Statscan flip-flops and releases Inuit survey results

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Amid concerns that Inuit privacy may be violated, Statistics Canada has forged ahead in releasing results from surveys done in Inuit communities.

Until last month, the federal statistics department, responding to pressure from Inuit organizations, took unusual steps to suppress their own information.

Groups represented by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami complained that releasing the complete results of the national survey could be used to identify details about specific people in Inuit communities, including whether they have a phone, and whether they have a job.

In light of the concerns, Statscan originally decided not to release information about the Inuit communities on the Internet, but instead provided figures on areas such as education, labour and health on a regional level. Printed copies of survey results were to be released at a later date.

Then, the Government of Nunavut’s top statistician complained, and as a result, Statscan flip-flopped, and released results on each community last month.

Jack Hicks, director of evaluation and statistics for the GN, said he questioned why the decision was made in the first place. To justify the move, he said Statscan would have to argue Inuit privacy was more important or more at risk than that of other aboriginal groups.

“This is the illogic of what they did,” said Hicks. “They said it was for community privacy concerns or something like that. So, logically, Inuit people have greater such concerns than First Nations people do, which doesn’t make any sense.”

Hicks said instead of protecting Inuit, holding back the information could have affected their lives for the worse. He said GN departments would have been at a disadvantage in pressing the federal government for funding.

“The days are over when you can walk into Ottawa and make a rhetorical argument,” he said. “You have to have data to back up your case, and the most nuanced data is at the community level.”

Two Inuit regions still want Statscan to keep a lid on the Internet release of the community profiles, according to an ITK employee who helped coordinate Inuit input into the survey and the handling of results.

ITK health director Onalee Randell said Inuit in Nunavik and Labrador agreed to the release, but Nunavut Inuit, through Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., and Inuvialuit, through the Inuvialuit Development Corp., were still undecided.

Randell said data from this survey carries particular weight. Statisticians and Inuit groups alike hail the survey – which questioned more than 117,000 Inuit, Métis and First Nations across the country in the early 1990s – as the most comprehensive and important collection of data on eastern Arctic communities to date.

Kristen Underwood, manager of the Aboriginal Peoples Survey for Statscan admitted holding back the information was “not appropriate.”

“We protect individual confidentiality, but not community privacy,” Underwood said. “It’s not something that falls under the [Statistics Canada] act, and it’s not something we generally do.

“In the end, we decided to do what we’ve done for all Canadians across the country and publish the data for everybody.”