It’s time for the responsible parties to start hearing from us. The census is a couple months away!
I’m sending the following to everyone in my address book. Also to all the police and RCMP contacts I have. (I wish I knew some people in the military.)
The point of sharing this information with the police and military? – – their role in Canadian society is related to law and order. As so clearly emerged from the efforts to get George Bush arrested when he came to Canada, we do not have democracy if we do not have the rule of law. If you understand the connection and the consequences of losing the rule of law, you will stand up and fight for it.
We do not have the rule of law if Lockheed Martin Corp is rewarded by our tax dollars: any one of us with a record of court convictions like Lockheed Martin’s would be in jail for the rest of our life.
We can give our tax dollars to Lockheed Martin, sitting down, or we can refuse to co-operate with giving our money to them. As I see it, it is an act of solidarity with the police and RCMP.
It is difficult for the police, RCMP and military to uphold the law, if there is little support from citizens to do so. The crimes committed by Clifford Olson, Paul Bernardo, etc. are pale in comparison to the human suffering, death and destruction perpetrated through lies and swindling, brought about by Lockheed Martin Corp. View their indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction in contravention of Canadian and International law, and their role in the illegal war on Iraq, Abu Ghraib, etc.. There is more than one way to bring them to trial and justice.
People in the police and military need to know that we are working side-by-side with them. The rule of law is critical. No one, not even Lockheed Martin or George Bush is above the law. In situations where those responsible for law and order have no avenue open to them for enforcement, responsibility falls to us. It is OUR democracy, after all.
Removing Lockheed Martin from involvement in the Canadian census is a battle for democracy and decency in the world. I needn’t remind you of the other motivations for keeping the American military (Lockheed Martin) out of the census data base.
/Sandra
CONTENTS
- EMAIL TO WAYNE SMITH, NEW CHIEF STATISTICIAN
- GLOBE & MAIL, FEB 11, CHIEF STATISTICIAN ASKED TO RE-THINK CENSUS FOR 2016
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- EMAIL TO WAYNE SMITH, NEW CHIEF STATISTICIAN
SUBJECT: An absolute NO to Lockheed Martin Corporation in the Canadian census. An absolute YES to “the new economy”.
SENT:
- TO Public Works Canada, Deputy Minister Responsible François Guimont
- TO Clerk of the Privy Council Office, Wayne Wouters
- TO Chief Statistician, Wayne Smith
- TO Minister Responsible for Public Works, Rona Ambrose
- TO Minister Responsible for StatsCan, Tony Clement
(INSERT: For email addresses and phone numbers, click on officials responsible for census contracts with Lockheed Martin Corporation.)
Dear Wayne Smith,
I hope it will be helpful to you, in your administration of the duties of Chief Statistician, to receive input from Canadian citizens. I am of the view that Civil Servants are in the employ of citizens. It is therefore the responsibility of citizens to engage in dialogue when/as circumstances dictate.
Public Works Canada, in concert with the Privy Council Office, working with Statistics Canada, out-sourced work on the Canadian census to Lockheed Martin Corporation.
The mainstream media has been lax in explaining the role of Lockheed Martin in the Canadian census (reference recent example – appended article from the Globe & Mail, Feb 11).
I cannot expect you to understand the resistance of Canadians to the census, if your information is restricted to:
- the mainstream media
- inside Government sources
- people with a vested interest
- people who, because of the information deficit, are unaware of the Lockheed Martin issue.
I invite you to consider the RATIONAL and MORAL arguments through which I understand that it is necessary for Canadians to refuse to be complicit in anything to do with Lockheed Martin Corporation. Perhaps you will understand the same thing, but not be in a position to do anything about it.
Alternately, knowing that you have the support of Canadians for an ethical Canada, you may be able to help bring an end to census contracts for Lockheed Martin. The information supplied to you through this email will acquaint you with what is widely known about Lockheed Martin. I believe that you will have the same motivations and values as other Canadians, and will be like us, antagonistic to the collusion of Civil Servants who negotiated and agreed to the contracts in the first place.
There is an emerging consideration in addition to the RATIONAL AND MORAL arguments – – “THE TIMES” in which we live. I understand it thus:
This is an exciting time to be alive. The decades-long work of people like David Korten (Agenda for a New Economy, 2nd Edition), Jeremy Rifkin (The Empathic Economy) and thousands of other people around the Earth is in the process of bringing about a revolution in the behaviour of human societies. I’m sure you are aware of this, the events in Egypt and other countries are examples of the turning tide. I just posted to my blog the example of people coming together for change, a million singing youngsters from Thailand.
Another significant development in the progress of resistance to the corporate (Lockheed Martin) agenda:
“On the anniversary of the Citizens United decision, Vermont politicians are moving to deny corporations the rights that humans enjoy. . . .
(Resolution Calling to Amend the Constitution Banning Corporate Personhood Introduced in Vermont
As I say, the times are exciting – millions of people mobilizing in a thousand different ways for the benefit of everyone. They are not motivated by money or greed or personal power and control.
This most recent political action by citizens in the U.S. is another part of the fast-developing new political economy. The old economy is based on exploitation; its values are utilitarian, it is bringing us to the brink of world-wide destruction. The emerging economy is based on humanitarian values – caring not only for humans but for the Earth upon which we are dependent for survival.
Lockheed Martin has no place in the new economy. Nor in Canadian political economy. The Egyptians said “NO” to a repressive regime. Millions of people around the world, including Canadians, are in solidarity with the Egyptians.
Lockheed Martin will be overthrown because we refuse to be complicit with the use of death and destruction as a means for the appropriation of resources that belong to other people. We are in solidarity with the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Lockheed Martin is an obstacle – it is in the business of creating hatred in the world.
Million and billion-dollar contracts for Lockheed Martin Corporation are turning the Canadian economy into one that is dependent upon the waging of war, precisely the same as the American economy is dependent upon making war. Please see the “Canada First Defence Strategy”. Ironically, Lockheed Martin exists only because of tax-payer complicity.
You can find detailed background on Lockheed Martin on the blog, www.sandrafinley.ca (- you’ll see Lockheed Martin in the buttons at the top of the page).
After reading the RATIONAL, MORAL and LEGAL arguments, if you can see any reason why Canadians should be complicit with the Census (so long as Lockheed Martin is involved), please tell me what those are. Your predecessors, going back to 2003, have only responded to legitimate citizen input with reassurances that all is well. All is clearly not well; StatsCan is out-of-synch with on-going political processes.
I wish you well in the daunting task you have taken on.
I hope the input below regarding Lockheed Martin and the census, which is the work of many individual Canadians, will be useful to you.
The bottom-line message: get Lockheed Martin Corporation out of the Canadian census.
Best wishes,
Sandra Finley
– – – – – – – – – – —
EXCERPT from www.sandrafinley.ca, “Lockheed Martin“)
Understand the census contracts for Lockheed Martin Corporation IN CONTEXT.
- The American military-industrial-congressional complex is in the process of being duplicated in Canada. See the “Canada First Defence Strategy” and “offset agreements“. It is financed by citizens (tax dollars), the same as in the U.S.
- Quislings in Government are giving away Canadian sovereignty and have been for many years.
- There is increasing militarization.
- This is all in an era of resource depletion, especially of water in the American southwest. Click on sub-category “Resource Depletion (water in USA) under the category “Peace or Violence”. (My apologies that the information isn’t presented in better form.)
Do not take my word.
Understand what Lockheed Martin Corporation does in the world. See the video, an interview with William Hartung, author of “Prophets of War, Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military Industrial Complex“, book launched in Janaury 2011.
Make your own determination using the chronological index below.
Click on Summary arguments OR go straight to the index:
- the RATIONAL argument
- the MORAL argument
- the LEGAL argument
- Resource depletion (water in the USA) (see the sub-category under “Peace or Violence”.)
INDEX: DETAILS OF THE LARGER PICTURE INTO WHICH THE LOCKHEED MARTIN CENSUS CONTRACTS FIT, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER (go to the blog …).
– – – – – – – – – – —
APPENDED, GLOBE & MAIL, FEB 11, 2011
STEVEN CHASE AND TAVIA GRANT
Chief statistician asked to rethink census for 2016
STEVEN CHASE AND TAVIA GRANT
OTTAWA AND TORONTO— From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 10:11PM EST Last updated Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 10:14PM EST
Wayne Smith already has a tough job as the new head of Canada’s world-renowned statistics agency: picking up the pieces after the census controversy that claimed his predecessor.
Chances are, however, he may be overseeing even bigger changes at Statistics Canada – not for the 2011 census, already under way – but for the next one, in 2016.
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MEDIA
Mourning the long-form census
The Harper government, which last year scrapped the mandatory long-form census on the grounds it was wrong to coerce Canadians into answering intrusive questions, has asked Statistics Canada to rethink the way it collects population data.
Mr. Smith, who took over from embattled chief statistician Munir Sheikh last summer and was appointed permanently in January, has been asked to study how other countries gather information and report with options that could shape the 2016 census.
Examples range from a register-based census, where governments dip into their records on their citizens, to surveying a different part of the country every year.
“The government wants to step back and say okay, ‘Let’s look at those other models: what is possible in Canada,’” the new chief statistician said.
“People have suggested that if we could make a register[-based] census work in Canada, we could save buckets of money and avoid annoying a whole bunch of Canadians in asking them to fill out forms.”
Register-based surveys appeal to statisticians – because they could pull together all sorts of information – but could generate huge privacy concerns, he said.
The chief statistician, who will work with his advisory committee on the matter, said while no decision has been made, everything is on the table.
When it comes to the 2011 census, however, Mr. Smith said he is sure about one thing: there’s no justification for critics to say that moving to a voluntary long-form survey will wreck the quality of the data.
“I’m asking Canadians to suspend judgment because there’s no scientific basis for saying this is going to be fundamentally flawed.”
The Harper government faced a broad chorus of critics when it scrapped the mandatory long-form census. While the short-form census with about 10 basic questions is still compulsory, the longer questionnaire of more than 40 questions about home, work and ethnicity has been transformed into the optional National Household Survey.
Those who have relied on the treasure trove of data generated by the census, from social scientists to health researchers to businesses, warn this change will hinder StatsCan’s ability to generate an accurate picture of small groups, such as new immigrants, who may ignore a voluntary form.
The money expended on the new national survey “is a complete and total waste,” economist Paul Jacobson, vice-president of the Canadian Association for Business Economics, said.
He is chiefly concerned that the results of the survey will not be comparable with previous census data. “When we make a big change, we have irrevocably lost something. It doesn’t matter how good the survey is, we’ve lost it and that’s something we can never recover.”
Mr. Smith is adamant, however, that critics cannot know for sure that the results from the optional long form, even for smaller sub-groups of the population, will be inferior to what was collected via the mandatory approach in 2006.
“There is no scientific reason why you would say before it even starts, before I see results, that there’s going to necessarily be a significant problem with the count of Inuit or Métis or immigrants beyond the levels we’ve seen in the 2006 census.”
Ottawa is mailing the optional long form to one-third of households in an attempt to boost the response rate. In the past, the long form went only to one-fifth of residences.
Mr. Smith said StatsCan will not publish data that it decides is too flawed for use.
“The only areas where StatsCan will not proactively publish information is where we know beyond the shadow of a doubt there is a problem that makes the data unusable.”