I ended up in Court because, starting in 2003, I joined others to stop the out-sourcing of Canadian census work to Lockheed Martin Corporation (the American military).
Tomorrow morning (Oct 19), the Court (Queen’s Bench, Saskatoon) will hear the appeal of the “guilty” decision in R vs Sandra Finley.
The trial has been on-going since April 2008. In January 2011, I was found guilty.
Sentencing was an absolute discharge – no punishment imposed – BUT! the “guilty” decision still stands.
I will have done more harm than good if the Judge’s “guilty” decision is allowed to stand.
The “guilty” decision means:
– our Charter protection against the Government, a basic Right in modern democracies, the Charter Right to Privacy of personal information – – is lost.
The Charter Right says that the Government cannot force citizens to hand over “a biographical core of personal information”. StatsCan continues to use the threat of prosecution to force citizens to give up their Charter Right.
If you have any doubt about the role of census data bases in a police state, read “IBM and the Holocaust”.
If you have any doubts about Lockheed Martin Corporation, watch 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 January 2011.
It was the foresight and wisdom of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau that gave us the Charter Right. It falls to us to defend it, or lose it.
I see this as part of the OCCUPY movement that will bring an end to Governments/Universities that serve the corporate interest. The interests of the military-industrial complex in Government and in the Universities, with tax-payers footing the bill, needs to be stopped. (All of this is explained in various postings accessible at Lockheed Martin, Census, Trial, War Economy.)
Persons in our network have collaboratively created a comprehensive file that shows the extent of the increasing militarization in Canada. It (and Lockheed Martin in particular) is a serious threat to democracy and to security.
NEWCOMERS: For background info, click on Lockheed Martin, Census, Trial, War Economy. (Topics such as:
- integration of American and Canadian military / police / border services
- drones deployed along the Canada-U.S. border
- the Troop Exchange Agreement with the U.S.
- armoured vehicles being rolled out by police forces across Canada
- the plans of the American “Security” forces, working with quislings in Canadian Government, to put the records on ALL Canadians (not just the trouble-makers) at the disposal of the American Government
- Lockheed Martin heavily involved in the new Aviation Centre at the Saskatoon Airport which will likely be training young people in drone technology. Tax-payers are still the major funders / enablers.
- etc. etc.)
(In preface to the following re OCCUPY: Nancy Hopkins is on the Board of the Saskatoon Airport Authority (Lockheed Martin is a funder of the new Aviation Centre there), she is on the Cameco Board, and chairs the University Board of Governors (reference recent postings). Dave Sutherland is on the University Board of Governors with Nancy, and is also on the SPP Initiative and Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) along with Suncor, Monsanto, etc. The “President of the Americas” for Lockheed Martin is a key player in the SPP, North American Union, “harmonization”, “integration”, anti-democracy, greed, corrupting, consuming, destructive, Big Corporate agenda. (It is, of course, not ALL corporations – but a significant enough number of them.)
The links between the University, the Governments (transferring tax-payer money), and the Nuke/Tar Sands industries (Brad Wall the “co-spearhead of the largest on the planet Canada-U.S. Western Energy Corridor” which is all about Nuke and Tar Sands, (and related to water scarcity, resource depletion in the U.S.)) is at http://ussword.blogspot.com/p/infographic.html (The Radioactive Trinity). )
FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT, The OCCUPY MOVEMENT.
Two weeks ago I continued to worry a lot about the looming dark day of descent – – rising levels of propaganda, injustice, inequality, abuse of power, corruption, failing institutions (education for example, Wall Street, etc.), and so on into the hands of the American “security” forces / Lockheed Martin surveillance and police state.
My World-view has changed! The OCCUPY MOVEMENT is real and stunning. I almost have an email ready to send; but what is current one day is out-of-date the next, the events are tumbling into a cascade I have no hope of keeping up with.
OCCUPY (of which I and many of you are part) will see how their work and this is aligned. Booting Lockheed Martin Corporation out of the Canadian Government and Canada opens up the space for us to re-OCCUPY what is ours.
REQUEST: Please help spread the word!
WEDNESDAY, Oct 19
10:00am
Court of Queen’s Bench
Saskatoon
ISSUE:
The Government (Statistics Canada and Public Works) out-sourced work on the Canadian census to Lockheed Martin Corporation (the American military).
I refuse to be complicit.
LEGAL DEFENCE:
Charter Right to Privacy of personal information:
“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.”
IN APPRECIATION AND GRATITUDE:
I am incredibly fortunate to have a body of informed and active people working with me. I am humbled.
I have great confidence in the young lawyer, Steve Seiferling, who will be presenting the argument to the Court. His explanation of the ways in which the Judge erred in her decision make perfect sense to me!
We are sometimes placed in situations that call on us to stand. The wonderful thing about it? . . . Everything is possible because we are connected! I am just a body and some fingers that can type. Your energy, the larger energy, flows through us all. Synchronistic timing: back in Court when the OCCUPY MOVEMENT is in full throttle – – it is really kind of neat!
Thanks for sharing , I see two sides of census, as census is very useful tool for allocation of funds! But I am sincerely disturbed by fact that such important and extremely valuable database is given in hand of those who could and often do use it for wrongful purposes! I strongly believe that such database should be exclusive to the administration body elected by people and accountable to people!
Corporations are not accountable in that way E.g. Universal carbide a similar corporation to Lockheed Martin released biological weapon grade gas in Bhopal India in 1984, nearly 15,000 people died as direct result and unknown effected, The Union carbide has never been accountable for it they simply sold there interest to there some new name and walked off the crime!
I also agree that wrongful people can use such database for there wrongful purpose as was the case you mentioned in Holocaust and similarly as witnessed in Nov 1984 genocide of Sikhs, Indian Politicians used Govt stat to identify their victims before they were massacred. So its evident that in extreme even govt also can be a party to crime. Such incidents are completely stoppable if Govts are kept accountable and as the old say “Nip the evil in the bud”.
Beyond the extreme the most abuse of such database is for corporate market sector for which they can release information by subcontracting and outsourcing further to there indirect subsidiaries or in some cases overseas direct subsidiaries , and compromise integrity at will or by mistake.
I support your voice that such crucial database should not be in private hands and should be only limited to elected administration with full accountability to its people!