[mobglob-discuss] vivelecanada census action

[Radical Press]

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namaste,
arthur topham
pub/ed
the radical press
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COUNT ME OUT!
 
BOYCOTT the Canadian Census Test!
Last year, former Industry Minister Allan Rock awarded U.S. military
contractor Lockheed-Martin and its consortium of companies the contract to
prepare a 2004 test run of the next Canadian census. Despite intense
opposition from Canadians, Lockheed-Martin is still a prime candidate to
receive a contract to do the entire Canadian census in 2006, and the census
testing is going ahead as planned. The test questionnaires will be delivered
starting on April 27. The official census test day is May 11, 2004.

For more information on the census testing and a list of test sites, visit:
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/censustest/overview.cfm
Lockheed-Martin Makes WMDs
Lockheed-Martin is the largest weapons contractor in the world. The company
manufactures ballistic missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.

Lockheed-Martin is also a key contractor for U.S. President George W. Bush's
"missile defence" program, aka Star Wars, a program that experts say will
lead to a new arms race and the weaponization of space--and a program which
Canada is still considering joining.

The company was specifically mentioned in Michael Moore's groundbreaking
documentary Bowling for Columbine because of it's involvement with the
welfare to work program in the U.S.

And Lockheed-Martin is known for corruption and breaking the rules. The U.S.
Project on Government Oversite reports that:
In 2002, Lockheed-Martin had the second highest number of instances of
misconduct and alleged misconduct of any US government contractor and pay
outs of just over $426 million US in fines.
In 2000, Lockheed-Martin was charged with 30 violations of the US Arms
Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Lockheed-Martin paid a civil penalty of $13 million.
In 1997, Lockheed-Martin exported material to South Korea that can be used
in missile delivery/reentry systems. Lockheed did not obtain the export
license required for national security and nuclear nonproliferation
considerations. The company paid a $45,000 civil penalty.
In 1995, Lockheed-Martin pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act for paying bribes to officials of the Egyptian Government. The
company paid a criminal fine of $24.8 million.
From: The US Project on Government Oversight
http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/ca-030701-contract.html

Privacy Concerns
Stat Can says our census information, or the most "complete snapshot" of
Canada, is safe with Lockheed-Martin. But past examples should give
Canadians pause for thought.

The Washington Times has reported that 5 million records from the 1990 U.S.
census were used by NASA as part of a study to test terrorist screening,
without the knowledge of U.S. citizens and despite assurances from the U.S.
census bureau that the data was safe. See "Study used census information for
terror profile", by Audrey Hudson, January 19, 2004, and "Inquiry sought
into airline's data transfer to NASA", by Audrey Hudson, January 21, 2004.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040118-114335-2930r.htm

Lockheed-Martin and the other three contractors were hired to test computer
algorithms as part of the CAPPS II terrorist screening program. In early
April, Wired reported that Lockheed-Martin was one of four government
contractors that received confidential passenger records from American
Airlines. American Airlines had initially claimed that no information was
turned over to Lockheed and the other companies.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,63025-2,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_ne
xt1 

Should any of the census information end up in the hands of the defence
contractor, it's also possible that under the PATRIOT Act U.S. intelligence
agencies could request confidential information from Lockheed-Martin without
ever disclosing that fact to the public.
Keeping the Census Canadian
Stat Can is widely respected for its ability to handle information, and
Canada bills itself around the world as an expert in gathering and sorting
data. 

There likely are any number of professionals in Canada who have the
expertise to create the software and hardware that Stat Can could use for
the 2006 census. 

But Stat Can says it had to contract out a portion of the census because it
didn't have the ability to handle it all itself. Once the decision was made
to contract out the census, the bidding process had to be opened up to both
Canadian and American companies.

But shouldn't Stat Can actually have tried to work on keeping or developing
the expertise in data collection it says it has? Why privatize the census?
Our Actions So Far, and Stat Can's Response
Vive le Canada.ca has already sent around 3000 of your emails to former
Industry Minister Rock asking that our census information NOT be given to
this giant U.S. military contractor because of concerns about sovereignty,
privacy and confidentiality. Although Rock did not reply, the Chief
Statistician of Canada assured us our information would be safe. (link)

Recently (April 19), Statistics Canada contacted Vive le Canada to say it
has changed the contract with Lockheed Martin so that the company will not
have access to any information, and will only handle developing software and
hardware for the census.

While we are happy to see Stat Can starting to respond to the concerns of
Canadians, we are still concerned. For one thing, if Lockheed Martin is not
going to have access to our information anymore then Stat Can wasn't being
honest when they told us we had nothing to worry about when we first
launched this action.

We would also like to see the specifics of the new agreement to be sure that
our information is safe. In the U.S., the U.S. census bureau assured
American citizens that their information was safe, but the Washington Times
has since reported that 5 million records from the 1990 U.S. census were
used by NASA as part of a study to test terrorist screening, without the
knowledge of U.S. citizens.

And finally, even if Lockheed Martin no longer has any access to our
information, that still doesn't address the fact that the census was
contracted out in the first place, or that we are still giving such a large,
important contract to a U.S. military company that also has so much to do
with the proposed "missile defence" system.

The NDP
The NDP is the only political party that has called the Canadian government
to task over the Lockheed Martin census contract. Bill Blaikie, NDP MP, was
the person who first questioned the government about the contract and
continued to question the government about it after it was confirmed that
the contract was real.

Now Dick Proctor, NDP MP for Palliser, has a motion before the House calling
on the government to CANCEL the census contract.
Take Action: Boycott the Census Test!
If the census testing doesn't go well, Stat Can will have to reconsider
giving Lockheed Martin the real contract in 2006.

And unlike the real census, the census testing is also completely VOLUNTARY
and Canadians DON'T face fines or jail time if they refuse to participate.

So it's the perfect time for Canadians to tell Stat Can to count us out and
CANCEL the Lockheed Martin census contract.
What You Can Do:
1) BOYCOTT THE TESTING
If you're in one of the testing areas and Stat Can asks you to fill out a
census questionnaire at the end of April, get a red pen, crayon, or marker
and write "Vive le Canada", "Count me Out" or "No Blood for Stats" across
the form and return it. DON'T FILL IT OUT.

For a list of test sites, visit:
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/censustest/overview.cfm
2) SEND AN EMAIL SUPPORTING THE NDP MOTION
You can use our convenient email form to send an email to Prime Minister
Paul Martin, Industry Minister Lucienne Robillard, the Chief Statistician of
Canada, NDP MPs and Vive le Canada supporting the motion to cancel the
Lockheed Martin census contract.

It only takes a few seconds. Click here for the email form!
<http://www.vivelecanada.ca/formletters/index.php?page=20040128135936132>
3) DOWNLOAD AND POST OUR POSTERS
Download one of our Count Me Out! posters and put it up in your community.

Poster 1(jpeg) <http://census.vivelecanada.ca/posters/census_poster.jpg>
Poster 1(jpeg, large)
<http://census.vivelecanada.ca/posters/census_poster_mid.jpg>
Poster 1(jpeg, Huge)
<http://census.vivelecanada.ca/posters/census_poster_big.jpg>
Poster 1(Adobe Illustrator 8)
<http://census.vivelecanada.ca/posters/census_poster.ai>

Note that these are the only official posters for this action. Modification
is discouraged, as we prefer you post the original versions. These posters
were designed by Flick Harrison.
4) WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Take a few moments and write a letter to the editor of your local paper
telling them why you're going to boycott the census testing. For tips on
writing letters to the editor, see this article on vivelecanada
<http://www.vivelecanada.ca/staticpages/index.php?page=20030406144848561> .
5) TELL A FRIEND
Send an email to your list of friends and contacts encouraging them to join
our boycott, or post a link to this page in discussion forums around the
web. 




For more information on this and other issues important to Canadians, visit
vivelecanada.ca <http://www.vivelecanada.ca/> .




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