I heard "the phrase". It wasn’t long--the third caller mentioned it. "The phrase" is of course, Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s famous "the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation". Lacking the punch of other Trudeauisms such as "just watch me" and "fuddle duddle", his most famous phrase, much like the man himself, is highly overrated.
To begin with, it simply isn’t true. Just ask someone who’s on day parole from an exclusive minimum security penitentiary for having been caught having sex with a child in his bedroom, if the state has no business there. Every day people are convicted of crimes such as sexual assault and possession of illegal materials where, the fact that the offence occurred in the privacy of their bedroom is never a defense.
And to say that the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, implies that the state has business in every other room in your house, including the garage. The government is everywhere. It makes no sense to only get upset about sex related questions.
Canadians only seem to be upset about invasions of their privacy when it refers to sexual practices or orientation. Go figure.