Boycott The 2006 Canadian Census: Boycott Lockheed Martin!

nimh · May 2, 2006

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Statistics Canada has contracted out software, hardware, and printing of the 2006 Canadian Census to Lockheed Martin--the world's biggest arms manufaturer, a maker of weapons of mass destruction, a company that continues to benefit from the war in Iraq, a company known for corruption and breaking the rules, and a company that could possibly invade our privacy under the US PATRIOT Act if it obtained such information. For more detailed information and background on the issue visit: The Census Issue

We hope you'll join the growing protest against Lockheed Martin’s involvement in the 2006 Canadian census. There are several different ways you can join the protest, which we've listed here.

May 16 is Canadian census day. On May 16, stand up for Canadian sovereignty!

What You Can Do:

1) REFUSE TO FILL THE CENSUS FORM OUT ONLINE
Stat Can is encouraging as many Canadians as possible to fill the census out online. According to Stat Can, the online form will be accessible May 2. Some people will not even receive the paper forms and instead will be directed to the website.

So, simply do not fill the census out online as Statistics Canada is encouraging people to do this year. Fill it out on paper instead. If you receive only a letter asking you to complete the census online rather than an actual form, request the paper form.

This registers protest because it creates a bit more work for Stat Can, and because the online technology was developed by Lockheed Martin. Of course the privacy of online data is also likely more easily compromised (since it is linked to the broad network of the internet). Please note, however, that your census form will still be scanned using software and hardware developed by Lockheed Martin and other contractors.

(This action is totally legal because you are still filling out the census as required by law.)

Then make sure you let Stat Can and your government officials know you're opposed to Lockheed Martin's involvement in the census by emailing them with our handy form letter! You will be given the opportunity to edit the message before sending.

If you don't send the form letter, we ask that you still let us know you're participating in the protest by emailing susan.thompson@vivelecanada.ca.

2) ENGAGE IN MINIMUM COOPERATION WITH THE CENSUS
Do not fill out the census form online, and then cooperate with the paper census – as minimally as possible. This not only makes a point, it's actually pretty fun.

For example, if you lose the census form, you can request a replacement form, which will of course take extra time to arrive. If you lose that one too, well, you can ask for another. You can be busy at the time that a census worker calls at your door, or on the phone, and you can politely suggest another time when you are not busy. If you accidentally spill your coffee on the form, don’t worry, it can still be processed—but it will have to be processed by actual Stat Can workers rather than Lockheed Martin’s scanning software. Maybe you generally write very lightly. Maybe your hand-eye coordination is not as good as it used to be, and you have difficulty keeping your individual letters inside the little boxes on the forms. Be creative.

These suggestions are all courtesy CountMeOut.ca, a website specifically devoted to minimum cooperation on the census that we are promoting and cooperating with. If you choose this option, we strongly suggest you visit CountMeOut.ca for more ideas and support: www.countmeout.ca. Vive and CountMeOut.ca are working together to highlight the census issue.

(As far as we know, this action is legal because you are still filling out the census as required by law; you're just extending the process.)

Then make sure you let Stat Can and your government officials know you're opposed to Lockheed Martin's involvement in the census by emailing them with our handy form letter! You will be given the opportunity to edit the message before sending.

If you don't send the form letter, we ask that you still let us know you're participating in the protest by emailing susan.thompson@vivelecanada.ca.

And of course be sure to drop countmeout.ca a line. You can contact Don at CountMeOut.ca at: donrogers@primus.ca

3. COMPLETELY BOYCOTT THE CENSUS
This is the riskiest and likely the most powerful protest option. Under the Statistics Act, Canadians are legally required to complete the census and not to provide false information on a census. If you refuse to completely fill out the census, you may be fined or, at the extreme, jailed. Our understanding is that the maximum fine is $500 and the maximum jail sentence is three months. For more information on the laws regarding the census, visit: Census Legal Information

We list the consequences because it must be your personal choice whether or not to break the law for this cause. Vive cannot make that choice for you. We offer a number of legal options for protest on this page.

But we can say that the most powerful statement anyone we can make is to completely boycott the census. The more people who choose this option, the more difficult it will be for the government and Stat Can to ignore the issue, and the more likely such protests will be successful. It is also far more difficult to fine or jail thousands of people than one or two. That’s why this is the action Stat Can is the most worried about, the action Stat Can specifically told us NOT to encourage—it is the most effective.

We’d also like to point that any protest includes risk. Many protestors have been arrested and jailed for protesting in public places in Canada, even though this right is legally protected. Even legitimate dissent has often been criminalized, whether in Canada or in other countries. It is always a personal choice how to protest and what consequences you are willing to accept for your dissent.

If you choose this option, please be sure to let us know. We can spread the word about your choice, talk to media, and put you in touch with others who have made the same choice. We may be able to get you legal help or assistance with paying fines. We know that other Vive members or readers, and Canadians across the country, are choosing this option in order to make the most powerful statement they can. They can be your support, and they can add to your voice, making it far more powerful than if you speak out alone.

Then make sure you let Stat Can and your government officials know you're opposed to Lockheed Martin's involvement in the census by emailing them with our handy form letter!

If you don't send the form letter, we ask that you still let us know you're participating in the protest by emailing susan.thompson@vivelecanada.ca.

(Note: You will most likely not be fined or jailed immediately. If you refuse to provide the information, your case will likely be passed on to the Census District Supervisor, who will then try to convince you to fill out the census—probably not until a month after census day. If you still refuse, you may start to be threatened with consequences, and then eventually, could be charged and later fined or jailed, depending on what a judge decides in your case.)

More Actions: Help Us Spread the Word

It is also extremely important that as many people as possible speak up about this issue and make their voices of protest heard. This part is all completely legal, relatively easy to do—and absolutely critical to the campaign.

1) TELL A FRIEND
It is extremely powerful to simply talk to the people you know about the issue, whether friends, family, or people at work. All you need to do is start off by saying “Did you know….?” Then explain that Lockheed Martin, the biggest U.S. military contractor and the biggest military contractor in the world, is working on the Canadian census. Many people will immediately express surprise and displeasure. Those people who ask “So?” are giving you an opportunity to explain the issue and why it matters.

Oh, and don’t forget to 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.

2. DOWNLOAD AND POST POSTERS

Download and post one of CountMeOut.ca’s posters to promote minimum cooperation in the census: CountMeOut.ca

3) 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. More people read the letters to the editor page than any other page in the paper, and this is a great way to raise awareness of this issue in your local community. For tips on writing letters to the editor, see this article on vivelecanada: Writing a Letter to the Editor

And please let us know if your letter is printed by emailing susan.thompson@vivelecanada.ca.

4) TALK TO YOUR MUNICIPAL POLITICIANS
Municipal politicians are being encouraged to promote the census. Meet with your local municipal politicians (county, town, city, etc). Point out the loss of sovereignty and privacy issues related to the census this year. Ask your municipality to at least remain neutral, and not promote the census.

And please let us know who you talked to and what they said by emailing susan.thompson@vivelecanada.ca.

5) HELP LIMIT BLIND PUBLIC PROMOTION OF THE CENSUS
Speak to any establishments, such as public libraries, schools, and stores that display the 2006 Canada Census promotional posters or brochures. Explain the darker side of the Census. Ask either that the Census promotions be removed, or that the establishment also display CountMeOut.ca or Vive le Canada.ca posters as a matter of balance and fairness.

And please let us know who you talked to and what they said by emailing susan.thompson@vivelecanada.ca.

6) WRITE TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Send our email form letter to the Prime Minister, the Industry Minister, and the interim Opposition Leader Bill Graham. It only takes a minute, just click here.

Then, email, fax, call or meet with your local MP (meeting in person is always most effective). You should be able to easily find your MP by visiting: http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html

And please let us know which MP you talked to and what they said by emailing susan.thompson@vivelecanada.ca.

A note re 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. Prior to the last election Dick Proctor, NDP MP for Palliser, had a motion before the House calling on the government to CANCEL the census contract. Now that we have a new government and more NDP MPs, it’s important we ensure that they too stand up for Canadians and call attention to this issue.

Our Actions So Far, and Stat Can's Response

In 2003 Vive le Canada.ca called attention to the census issue through national media. We encouraged people to boycott the 2003 census test, and people across the country refused to fill out the census test forms or simply wrote “Vive le Canada” across them.

Vive le Canada.ca also sent over 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.

The terms of Stat Can’s contract with Lockheed Martin were that if the census test went well, then Lockheed Martin would in fact work on the software, hardware and printing for the actual census in 2006, so we had hoped this protest and public attention would prevent the company from working on the 2006 Canadian census.

Although Industry Minister Rock did not reply to our action, in April of 2003 Chief Statistician of Canada Ivan Fellegi assured us our information would be safe.

In fact, he told Vive and the Canadians who participated in our actions that Stat Can had "changed" the contract with Lockheed Martin to "limit its scope", so that the company would not have access to any information, and will only handle developing software and hardware for the census.

Read his response and some comments here.

And for a full timeline of our first actions around the 2003 census test, please see: Census test action timeline

More recently, Statistics Canada released the final report of a task force it created to look into census privacy and security. This task force was specifically created due to concerns about private contractors providing software, hardware, and printing for the census and public outcry, which can only refer to the actions led by Vive and subsequent action by NDP MPs in the House of Commons.

While we were happy to see Stat Can starting to respond to the concerns of Canadians, we still feel it must be a judgement call on the part of Canadians as to whether their information is safe.

We also feel that StatCan is ignoring the fact that this issue is about more than just privacy. For more on why privacy is only part of the issue, read The Census Issue

Participate in our online action! It's free, secure, legal, and easy!

Please join us now and boycott the 2006 Canadian census!
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http://census.vivelecanada.ca/

spooner · May 2, 2006

i'm trying to remember from when this was a big issue, and I seem to recall that LM was merely writing the software and that they would have no access to any information. i'll look into some information tomorrow.

but, not filling out the census directly makes my life more miserable.

nimh · May 2, 2006

why on earth are we contracting out to an american country? that's crap

Kione · May 2, 2006

why on earth are we contracting out to an american country?
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Because of our trade agrements with the States, we can not not contract out of Canada. (Even though they seem to be doing a fairly good job at doing the reverse. When's the last time you heard of a company from the States being taken over by a Canadian company?)

spooner · May 2, 2006

you realy don't understand NAFTA all that well do you?

nimh · May 2, 2006

you mean ftaa?

anways i got my census forms in the mail today

poorphucker · May 3, 2006

we got ours in the mail yesterday.

When I called our MP and inquired about this yesterday, his staff that I talked to had no clue that this was happening. At first, they would not listen and said I did not know what I was talking about.

Then after a bit... they took my number and said they would look into it and bring it to the attention of the MP... who they said probally was not even aware of this. The guy seemd pretty shocked and said it was probally a rumor in all reality...as he could not see that happening. I pointed him to the stats Canada site and that shut him up on his "rumor" thoughts. I guess even the politicians and thier staff our naive and unaware!

Az

Kione · May 3, 2006

So who's gonna go for the path of most resistance?

nimh · May 3, 2006

alright, poorphucker!

talked to some random guy today about this issue. he was complaining about the cheap quality of the envelope. not enough sticky and it wouldnt hold

one thing that really irks me is that every single household was sent a paper copy of the form. what a waste of a forest! i hope that they were at least using some post-consumer recycled paper content, but with lockheed martin at the helm, i bet they've contracted with one of the big pulp and paper companies and have put a lot of money in their pocketsess too.

brrrrrreeeehhhhh.....

icedteapriestess · May 4, 2006

just an interesting side bar...

the federal government sent us a cenus paper form in the mail without us having to ask for one. Maybe they don't realize that Saskatchewanians actually know how to access the internet? I mean, we are CONSIDERED to be a stupid province, but seriously. Most of us can even read now!

Anyone else get the paper form without having to bitch? Nova Scotia? Newfoundland? You guys are usually considered as stupid as us hick farmers.. did you get paperforms too?

nimh · May 4, 2006

icedteapriestess~as far as i know, everyone in the country was sent a paper form. i got one, but didnt request one

ps, i always thought your name was icedteaprincess, just now noticing that it's priestess. anyways...

icedteapriestess · May 4, 2006

lol... nope, always been a Priestess. Nothing about me is remotely princess-y

spooner · May 5, 2006

nimh said:

you mean ftaa?

anways i got my census forms in the mail today
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no, I mean NAFTA. Originally the FTA.

The FTAA isn't implemented.

but it doesn't say we can't contract to canadian companies. it means we can't discriminate against American companies.

nimh · May 5, 2006

same difference

it's all part of the big plan

spooner · May 6, 2006

nimh said:

same difference

it's all part of the big plan
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completely different, actually.

way to show your ignorance on the issue, though.

nimh · May 6, 2006

spooner said:

completely different, actually.

way to show your ignorance on the issue, though.
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you're on the propaganda payroll huh.

who do you work for?

bleh

spooner · May 6, 2006

the last politically motivated job i had, i worked for the ndp.

seriously though. come back to me with any knowledge of either economics or politics and then it might be worth talking.

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Boycott The 2006 Canadian Census: Boycott Lockheed Martin!

nimh ~foodie~

spooner is done.

nimh ~foodie~

Kione Member

spooner is done.

nimh ~foodie~

poorphucker Member

Kione Member

nimh ~foodie~

icedteapriestess linguistic freak

nimh ~foodie~

icedteapriestess linguistic freak

spooner is done.

nimh ~foodie~

spooner is done.

nimh ~foodie~

spooner is done.

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Boycott The 2006 Canadian Census: Boycott Lockheed Martin!

nimh ~foodie~

spooner is done.

nimh ~foodie~

Kione Member

spooner is done.

nimh ~foodie~

poorphucker Member

Kione Member

nimh ~foodie~

icedteapriestess linguistic freak

nimh ~foodie~

icedteapriestess linguistic freak

spooner is done.

nimh ~foodie~

spooner is done.

nimh ~foodie~

spooner is done.

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