As the world celebrated the first World Statistics Day on 20th October, a group of statisticians conducts a funeral for the long-form census in a YouTube video. “We in Canada are in a unique position in this celebration,” said Don Mcleish, president, Statistical Society of Canada, “having boasted (according to the Economist magazine) one of the pre-eminent government statistical agencies in the world. Certain events, including cancellation of the long form census this past summer, have cast a shadow on the WSD celebration.”

The Statistics Society of Canada screened the 8-minute amateur video based on the irony of the inaugural World Statistics Day occurring in the year of the cancelled census. You can view this video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntU3_x6PqpY.