2013-10-10 Census Lockheed Martin: my case is dismissed, without costs. (Means that I lost the case.)

The application for leave-to-appeal to the Supreme Court was “dismissed” which means that I lost the legal battle.

 

WHAT IS THE CHARTER RIGHT TO PRIVACY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION  WHICH WAS THE DEFENCE IN MY TRAIL?  WHAT WAS LOST?

“In fostering the underlying values of dignity, integrity and autonomy, it is fitting that s. 8 of the Charter should seek to protect a biographical core of personal information which individuals in a free and democratic society would wish to maintain and control from dissemination to the state.”

(Ref.  Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 8 Privacy – Case Law: The Queen Vs Plant protects a “biographical core of personal information” from the state. Oakes Test to override.)

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Hello everyone,

The Tobias judgment is below — scroll down.  (89-year-old Audrey Tobias was charged for failure to comply with the 2011 Census.  Audrey did not fill in a census form because of Lockheed Martin’s involvement at StatsCan.)

Regarding my own case (2006 Census, objection to Lockheed Martin, charter right to privacy of personal information the legal argument put forth because it was the argument with the greatest likelihood of success):

The Supreme Court “dismissed” the application for Leave-to-Appeal.  They decided not to hear the appeal.  So the lower court decisions (“guilty”) stand, at least as far as the Province of Saskatchewan is concerned.

The decision by the SCC to dismiss the appeal is based on the “Objective Summary” provided to the deciding panel.  That Summary made two points, both of which began with the statement:

“The applicant refused to fill in and return any of the long form census form.”

Through my lawyer, I tried to get the Summary changed.  I had had numerous conversations with StatsCan, Prosecution Services and the Judge through the years.  NEVER was PARTIALLY filling in the form an option.  The Citizen is pressured  to fill in the form, to provide all the personal information sought by the form.

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Peter writes:

I think your case was very worthwhile in spite of losing; it helped to make Canadians aware of Lockheed Martin’s involvement in the census, and to question it.

To me, an important eye-opener:

My trial shed light on the vulnerability of our Charter Rights.  As far as I know, the  Oakes Test has been accepted, unchallenged mythology.  See the short explanation, The Oakes Test to over-ride Charter Rights.  How Prosecutors get around it.

I conclude that the defenders of our Charter Rights are we ourselves.  The Justice system and the Government are not going to do it.   Through numbers provided in the transcript of the Tobias trial the head of StatsCan census operations testified that non-compliance is now 11%.  Some portion of that represents defence of the Charter Right to Privacy of Personal Information.

The situation legally is now this:

THE SASKATCHEWAN COURT-OF-APPEAL DECISION STANDS – –  IT APPLIES IN SASKATCHEWAN.

In Saskatchewan the Courts, by finding me guilty of non-compliance with the 2006 Census, have effectively ruled that in Saskatchewan we do NOT have the Charter Right to Privacy of personal information in this case where the demand came from Statistics Canada.   (That was the issue through the appeal process in my trial.)

(BUT, as explained below and in a number of postings,  do not confuse StatsCan “surveys” with censuses.)

THE ONLY AVENUE LEFT, TO UPHOLD THE CHARTER RIGHT WOULD BE

By the issue coming up through the Justice system in one of the other provinces.  (The Courts of Appeal in the different provinces CAN and sometimes DO, take different views.  There may then be another appeal to the Supreme Court.)

THE SUPREME COURT OF CANADA (SCC) CHOSE NOT TO HEAR THE QUESTION OF PRIVACY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION, IN MY CASE

Unfortunate.  It is a very important question for Canadians, especially in the wake of the leaks by Edward Snowden, and in the context of the American military/surveillance intrusion into Canada.  Lockheed Martin is involved with the work being done at StatsCan;  and also with the NSA.   I think it most likely that “back-door” entry to the StatsCan data base has been established, with or without StatsCan knowledge.

Can’t know whether the privacy question vis-à-vis StatsCan data base will come to the SCC again in the future, through someone else in a different province.

The Supreme Court of Canada decided not to hear an appeal of the decision of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.  (The Sask Appeal Court upheld the decisions of the lower courts in Saskatchewan.  I was found “guilty” but given an absolute discharge in relation to the 2006 census long form.)

It may be a moot point. The CENSUS long form (50+ questions, many of them personal – 2006) no longer exists.   And SURVEYS (the National Household Survey, 80+ questions, replaced the census long form) are not mandatory.  So people cannot be prosecuted for failure to comply (to hand over all the personal information), as was the case for myself and others in 2006.

A problem I have is that StatsCan continues to tell people that they have to hand over the information requested in a Survey, because “It is the Law.  You will be prosecuted if you don’t.”  Which is not true.   See  ARE STATSCAN “SURVEYS” MANDATORY?

I believe we have to strenuously defend Charter Rights.  It is a low point, when, in the Province of Saskatchewan the Justices rationalized away the Charter Right to Privacy of Personal Information.

Refer also to (short and easy to understand):  The Oakes Test to over-ride Charter Rights.  How Prosecutors get around it.

So, we keep on, keepin’ on!

PEACE GROUPS

A few days ago I posted on many facebook groups:

If we want peace, we have to be knowledgeable, and use every opportunity to halt the WAR CORPORATIONS. 

How do we combat the financial incentives to war? A large percentage of the American economy is dependent upon their War machinery. Canada is expanding its dependence. The War Corporations make money, always. They are considered to be a wise investment. To add insult to injury, tax payers provide huge funding to them.  (F-35 contracts!) 

And so it happens that I refused to participate in the Census – – Lockheed Martin Corporation has lucrative Government contracts related to Census and “Survey” data collection on citizens. They are the American war and surveillance industry. I ended up in Court. …

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TOBIAS

The Court decision in the Audrey Tobias case (Lockheed Martin / Census   Click on the link to see a copy of the decision.

The reason for acquittal was not related to the Charter Right.

Thanks to Rod for explaining it:

Great for her (Audrey Tobias) but not for the charter issue!!!!  They basically shuffled the cards and played a joker trump card and totally avoided the charter rights… which will not help your cause… my opinion. Highlighted in red…..your intent is obvious.

(“The judge rejected the charter arguments, but said that Tobias’s memory and some conflicting testimony left him with reasonable doubt as to her intent at the time of the refusal.

Audrey Tobias and her lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, were surprised by the judge’s decision. (Trevor Dunn/CBC)

Judge Ramez Khawly noted that for a conviction both the act and intent of a crime must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, so he had to acquit Tobias.

“It was an unusual judgment in my view,” Rosenthal said outside court. “He described our charter arguments as Hail Mary passes and he didn’t catch it …They were novel arguments but he found a more novel argument it seems in analyzing the [intent].”)”

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My many thanks to you all.

I am satisfied.  The ball landed in my court in March 2008 – –  the Summons to Court.  With the help of many people, the sharing of information, many more citizens are aware of what Lockheed Martin Corporation is, and what they are doing in Canada.

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EXCERPT from:

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell speech Plus Words of Wisdom from Eisenhower.

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments.  Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

(note – – it’s worthwhile reading the rest of what Eisenhower said. It’s pretty amazing.)

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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE  to Lockheed Martin’s involvement in the Statistics Canada  (called the “Census Bureau” in the U.S.) data base is because of what Lockheed Martin does in the world.

• Besides the manufacture of weapons that are against Canadian and International Law
• besides their international surveillance
• besides how corrupt they are
• Lockheed Martin Corp was very influential in the decision by the American Govt to drop bombs on Iraq in an illegal war justified by lies and propaganda.  The war has bankrupted the American people (trillions of dollars of debt), inflicted terrible destruction and de-stabilized the Middle East.
• UPDATE:  In 2015 it became known that Lockheed Martin was the number one “contract interrogator” in the highly illegal and depraved torture at American offshore prisons like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

These are the guys that our tax dollars are enriching, through exorbitant contracts  (the price of just one helmet, required by each pilot of a Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth bomber is one million dollars.)