Sandra Finley

2016-06-10 Lockheed Martin warns it will pull $825M in F-35 contracts if Canada buys another jet, CBC

Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials) No Responses »

Jun 132016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stealth-fighter-contracts-1.3629403

Canadian companies could stand to lose at least $10B over lifetime of aircraft

An F-35 Joint Strike Fighter on display at naval yard in Maryland in January. (Yuri Gripas / Reuters)

U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin is warning Canada that $825 million in aerospace industrial contracts signed with Canadian companies to build and equip F-35 jets would be moved to other partner nations if the Trudeau government decides to buy a different fighter jet.

Steve Over, the company’s director of F-35 international business development, says other countries that have already committed to buying the stealth jet are clamouring for the work.

“It’s not really a threat,” Over said in an interview with CBC News. “I don’t want it perceived as a threat, but we will have no choice, if Canada walks away from F-35, except to relocate work in Canada to other purchasing nations.”

By the end of the year, Over said he expects the value of Canadian parts and sustainment contracts to reach $1 billion, with an anticipated lifetime value of $10 billion or more.

The comments mark a sharp escalation in the war of words over the Liberal government’s efforts to speed up the replacement of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s current fleet of CF-18s fighters.

During the 2015 election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised not to buy the F-35 and instead go with a cheaper alternative. Lockheed Martin remained silent at the time, regarding the comments as campaign rhetoric.

Under questioning this week, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan refused to exclude the notion of a sole-source purchase of brand new Boeing Super Hornet fighters, despite a campaign promise for an open bidding process.

The deputy minister of material at DND, Pat Finn, told a House of Commons committee Thursday that all options, from sole-source to full-blown competition, were being studied by the government, but no decision had been made.

Change in tone

Earlier in the week, Lockheed Martin officials seemed content to pull their punches when it came to the industrial benefits question, saying only that they would “evaluate their options.”

Even going back to 2013, months after the Harper government put the acquisition of the F-35 on hold, company officials were soft-pedalling the consequences, suggesting that if Canada went in a different direction, existing contracts would remain safe but no new work would be offered.

But all of that was tossed aside Friday as Over and other company executives made it clear that existing contracts would be honoured until renewal, and once they expire, they would go to nations participating in the program.

“If, in that most negative scenario where Canada chose to purchase a different airplane, we would have to take those future opportunities that are today envisioned for Canadian industry and we’d have to offer it to countries that are purchasing the airplane,” he said.

Losing future contracts

The example he offered was Mississauga, Ont.-based Magellan Aerospace’s 20-year, $1.2-billion subcontract from BAE Systems Inc. to build the jet’s tail fins.

“So Magellan would just no longer be offered the opportunity to produce horizontal stabilizers,” Over said.

A 2006 memorandum setting up Canada’s participation in the development of the stealth fighter was signed by the Conservative government with the implicit suggestion the country was in for the long haul.

“The government of Canada and Lockheed committed together that we would put this industrial work in Canada, assuming that Canada bought airplanes, and we can’t meet our commitments around the rest of the partnership if Canada doesn’t buy the airplane,” said Over.

“We want to approach this in a good-faith effort, but Canada is going to have to help us with that.”

There are approximately 110 Canadian companies working on the F-35.

Industry warns of lost money, jobs

Unlike other defence procurement contracts, the stealth fighter is unique in that Canadian companies don’t get guaranteed work. They are required to compete and work collaboratively to keep costs down.

The Lockheed Martin warning comes one day after an open letter published by Canadian companies involved in the program expressed fears about what would happen to them if the Trudeau government went with another plane.

“Not selecting the F-35 will set off a chain of events that will see hundreds of millions of investment dollars lost and high-tech jobs leaving Canada, going to countries who are buying the F-35,” said the letter.

“Sole-sourcing a legacy aircraft will leave Canadian industry in the unfavourable position of working on 30-year-old technology over a finite period of time, with little opportunity to progress Canada’s aerospace capabilities globally. The future landscape of the aerospace and defence industry in Canada will be permanently affected in an adverse manner.”

The Liberals have attempted to justify their desire to move quickly — and possibly avoid an open competition — by saying the air force is facing a “capability gap,” which means it may not have enough fighters to live up to its domestic and international obligations.

In the Commons Friday, Liberal MP John McKay, the parliamentary secretary for defence, put the blame on the previous Conservative government.

He said only 20 of the air force’s 77 CF-18s will be available for service by 2025 if circumstances remain the same.

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RELATED: Liberals miss membership payment to stay in F-35 consortium – – http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stealth-fighter-payment-1.3619469

2016-06-10 Which would you prefer? An innovative new strategy against the weapons manufacturers OR . . .

Uncategorized No Responses »

Jun 112016

Would you prefer

A. Innovative new strategy against the weapons manufacturers:

These kids blow me away. SO MANY people working in SO MANY different ways.

They’ve created “Situation Rooms”.

To bring people who wear very different shoes together.

Link to audio, interview: Situation Rooms puts you in the shoes of those affected by the arms trade

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OR, would you rather B:

(Confession: Option A helps generate hope – – it’s another example of people who are tackling the problem head on. Option A sets you up for Option B which might require us to be a bit more than spectators?)

The article, Official correspondence reveals lack of scrutiny of MI5’s data collection motivated me to send info to Privacy International – – the ones who released the confidential Government communications. Article and Response are both at the link.

EXCERPT:

GCHQ is alleged to be illegally collecting “bulk personal datasets” from the phone and internet records of millions of people who have no ties to terrorism and are not suspected of any crime.

(GCHQ = The UK Government Communications Headquarters in the British intelligence and security – – MI5, MI6)

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RELATED, ON THE SURVEILLANCE SIDE: The surprising reason you should care about privacy, TED Talk, Greenwald)

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FALSE DILEMMA (FALSE DICHOTOMY)

AND of course, I used the manipulative tool of offering you a choice between A OR B. When there is no reason – – you are completely free to do BOTH Options A AND B.

The false dilemma fallacy can be by

deliberate deception
accidental omission of additional options
can be the result of habitual, patterned, black-and-white and/or intensely political/politicized thinking in which a model of polar opposites is imposed almost automatically

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In case you missed it, you might be interested in the efforts to stop $15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, 2016-04-16 Court Challenge to Saudi Arms contract by Constitutional lawyer Daniel Turp – – interview on The House.

2016-06-10 Film-maker Michael Moore visits WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at embassy

Julian Assange, Wikileaks, Chelsea (Bradley) Manning, Arjen Kamphuis No Responses »

Jun 112016

Note: JUNE 19 – Julian Assange will have been inside the embassy for four years.

Cities, including Paris, Berlin and New York, will hold special events to mark the anniversary.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/film-maker-michael-moore-visits-8157426#tbVGsgJrPHM8LwbP.99

By Alan Jones

THE award winning film maker took time out of his promotional tour for his new film, Where To Invade Next, to visit Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

image: http://i2.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article8157526.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/JS92191216.jpg

Oscar-winning documentary film-maker Michael Moore meeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

OSCAR-winning documentary film-maker Michael Moore has taken time out from promoting his new film to meet WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange .

The American has been a supporter of Mr Assange for years but they had never met in person.

Moore paid a visit to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Mr Assange is living as he seeks to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over a sex allegation , which he has always denied.

He believes that if he travels to Sweden he will be taken to the United States to be quizzed about the activities of WikiLeaks.

image: http://i3.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article8157528.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/cfJS92191368.jpg

Mr Moore has been a supporter of Mr Assange for years but they had never met in person.

Mr Assange will have been inside the embassy for four years on June 19.

A number of cities around the world, including Paris, Berlin and New York, will hold special events to mark the anniversary.

In Moore’s new film, Where To Invade Next, he examines how Europeans view work, education, healthcare, sex, equality and other issues.

He is visiting a number of European countries for the film, but not the UK.

2016-06-09 Situation Rooms puts you in the shoes of those affected by the arms trade. Stefan Kaegi, co-creator. CBC

Peace or Violence No Responses »

Jun 092016

People are so smart and creative! We have

Samantha Nutt, her terrific TED Talk on the Arms Dealers.
And now this – – “Situation Rooms”, have a listen:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-thursday-june-9-2016-1.3623832/situation-rooms-puts-you-in-the-shoes-of-those-affected-by-the-arms-trade-1.3623845

In ‘Situation Rooms’ participants move through various rooms in a building, each re-created to match one of the real-life protagonists’ setting. (Jörg Baumann/Ruhrtriennale)

It’s being called “the future of theatre” for its seamless mixing of theatre, video, installation and participation.

In Situation Rooms, you become the characters as you move through a series of recreated spaces, using an iPad and headphones to see and hear what they see. What makes the experience even more impactful is that the stories aren’t based off a script, each character is a real person whose life was changed by the global arms trade.

“Seven minutes after … you might be a German member of parliament who is from a political party that wants to forbid any kind of weapon export, seven minutes later you might turn into a manager of a weapon manufacturer … and seven minutes later you might be a Doctors Without Borders who is in Sierra Leone mending pieces of bodies together that have been transformed by these weapons.”

Stefan Kaegi, director and co-creator of Situation Rooms, says finding people for the project was a difficult and, at times, dangerous endeavour — for example, one of their subjects is part of a Mexican drug cartel. However, during the process of filming, Kaegi witnessed these people from different and clashing walks of life put aside their pasts and “zoom out from normal reality.”

WEB EXTRA | Watch the trailer for Situation Rooms, which opens at Toronto’s Luminato Festival on Friday, June 10.

2016-06-07 Email sent to Dr. Samantha Nutt re her terrific TED Talk on the Arms Dealers. (I think Lockheed Martin Corp.)

Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials) No Responses »

Jun 072016

The link to Dr. Nutt’s excellent TED Talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/samantha_nutt_the_real_harm_of_the_global_arms_trade

“War is ours,” she says. “We buy it, sell it, spread it and wage it. We are therefore not powerless to solve it.”

ACTION? Will you forward to your friends? TED Talks are popular. The number of views should hit 1 million with some help from us. June 7, 2016 there are 195,465 Total views

These young people like Samantha are powerful. We can help them achieve their visions. Which are ours, too.

If we enrich Lockheed Martin through complicity with lucrative Government contracts, we are working against Samantha.

We become enablers of what Lockheed Martin does in the world, listed in the email of solidarity (below) to Samantha.

The killing ways are becoming obsolete. We have had enough.

It is as Dwight Eisenhower said back in the fifties: 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.

In our case, getting IN the way is the responsible action by citizens!

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More about Samantha Nutt: http://samanthanutt.com/

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Email sent to Dr. Samantha Nutt, follow-up to her TED Talk

From: Sandra Finley Sent: June 7, 2016

Subject: Support. Your TED Talk.

Dear Samantha,

I cannot thank you enough for your excellent TED Talk on the insane arms trade.

I would like you to know that a network of thousands of Canadians have battled since 2003 against the use of our money to enrich one of the largest arms dealers, Lockheed Martin Corporation. Public Works and Statistics Canada awarded long term contracts to Lockheed Martin.

Citizens dig into one pocket to help fund constructive initiatives such as War Child (yours). Meanwhile the Government is in our other pocket taking money to give to Lockheed Martin Corporation that negates the good work. Makes a lot of us very angry. Non-violent resistance, on-going since 2003, takes the form of refusal to cooperate with StatsCan censuses and surveys.

Census non-compliance had gone from 2% to 11% by the 2011 Census, if the interpretation of (transcript) figures given under oath at the trial of Audrey Tobias is correct.

Appended, please see the “why” of the resistance.

In order to drive Lockheed Martin out, however, it is necessary that citizens of other countries fight them, too. Links to the international collaboration between Governments and Lockheed Martin are in the posting: 2016-03-18 Does Lockheed Martin Corp have a role in the 2016 Census?

Your TED Talk video is going into our network today. Once again, thanks – – you are compelling and succinct.

We choose to tread your path with you; be damned if we will follow the path laid down by the bureaucrats and politicians who are collaborators with the war corporations.

The means do not justify the ends, whether for war or for statistics. As far as I can understand history, they lead to destruction of the state and of the self who partakes in the treacheries. Russian communism would be one example of many (Ref: Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, 1941).

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley

APPENDED

What were the earlier causes of resistance to Lockheed Martin at StatsCan? (today it is these, plus the Surveillance issue)

Outrage that Public Works and StatsCan would award contracts to a company with the track record of Lockheed Martin:

Producer of land mines, illegal under International and Canadian law.

Producer of cluster munitions, illegal.

Played a promotional role in the decision by the U.S. and U.K. to launch an illegal war of aggression on Iraq.

Number one “contract interrogator” in the Torture done at American offshore prisons such as Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay) and Abu Ghraib.

Have been convicted numerous times of breaking American arms export control laws. In general they consider themselves to be outside the rule of law.

This video explains a lot – the annual arms bazaar in Jordan. Lockheed Martin is there – – all nations and players, anyone who wants to buy weapons. People ostensibly at war with each other but they are partners in business. The “terrorists” are there buying weapons, too. http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=13349 A must see: The Business of War: SOFEX – YouTube

Involved in terrorizing people in Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, etc, through the dropping of bombs by remote control from drones (“drone warfare”. The RQ-170 Sentinel drone used in the Middle East is made by Lockheed Martin.)

They are corrupting of democracy through the huge amounts of money they spend on lobbying and contributions.

The Americans have an accumulated federal debt well over $18 trillion, growing continuously. War is expensive. Jumping into bed with Lockheed Martin means growing an economy that becomes dependent upon the waging of war. Think of how much money individual Americans pay through taxes that just goes to the banks to pay costs of $18 trillion in Government debt – – that only continues to escalate. Not much wonder there is poverty and huge infrastructure deficits in the U.S.. We don’t aim for the same in Canada.

Application of the business model by a war corporation, words from the current CEO of Lockheed Martin, Marillyn Hewson, to potential investor Deutsche Bank: (The plan is actually one that helps de-stabilize the world.) Even if there may be some kind of deal that is done with Iran, there is volatility all around the region and each one of these countries believes they’ve got to protect their citizens and the things that we can bring to them help in that regard. So similarly, that’s the Middle East. And I know that’s what you asked about, but you can take that same argument to the Asia-Pacific region, which is another growth area for us. A lot of volatility, a lot of instability a lot of things that are happening both with North Korea as well as some of the tensions between China and Japan. So in both of those regions, which are growth areas for us, we expect that there is going to continue to be opportunities for us to bring our capabilities to them.More: http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=8972 Strategy, scenarios, and the global shift in defense power

They gouge the public purse. The helmet alone, for each pilot of an F-35 stealth bomber that they are trying to stuff down our throats is a million dollars. (the F-35 contracts will be back on the table in 2018)More: http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=8906 Lockheed Martin is desperate – – to get our money! And what is the cost of one F-35 stealth bomber? See also, Iraq for Sale youtube, not specifically Lockheed Martin, but makes the point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJlJudDtVE

2016-06-06 Official correspondence reveals lack of scrutiny of MI5’s data collection (Census, Lockheed Martin, Privacy of Personal Info)

Privacy of Personal Information; Charter Right; Surveillance; StatsCan Censuses & Surveys No Responses »

Jun 062016

Not mentioned in this article about confidential UK Government letters released by Privacy International:

the similarities to alarms sounded in the UK, Canada, Australia and the U.S. over intelligence services and surveillance. A few examples:

2014-09-26 Journalists and whistleblowers will go to jail under new national security laws, Australia, The Guardian. (Includes info on Five Eyes (FVEY)

2015-02-25 The public debate on Bill C-51 (Secret Police) should include context, the comprehensive SURVEILLANCE that is already in place

2015-03-17 Bill C-51, Elephant in the Room, the U.S.A. (includes info re “Five Eyes”, FVEY)

2015-03-25 Bill C-51, Secret police in a world of corporate domination. Ouch!

15-03-23 C-51 Secret Police. Major wake-up call for Canadians. Canada Spying. Communication Security Establishment’s (CSE), CBC

Relevant to the article below, but not mentioned: Lockheed Martin (intelligence operations) in the UK census raises the Privacy issue, too.

Note: The UK Census is every 10 years, with the next one in 2021. The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) at https://www.ons.gov.uk/census has links to a possible “Annual” data collection on individuals from Administrative Records.

I would say that, without consultation, Canada has embarked on step 1 in the use of Administrative Records. For the 2016 Census, it was announced that StatsCan would be getting the financial information for individuals directly from the CRA (their Income Tax files).

That the same issues exist in the UK, Canada, Australia, and the USA will be related to Lockheed Martin’s role in the Corporatocracy. New Zealand is the other country in the “Five Eyes” – – we should seek out information to determine whether they are fighting the same surveillance operations and enabling laws as citizens in other democracies are fighting.

I sent an email to Privacy International, see APPENDED.

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Official correspondence reveals lack of scrutiny of MI5’s data collection (on individuals)

Privacy International releases letters that it says show ‘cosy’ relationship between watchdog and intelligence operations

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/06/letters-lack-scrutiny-privacy-mi5-data-collection?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=175831&subid=8093198&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

Man using a mobile phone — The correspondence sheds light on official thinking about the legal distinction between anonymised bulk data collection and matching material to individuals. Photograph: Felix Clay for the Guardian

The watchdog that monitors interception of emails and phone calls by the intelligence services allowed MI5 to escape regular scrutiny of its bulk collection of communications data, according to newly released confidential correspondence.

A highly revealing exchange of letters from 2004 has been published by Privacy International (PI) before Monday’s parliamentary debate on the investigatory powers bill, sometimes called the snooper’s charter.

The campaign group argues that the letters demonstrate the relationship between government agencies and the independent organisation that is supposed to oversee and regulate their activities has been too “cosy”.

The correspondence has been disclosed in the course of legal action between PI and the government at the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) which is due to be heard in full this year. The IPT deals with complaints about the intelligence services and surveillance by public bodies. GCHQ is alleged to be illegally collecting “bulk personal datasets” from the phone and internet records of millions of people who have no ties to terrorism and are not suspected of any crime.

The letters were sent by Home Office legal advisers, GCHQ and Sir Swinton Thomas, who was the interception of communications commissioner. The organisation is now called the Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office (IOCCO).

In May 2004, a Home Office legal adviser wrote to Thomas backing an MI5 proposal that collecting bulk data from communication service providers for its “database project” be authorised under section 94 of the 1984 Telecommunications Act because, at that stage, there were no human rights implications or breach of privacy concerns. Using that act would not require a notice to be put before parliament because it could be used secretively on the grounds that “disclosure of the direction would be against the interests of national security”.

Thomas wrote back the following month, expressing reservations about such clandestine authorisation. He proposed that it would be better to use the more modern and exacting Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa), which involves more open legal procedures and safeguards.

The Home Office responded, saying that, although Ripa might be engaged, it did not think that meant it must be used. The letter continued: “The only practical difference between the two sets of provisions is if [Ripa] were used, a new notice would need to be issued every month … involving a fresh consideration of the necessity and proportionality issues. This would not be the case under section 94 [of the Telecommunications Act].”

Thomas backed down, replying that, “on reconsideration”, use of Ripa was not mandatory. He added: “I am also impressed by the considerable and, if possible to be avoided, inconvenience in following the [Ripa] procedure in the database procedures.”

GCHQ wrote to Thomas in October that year after he had visited its Cheltenham headquarters. “Huges volumes of data are acquired (about 40m bits of data a day),” it informed him. “In the interests of security and commercial confidentiality, GCHQ prefers to keep all the telephony material together in one database … to disguise its source, as the origin of some of the material is extremely sensitive.”

GCHQ also asked whether access to communications data for its databases would be lawful under the Telecommunications Act rather than the more burdensome Ripa.

Thomas said it was not a straightforward problem but eventually acquiesced, saying: “I have, therefore, reached the conclusion, not without some difficulty, that the present system for retrieval [under the Telecommunications Act] is lawful. As you say, adhering to the spirit of the legislation is important.”

The debate goes some way to explain official thinking on the legal distinction between anonymised bulk data collection and a second stage of interception where material may be matched to individuals.

The latest revelation follows an earlier release of confidential documents by PI last month that showed how GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 obtain personal data from public and private organisations, including financial institutions, the NHS, electronic petitions record databases and others.

Privacy International said the letters exemplified the “total failure” of oversight.

Caroline Wilson Palow, the organisation’s general counsel, said: “The documents demonstrate the government’s troubling history of over-reaching in order to expand its surveillance powers while minimising safeguards.

“This discussion, between lawyers for MI5 and GCHQ and the interception of communications commissioner, is also an illuminating example of how oversight can go wrong when it lacks sufficient transparency, resources and advocates for the individuals whose privacy may be violated.

“We think the commissioner’s conclusions were incorrect, permitting GCHQ to acquire communications data in bulk under a broad and secret interpretation of a power to which few safeguards attach. Indeed, the commissioner even agrees with GCHQ and MI5 that collecting our communications data from service providers would not be an interference with our privacy – a position that would likely come as a surprise to most of us and is in direct conflict with recent court decisions.”

Sir Stanley Burnton, the interception commissioner at IOCCO, said: “We have recently concluded our comprehensive review of section 94 [Telecommunications Act] directions which have been issued by secretaries of state from various government departments since the late 1990s, after taking this additional oversight on at the request of the prime minister in 2015.

“Our review has been very challenging because all the section 94 directions are subject to statutory secrecy provisions which limit severely what we are able to say publicly about them. Nevertheless, our review report sets out an extensive series of recommendations which must be implemented in order to clarify and bring consistency to the procedures in place, remedy the lack of record-keeping requirements and codified processes and ensure that we are able to undertake this additional oversight and audit of the giving and use of section 94 directions properly. Our report is due to be published at the end of June or early July.”

“We welcome and support Privacy International’s proposal for oversight bodies to be supported by public interest advocates and their calls for further transparency in these matters.”

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APPENDED, EMAIL SENT TO PRIVACY INTERNATIONAL:

From: Sandra Finley Sent: June 6, 2016 3:11 PM

To: press at privacyinternational.org Subject: re Official correspondence reveals lack of scrutiny of MI5’s data collection

Hello Privacy International,

Thank-you for the work you do.

There is a connection not mentioned in the article, “Official correspondence reveals lack of scrutiny of MI5’s data collection”. You may know it, but just in case you don’t!

The issue of surveillance enabled by collection of personal data through censuses and continuously on-going surveys is

additional to what is happening through “Security” forces and legislation regarding police powers.

The involvement of Lockheed Martin Corp in the data base at UK Office for National Statistics is a vehicle for loss of Privacy of personal information (surveillance), if the UK situation is similar to the Canadian.

I am from Canada and have followed Lockheed Martin’s role in the Statistics Agency (data collection) in Canada, the UK and in the US (where it is the “Census Bureau”). I was in and out of Court for 5 years because I would not be complicit with Lockheed Martin’s involvement. The Court battle was fought on the Canadian Charter Right to Privacy of Personal Information; but the original motivation of thousands of Canadians has been the enrichment of a corrupt, lawless, and destructive corporation like Lockheed Martin through Government contracts.

I was first alerted to the collaboration between what is referred to as the “Five Eyes” (FVEY) countries in 2008. The head of the Census operations for Canada was brought in as a witness at my trial.

Lockheed Martin’s international “steerage” role is succinctly evidenced by Expense Claims submitted in 2009-2010 by the Assistant Chief Statistician for Canada (appended).

The leaks by Edward Snowden through Glenn Greenwald confirmed what we already knew by piecing together various news stories.

Perhaps the following articles can be helpful to you.

Best wishes, . . .

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EXPENSE CLAIMS TELL A STORY

From http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/about/expense/petermorrison/2010

Morrison, Peter, Assistant Chief Statistician

Travel expenses – 2010

Date	Purpose	Cost
January 28, 2010	ARCHIVED – Lockheed Martin Steering Committee Meeting	$909.88

September 22, 2010	ARCHIVED – Corporate Business Architecture presentation to Regional Offices	$1,523.32
October 11, 2010	ARCHIVED – Participate at the 2010 Meeting of the International Census Forum and Lockheed Martin Senior Management Steering Committee Meeting	$2,062.94
October 21, 2010	ARCHIVED – Corporate Business Architecture presentation to Central Regional Office and visit to Regional Census Centre	$1,128.14

From http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/about/expense/petermorrison/2009

Morrison, Peter, Assistant Chief Statistician

Travel expenses – 2009

Date	Purpose	Cost
June 17, 2009	ARCHIVED – To visit the Regional Offices in Vancouver and Edmonton	$1,478.68
June 22, 2009	ARCHIVED – To attend the Steering Committee Meeting with Lockheed Martin and visit the United States Data Processing Centre (DPC) site	$1,262.61
August 10, 2009	ARCHIVED – EX interviews	$684.78
September 7, 2009	ARCHIVED – International Census Forum 2009	$4,369.27

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URLs OF POTENTIAL INTEREST:

2015-02-25 The public debate on Bill C-51 (Secret Police) should include context, the comprehensive SURVEILLANCE that is already in place

EARLIER INFO RE UK, IRELAND AND US

(Note that one of the main protestors against Lockheed Martin’s role in UK Census is now deceased.)

UK Census (also Lockheed Martin)

Click on http://www.youtube.com/ . Then “search” on ” UK Census Lockheed “. You’ll find lots of videos, generated by Lockheed’s involvement, with words like

Don’t comply, here’s why
Don’t fill it in
Boycott
Census burning

Irish Census

http://irishcensusscandal.org/

American Census

There’s information on my blog included in the articles under Categories / Peace or War / Lockheed Martin (righthand sidebar).

Americans are much more in the dark about Lockheed Martin’s involvement in their Census Bureau.

Understandable, given my experience with the NY Times reporting of the resistance in Canada. They clearly and deliberately edited out the name “Lockheed Martin” (I was interviewed and supplied the information to the Reporter.) >>

“a small number of people refused to fill out (the Canadian) census forms. But they were protesting the use of an American technology contractor.”

A GOOGLE SEARCH ON “CENSUS, UK, LOCKHEED” YIELDS:

Census Systems · Lockheed Martin

www.lockheedmartin.ca/us/products/census-systems.html

Our Census successes include the 2000 and 2010 census for the United States Census Bureau, the 2001 and 2011 census for the United Kingdom, and the …

Boycott the UK census over links to Lockheed Martin, protesters say …

www.theguardian.com › World › UK News › Census

Feb 19, 2011 – People are being urged to boycott next month’s UK’s census because the US arms manufacturer responsible for Trident is involved in gathering …

Man fined for refusing census over Lockheed Martin link | UK news …

www.theguardian.com › World › UK News › Census

Jan 17, 2012 – Derek Shields tells court he ‘wouldn’t get into bed with an arms dealer’ and says he will not pay £75 fine.

2016-06-01 Jamila Raqib, Rethinking Conflict: The First Step to Creating Lasting Change (plus Gene Sharp, her mentor)

Peace or Violence No Responses »

Jun 032016

An inspirational and sensible young lady!

Jamila Raqib, (under 14 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJodZcGfTVE&list=PLRGCiRF7-x7rY9JfK66FS2PinoenXUgiW&index=13

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Jamila’s mentor, Dr. Gene Sharp

(update: Wynogene “Gene” Sharp, 80, died Sunday, May 15, 2016, in Mesa, Ariz. – – since the making of this film.)

2016-03 StatsCan Surveys: Has anyone successfully sued StatsCan for harassment? from Reddit, legal action initiated. StatsCan sent letter “Surveys are voluntary”. Which stopped the legal action. Wait a few months, StatsCan changed back.

Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials) 11 Responses »

Jun 022016

Please note that StatsCan “Surveys” are not the same as the Census. Surveys are being conducted all the time. The Census is once every 5 years.

Excerpt from Reddit posting (full text below):

I ended up contacting a lawyer and advised Stats Can that we were seeking legal action

Stats Can sent us a letter a couple of weeks later confirming that the Labour Force Survey is voluntary . . .

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UPDATE: 2016-07-01 StatsCan Website: Surveys are Mandatory, then Voluntary, then Mandatory. Timeline with Reddit info. The Law still says that Surveys are voluntary. This Update, with the Timeline also contains the full argument – – what does the law say? A couple of points have been added to the main arguments presented earlier. Hopefully it is water-tight.

The effect of the StatsCan letter (reported on Reddit), accompanied by a change to their website to say “all surveys are voluntary”, meant that the legal action was stopped.

But maybe as late as June 2nd, 2016 the website was changed back. See the above URL (StatsCan Website: Surveys are . . . )

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THE REDDIT POSTING: Oct 28, 2015

Has anyone successfully sued Stats Can for harassment?

Statistics Canada has been harassing us to fill out a survey, calling several times per day and refusing to stop even though we have requested them to stop calling several times now.

This is not a census, which people are legally required to complete (or face jail time or fines as a consequence). The agent on the phone is insisting the survey is mandatory, but it even states on the documentation itself that the survey is voluntary (and all we need to do to opt out is send them a letter explaining why we don’t want to take part, which is still a way of gaining information and is a waste of our time).

The harassment is escalating and beginning to aggravate my coworker, the person who is being harassed.

How do I stop Stats Canada from harassing my coworker in the most polite, succinct, legal way possible? Short of hiring a lawyer to sue them for harassment? (which my coworker is not above doing, but.. we’d prefer to avoid that, obv).

I’ve searched online for others in the same situation and while the harassment is completely illegal on the part of Stats Canada, most people seem to cave in to the harassment once it reaches a rate of 5 or more calls per day (5 calls per day! not even telemarketers are allowed to do that) or worse, actual visits from Stats Canada employees harassing them at their workplaces and residences.

Stats Can should be ashamed of themselves.

How do I stop the madness?

Thanks!

edit: I just spoke to a Stats Can agent and asked them to go over the Statistical Act with me and they were unable to prove that surveys are mandatory, including the Labour Force Survey.

According to Section 8 of the Statistical Act:

The Minister may, by order, authorize the obtaining, for a particular purpose, of information, other than information for a census of population or agriculture, on a voluntary basis, but where such information is requested section 31 does not apply in respect of a refusal or neglect to furnish the information.

Section 31 deals with sanctions and fines for refusing to participate or for furnishing false information regarding a mandatory CENSUS and as Section 8 states above, does not apply to voluntary surveys (unless you deliberately provide false information, I suppose, which I have no intent of doing).

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/S-19/FullText.html

EDIT UPDATE: I ended up contacting a lawyer and advised Stats Can that we were seeking legal action and Stats Can sent us a letter a couple of weeks later confirming that the Labour Force Survey is voluntary and have since stopped harassing us on the phone. Which seems to have resolved the problem for us, at least.

26 comments

UPDATE, please see: 2016-07-01 StatsCan Website: Surveys are Mandatory then Voluntary then Mandatory again. Timeline with Reddit info. Includes full argument, surveys are voluntary under the Law.

2016-05-24 This is why the war corporations (Lockheed Martin) will be gone from Canada. Democracy is as fallible as human beings. But we make progress. Interview of George Takei, Japanese-American interned at age 5.

Privacy of Personal Information; Charter Right; Surveillance; StatsCan Censuses & Surveys No Responses »

May 242016

Our democracy can be a powerful dynamic force for justice and equality but it can also

When people’s fallibility takes precedence over their goodness then

horrific things are done in the name of democracy

Serendipity. I was answering Brad’s question about the viability of StatsCan. 2016-05-20 Was there at any point an historical Statistics Canada that would work today? (Lockheed Martin, Privacy of Personal Info)

And tackled the question of why I think it is that academics, politicians and media advocate strenuously for detailed files on citizens (StatsCan, mandatory long form Census). Simultaneously, they are advocating to take away the Charter Right to Privacy of Personal Information, a constitutional right, without going through the process prescribed by Constitutional Law to remove a Charter Right (the Oakes Test for a “Section One Override” of the Right). At a time when the worst war and surveillance corporation on the planet has the “steerage” role in the census operations of at least five countries, one being Canada. Astoundingly backward steps.

I then happened to hear an interview that inspires on the point I was making – – our fallibility.

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Near the end of this CBC interview on the program “Q”, George Takei recounts what his Father explained to him about democracy.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-tuesday-may-24-2016-1.3597178/george-takei-dares-hollywood-to-explore-wider-galaxy-of-talent-1.3597184

” . . . Takei reflects on how his childhood in an (American) internment camp (World War Two) marked him forever, how democracies progress and regress at the same time, and why “horrific things happen” when people’s fallibility overrides their goodness.. . . ”

Partial transcription below.

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“. . . it wasn’t just the Nazis who used census data to round up “enemies” in their midst. The Americans did the same ( but not to quite the same end!). And what about Canadians? . . . “

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PARTIAL TRANSCRIPTION

GEORGE TAKEI

. . . Well, I was incarcerated as a child …. And I have memories of it, but they’re a child’s memories. I really didn’t understand it.

But when I became a teenager and I read civics books about the shining ideals of our American democracy, I couldn’t quite reconcile that with what I knew to be my childhood imprisonment

And so I sat down with my Father after dinner many, many times.

Had some passionate and sometimes heated discussions on our imprisonment and

I learned about American democracy, its strength and its nobility from my Father, a man who lost everything in the middle of his life and

Started from scratch and taught me about American democracy

He said our democracy is a people’s democracy

And it has the potential to be as great as the founding fathers were

But it’s also as fallible as human beings are, and as the founding fathers were; the people who articulated those ideals kept other human beings as slaves

Women were not part of “All men are created equal”

They were women and

They had no rights

But from that time on those people who cared about the ideals and actively engaged in the process of democracy

Have struggled

The slaves struggled through generations, through the Jim Crow period and the Civil Rights period

Where now we have an Afro-American as the President of the United States

With women who had no rights

They couldn’t vote

They had no property rights

They didn’t have rights over their own children

And yet because they struggled together with fair-minded men

That today we have three women as justices on the Supreme Court of the U.S.

And a very strong probability that the next President of the U.S. will be a woman

So you know, we make progress

One Sunday afternoon he took me downtown to the Adlai Stevenson for President headquarters

And he introduced me to electoral politics

And I saw how this works

It takes people that were passionate, in that case

dedicated to getting Governor Stevenson of Illinois elected President of the U.S.

We weren’t successful then

But he said

In a democracy keep on keeping on

And we do make progress

Last year the Supreme Court of the U.S. ruled that

Marriage equality is the rule of the land from coast to coast and from border to border

And yet this year we have the backlash to that

People trying to use religion as a rationale for discrimination or

Hyped-up fear of pedophiles in girl’s bathrooms; you know

the battlefield is the bathroom now, of all places!

Our democracy can be a powerful dynamic force for justice and equality but it can also

When people’s fallibility takes precedence over their goodness then

horrific things are done in the name of democracy

(Shad, interviewer) But your Father convinced you of the value of that process and the historical argument for it

(George): And active engagement in the democratic process

I’ve been actively engaged in many, many political campaigns as well as social justice campaigns

I marched with Dr Martin Luther King

I shook his hand, chatted with him

During the Viet Nam War – – –

I was a teenager then but I must say I felt a sense of power being exchanged between his hand and mine

And his very measured cadence in his speech was

An incredible and inspiring experience

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Segment leading up to the preceding:

(8:27)

. . . A chapter of American history that most people still to this day don’t know . . . the imprisonment of Japanese Americans . . . simply because we happened to look like the people that bombed Pearl Harbour.

Donald Trump, a candidate for the presidency of the U.S. displays that same kind of fear-mongering that went on during the early part of the 1940s when we were seen as the people that bombed Pearl Harbour.

It was my grandparents at the turn of the last century that immigrated to this country. My Mother was born in Sacramento; my Father was a San Franciscan; my siblings and I were born in Los Angeles, here.

And yet because we happened to be of Japanese ancestry we were assumed to be just like them.

120,000 Japanese-Americans were summarily rounded up and put in barbed wire prison camps.

That’s what we dramatized in “Allegiance” (musical) on the Broadway stage.

Ushers have told me that during the intermission there were people in the lobby asking

Is this story true?

Did this actually happen in the United States?

Because we don’t know that history we have people like Donald Trump or mayors of some cities that echoed him and used the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans as a rationale – –

President Franklin D Roosevelt did it, so we must do it now with Muslims.

(10:00) When in fact there are millions and millions of Muslims who are not terrorists. Yes, the terrorists had been Muslims, but Muslims are not terrorists.

Those terrorists are a small miniscule fraction of the multi-million people on this planet who are Muslims.

So, you know, Politicians play on people’s ignorance and instill fear in them and urge them to do things that are not only unjust but are horrifically damaging to the lives of the people that are targeted.

(Shad, interviewer) And we unfortunately don’t learn the lessons from history because we don’t know the history.

Exactly. That’s another one of my missions to work in that chapter of American history in our educational systems.

We founded a museum called the Japanese-American National Museum.

To institutionalize that story

I’m the last of the generation that experienced the internment

I was five years old then

We don’t want that story to die out with my generation.

And so we did this musical on Broadway on that subject, the Museum

And we’ve been working with boards of education . . .

We’ve been working with Little Rock

(We were incarcerated in Arkansas)

Barb wire prison camps, two of them in Arkansas . . .

We have a programme to bring school teachers, about a dozen school teachers from Little Rock to the Museum every summer for a month

Their job is to work in that part of Arkansas history that imprisoned innocent Americans simply because of our ancestry …

2016-05-21 I lose myself. “A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.”

Culture and Ethics, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials) No Responses »

May 212016

EXCERPTED from: 2010-03-10 Propaganda, Democracy: Imagining “the other”. Ralston Saul. The Cellist of Sarajevo.

The guiding light expressed is useful in a number of contexts, not only 9/11, terrorism and torture. Consider the Census, Charter Right to Privacy of Personal Information and the involvement of Lockheed Martin Corporation.

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Einstein: “A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.”

Page 320 from John Ralston Saul’s “On Equilibrium”:

Philosophy is a commentary on the nature of our existence and so on the qualities all of us share in some way. How useful is that? Well, that nature and those qualities

(INSERT: the qualities are

common sense
ethics
imagination
intuition
memory and
reason)

exist whether we recognize them or not. What remains in our power is how conscious we are willing to be of our humanness. By conscious, I mean how much we wish to exercise our qualities and to do so one in concert with the other. To be conscious of them is to be more confident in our use of them.

What was disturbing on that day (INSERT: 9/11) and in the days that followed was how many (of the leaders) . . . concentrated exclusively on a narrow, linear approach towards terrorism. They talked of eradication, punishment, in effect, of revenge.

We have some 130 years of experience with modern terrorism. Concrete action is always necessary. Guilty individuals must be dealt with appropriately. We know that there will always be a minute percentage among us ready to kill others for a variety of reasons. We also know that part of the problem is not so much generated as made possible by instability, disquiet, confusion somewhere. The soft terrain from which terrorism has always operated can range from generalized poverty and suffering to directionless comfort and self-indulgence. Conscious civilizations – those which use their qualities in concert – know that they must deal with the causes of that instability and loss of direction in order to shrink that context from which terrorism feeds.

To use our qualities is to be conscious of our actions. A dynamic equilibrium implies an integrated sense of reality’s complexity. For forty years now the West has led a rush to balance its trade figures by aggressively selling its armaments abroad. The world is awash in weaponry. You can trace the parallel rising lines of unstable areas slipping into violence as the quantity of weapons on the market increases. To act as if our actions do not have consequences is to pretend that we are without qualities and are naturally passive factors when faced by the actions of others. It is to reduce ourselves to forms of reaction. ….

(p. 327-8) “The rhetoric of global forces, whether economic, technological or military, leaves us as individuals with the demeaning and irrelevant pleasures of self-fulfilment, providing we can afford them. I sense little satisfaction among people with this enforced holiday from the ability to shape their own destinies and the shared destiny of their society. In fact, I sense growing discomfort and anger. They see their lives, their families, their streets, let us say their friendships, as reality. And this reality is the basis from which larger realities must be shaped.

“… Here friendship is the ability to imagine the other. It is not easy. It is the beginnings of tolerance. It is, as Conrad said, “more difficult for some than heroism. More difficult than compassion”. Friendship is a relationship filled with uncertainty. It is the primary territory upon which we test our dynamic equilibrium – our use of our interwoven qualities. … “

(Sandra speaking:) We should strategize as much as the General who tells the video-war-games-kid who sits in Nevada running the joy-stick that guides the image of an unmanned drone to its destination in Afghanistan, who pushes the “enter” key on the keyboard at the precise moment to release the bombs.

Einstein: “We must be prepared to make the same heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war.”

Another email in this series is the now-public record on the torture done by the Allied forces in World War Two. Which brings us full circle back to propaganda. Our Government propagandizes just as much as “the enemy”, thanks for pointing that out. Which brings us to “Afghan detainees”.

UPDATES: see also

We must be well informed and engaged. We CANNOT leave the decisions about the world to others. Not any more than I can leave a decision about my life to someone else to make. In that process I lose myself.

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