The Conservatives want to recall the federal industry committee right away so they can better explain their decision to axe next year's mandatory, long census.

The long census only goes to 20 per cent of the population during every census, so 80 per cent of Canadians don't realize how invasive it is, explained Conservative MP Maxime Bernier.

"So they don't know what we're talking about. And so we have to explain what we did and why we did it, and we'll use the committee," Bernier said in a telephone interview Sunday.

The Tories also want to use the emergency committee hearings to put the opposition Liberals on the spot, Bernier said.

"The opposition will have to explain to Canadians why they want the state and the government of Canada to know lots of details from their private lives. They will have to answer their question."

The Conservatives axed the long form at the end of June, in a quietly published order in council.

The uproar since then has been anything but quiet. Municipal governments, provincial governments, social scientists, religious groups, medical researchers, economists, minority-rights advocates and some business groups have all decried the move.

They say the long census is a crucial tool in policy-making and in understanding local population dynamics in Canada, and can't properly be replaced by a voluntary survey. That's because a voluntary survey would contain a bias and omit groups that tend to object to or avoid answering questions from government agencies.

The Liberals have taken up their cause. They have also requested that the industry committee members interrupt their summer to come back to Ottawa and discuss the census issue.

The census decision was made by cabinet without broad public consultation, Industry Minister Tony Clement has said.

But Bernier said that when he was industry minister during the last census period, he received about 1,000 complaints per day about the long census being too nosy.

From now on, Statistics Canada will still ask the same questions, but it won't force people to answer. If researchers want more details, they can conduct the research themselves, Bernier added.

"If some special interest group wants data on Canadians, they can do that, they can pay for that and they can do it," Bernier said.

"But we're not there to please special interest groups. We're there for the silent majority of Canadians. And I'm sure that the big majority of Canadians understand that and they will agree with our decision."

Bernier said he tried in 2006 to axe the long form, but he was too late. The forms had already been published and the process was well underway when he tried to make the change.

Now, the government has acted well in advance of the 2011, and will not change its mind, Bernier added.

Four Conservative MPs plan to make an official request Monday that the committee meet as soon as possible, Bernier said.

He believes the committee hearings could take place within the week.

The MPs' motion requests hearings to "examine the urgent public issue created by the Ignatieff Liberals' threat to prosecute and jail law-abiding Canadians who do not wish to participate" in the long census questionnaire.