Sandra Finley

2011-02-23 Greenwashing War: Vermont Mayor Signs Deal With Lockheed Martin (a Climate Change partnership). Will citizen outrage stop it? Includes good info on Lockheed’s F-35 stealth bombers.

 Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Feb 232011
 

Item #3 below:  I extended solidarity.  Citizens in Vermont are uniting against a Mayor’s partnership with Lockheed Martin in – – – would you believe – – –  climate change projects!

Jonathan Leavitt is a community organizer and writer based in Burlington, Vermont.    He wrote the (item #1) very excellent article about the situation with Lockheed Martin in Vermont, now also coming into schools.

If you know anyone in Vermont, the mayor’s email address and phone number are at the bottom of the article.  Every straw added to the camel’s back is essential.

Mayor Kiss is showing himself to be

  •  anti-progressive in a state that is
  •  unusually progressive.

See  2011-01-22   Vermont politicians are moving to deny corporations the rights that humans enjoy.  . . .   This is an amazing story worth reading.   I was so excited when I read it, I posted it right away, then didn’t find time to send it to you.   It’s a good read opposite the Mayor’s action below – – giving hope that the citizens of Burlington, VT  will put the run on Lockheed Martin.

– – –  – – – – – – – – –

CONTENTS

  1. GREENWASHING WAR:  BURLINGTON, VERMONT MAYOR SIGNS DEAL WITH LOCKHEED MARTIN
  2. LOCKHEED ‘NOT A PRACTICAL ANSWER’
  3. EMAILS OF SOLIDARITY WITH PEOPLE IN VERMONT

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

  1. GREENWASHING WAR:  BURLINGTON, VERMONT MAYOR SIGNS DEAL WITH LOCKHEED MARTIN
Greenwash:   the practice of promoting environmentally friendly programs to deflect attention from an organization’s environmentally unfriendly or less savory activities.
Etymology: green ‘environmentally friendly’ + ( white)wash  ‘conceal flaws’

http://www.towardfreedom.com/americas/2245-lockheed-martin-and-burlington

Thursday, 30 December 2010 02:43    Jonathan Leavitt

When it leaked in Seven Days, a local alternative weekly, that Mayor Bob Kiss of liberal mecca Burlington, Vermont had inked a deal with the world’s largest war profiteer all hell broke loose inside the Burlington left. Charges of “corporate greenwashing” and hypocrisy lit up Facebook pages and coffeeshop conversations. These charges land fresh like the daily newspaper at the doorstep of most mayors of American cities. Mayor Bob Kiss however, is a former conscientious objector, and a member of Vermont’s Progressive Party, the most successful third party in the US, which touts a platform totally at odds with war profiteers like Lockheed. It’s the party that claims Bernie Sanders, the US’ lone socialist senator, recent Filibuster leader and viral web sensation amongst its founders. Mayor Kiss, whose party has for 28 of the last 30 years controlled City Hall, was learning what many social movements that assume governmental control learn: wielding power without alienating the community organizers and social movements that put leaders into office can prove to be quite the difficult equation to balance.

That few details were available when the contractual “letter of intent,” adorned with Lockheed Martin’s corporate logo, was signed by Mayor Kiss and Lockheed’s Senior Vice President certainly didn’t assuage the rising indignation of community organizers. Interestingly, it was Mayor Kiss who approached Lockheed about the deal at the inaugural “Carbon War Room,” which took place simultaneously with the Vancouver Olympics. The Carbon War Room is a pet project of the 212th richest person in the world, billionaire Sir Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group. Branson’s record and cola empire also counts amongst its corporate family global warming contributors like Virgin Airlines and the quixotic, carbon emissions nightmare of Virgin Galactic, space tourism for $200,000 a ticket.

Branson’s Carbon War Room partners cities with corporations like Lockheed and private financiers to create market based solutions to climate change. The single-sided, single page letter of cooperation details vague projects for Lockheed to partner with Burlington on including “Urban Triage,” “Vertical Wind Turbines,” “Solar Photovoltaic Systems,” “Telemetrics” and “Three dimensional LIDAR City models.” Branson’s War Room describes itself as a “30-month challenge to help cities around the world use innovative mechanisms to bring capital, energy technologies and jobs to their citizens in a sustainable and wealth creating way.”

Wealth creating in this sense means privatizing existing not-for profit climate change fighting measures like the PACE program (PACE lets US home owners bundle home renewable energy financing into their mortgage, spreading out the payments over 25-30 years instead of the usual home improvement loan term of lease of five years). According to the Climate War Room’s literature the United States’ PACE market, “is valued at $500 billion.” This sort of privatization, which spins governmental non-profit programs into new markets, and thereby so much gold for “gold-level” corporate sponsors of the “War Room” like Lockheed, and billionaires like Branson, is but one of the objectionable pieces of the deal to its detractors. Perhaps even more immediate and inflammatory is the planned interaction between Burlington’s school children and Lockheed Martin engineers.

“Are We For Bomb Makers?”

One of the controversial aspects of the deal would allow Lockheed engineers to work inside Burlington schools with schoolchildren. In the past five years Burlington parents’ and students’ outrage boiled over when war profiteer General Dynamics’ program of giving away pencils, bookmarks and books stamped with their corporate logo came to light. When a nine year-old student at Burlington’s Champlain Elementary was faced with going to an assembly during the school day to listen to General Dynamics employees, her mom Laurie Essig says her daughter Willa asked, “‘Are we for bomb-makers? Do we think it’s right to kill people? Her basic question was, ‘Why are we treating these people like heroes?'” Due to a perception on Willa’s teacher’s part, that nine year-old Willa might offend the weapons manufacturers’ employees, the teacher, “brought all the other students down to get their free books and left my daughter sitting alone in the classroom.” Essig says. Longtime Vermont peace activist, Joseph Gainza said, during an interview, “I would hope that the City of Burlington and the Burlington School District wouldn’t let a corporate member of the military industrial complex take credit for solving the climate change problems it helps everyday to perpetuate.”

Meg Brooke, Chair of Chittenden County Progressives says of Lockheed’s slated involvement with school kids:

I’ve been trained by the National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors (NISBCO) and given many hours to council students how to avoid war. I’ve fought to remove military recruiters from our schools. I regularly taught classes in non-violent conflict resolution in Vermont high schools. I am deeply concerned by the way we normalize violence and war and desensitize our young to the horror our military perpetrates, especially on the young, women, and the elderly. Welcoming one of the leaders of this military industrial complex into our schools goes against all I, and many others, believe. I do not want young Vermonters to see the Lockheed logo on TV and have a positive thought about what that business might have done in their school.

Who is Lockheed Martin?

“We Never Forget Who We Work For” is Lockheed Martin’s motto. That mindfulness of who they work for takes a different meaning when one considers that 84 percent of Lockheed’s revenue comes from the US government, with the majority of that being Pentagon contracts. Lockheed contracted 98 different lobbyists, was mentioned in 142 Congressional bills and spent nearly $10 million in lobbying just in 2010. This is the multi-national war profiteer which to quote Bernie Sanders, “according to the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, the three largest government contractors — Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman — have engaged in 109 combined instances of misconduct just since 1995, and have paid fees and settlements for this misconduct totaling $2.9 billion.”  Further, something is seriously amiss when George W. Bush’s Department of Justice, not exactly known for setting precedents in corporate crime prosecution, files a 2007 fraud lawsuit against a corporation raking in a net $3.033 billion in FY ’07 (It’s worth noting that 1% of Lockheed Martin’s annual profits alone roughly equals the City of Burlington’s approximately $30 million budget).

Defense contractors are notorious for their fraudulent overcharging of tax payers for weapons systems that things must have risen to truly historic levels of fraud for Bush’s DoJ to take action.  Indeed Lockheed is number one in the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, at 54 instances of contractor misconduct, totaling $577.4 million in settlements, nearly twice as many as the next closest war profiteer.

Lockheed Martin has had separate racial, age and gender discrimination lawsuits filed against it in the past two years alone. Does Mayor Kiss really want Burlington’s hard won image attached to the world’s largest war profiteer whose supervisors in the last 24 months allowed “deaths threats” and threats to “lynch” an African American employee “to continue unabated – even though the company was aware of the unlawful conduct”? One might think all of the above flies in the face of the subsections of Mayor Kiss’ Progressive Party platform which state the Progressive Party will, “Insist Vermont will contract only with responsible employers, including local small businesses and local entrepreneurs, hiring local employees” and “Promote cooperative, worker-owned, and publicly-owned enterprises as democratic alternatives to huge profit-driven multi-national corporations.” Indeed, many inside Kiss’ Progressive Party have expressed concerns with these provocatively strange bed fellows.

Progressive City Councilor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak who represents Burlington’s Ward 3 said in a statement, “When any municipality considers partnering with a corporation there needs to be some sort of conversation around a set of standards and principals that reflect the community. With Burlington those standard would need to include language to reflect issues long enshrined in the fabric of the City’s life: human rights issues, equality issues, peace and war issues. Any agreement or discussion needs to be guided by these community standards, be it on a project level or a policy level. Sometimes the money involved in a potential deal or partnership is not enough to compromise these principals. This deal, frankly, considering Lockheed’s long track record would violate any reasonable community standards for the City of Burlington.”

Lockheed and Grassroots Organizers

What isn’t immediately clear is what is left for Lockheed engineers to do around Climate Change in Burlington that isn’t currently being done by Burlington’s many NGO’s, non-profits and local companies without war profiteer logos on their arms. From award-winning Efficiency Vermont to AgRefresh, from the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute to Burlington Walk/Bike Council, from Carshare Vermont to 350.org, from Permaculture Burlington to the Localvore movement, and on and on. Even the City’s Department of Public Works is involved, installing rainwater gardens into the very street itself on Decatur St in Burlington’s Old North End. There are also local organic farmers playing funk and disco as they make the rounds in their solar powered veggie delivery van. “Corporations like Lockheed Martin are simultaneously funding the denial of global warming and trying to profit from it,” says Brian Tokar, Director of Plainfield, Vermont’s Institute of Social Ecology and author of the recent book Toward Climate Justice. “It’s hard to imagine what they could possibly contribute to Burlington’s already leading-edge efforts to become greener and more self-reliant.” Progressive Party Chittenden County Chair Meg Brooke states in plainsong, “Lockheed is going to show and take credit for twenty years of grassroots organizers blood and sweat, paid for out of their own pockets.”

Then there are the unspoken ironies of Lockheed working on climate change: the US military, with all its Lockheed technologies has a 363,000 barrel per day oil habit, making it the single largest purchaser of oil in the world. If the US military were a country it would be amongst the top 20 countries in annual oil consumption well in front of Australia. Activist Joseph Gainza points to this saying, “Private corporations that helped create climate change are not going to be part of the solution.” What’s more, as Chittenden County Progressive Chair Meg Brooke said, “The military is the number one enemy of sustainability and Lockheed isn’t going to do much to change that as their money comes from manufacturing machines that are completely unsustainable. Their F35’s, which threaten our environment, use 2,000-4,000 gallons of fuel and hour.”

The F-35 is Lockheed’s new next generation fighter plane which is controversially slated to be stationed at Burlington Airport. James Leas, one of the main organizers of the Stop the F-35 Coalition in Burlington writes in a widely circulated open letter to Mayor Kiss “Lockheed Martin is one of the world’s largest war profiteers. Its products are designed to destroy the environment and living things. Please help me understand how Lockheed Martin, a company that is one of the chief purveyors of death and destruction, is going to be telling Burlington about sustainability?” In 2007, Lockheed sheepishly admitted it had overcharged, and would repay, the Federal government $265 million plus interest for over-billing American taxpayers on the same F-35. Lockheed called the $265 million dollar over-billing “inadvertent.” Author Brian Tokar says, “Lockheed’s F35’s and other military hardware are among the most petroleum-gorging products in the world. Burlington doesn’t need their noisy fighter jets, nor should Vermont tolerate Lockheed’s feeble attempts to greenwash their image.”

That said, if this pact between Burlington and Lockheed was purely results based, “most sustainability bang for the buck” venture, and not about corporate greenwashing, could Lockheed silently fund the many engineers and community organizers who have been doing climate change and sustainability work inside Burlington for decades, often with little resources? If Lockheed wanted to get the most climate change prevention for their investment, without causing ripples, could they silently dovetail with Burlington’s award winning Climate Action Plan and the 200 project ideas it generated? Unlike the Lockheed deal, the Climate Action Plan had many opportunities for public input.

Or perhaps this funding could quietly award under-capitalized companies like Efficiency Vermont, whose low income home weatherization has a two year waiting list. Additionally there is an unfunded Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization study on how physical barriers to separate bike lanes from car traffic would positively or negatively impact downtown business. In many cities where the study has been done, including cities as large as New York City, physical barriers to demarcate bike lanes from car traffic have been shown to create safer, friendlier communities, which increases bike use while simultaneously helping businesses thrive. Absent the capital for the study though, the false “it’s bad for business” argument will prevent these bike lane improvements. One climate change consultant estimated the cost of which to be about $10,000 or about the cost of 1/5th of one second in Iraq war spending. But if it were an anonymous benefactor Lockheed couldn’t ride Burlington’s credibility to the bank, and credibility is the only thing war profiteers like Lockheed Martin can’t buy.

The Need For Action in Burlington 

In an exclusive meeting with Mayor Kiss he said that the Lockheed/Carbon War Room was not the only way to finance the projects he envisions the City of Burlington taking on, merely the more “serendipitous.” I asked Mayor Kiss at the end of the meeting to what degree the outraged grassroots of Burlington can shape the outcome, considering both the media and the community members have discussed possible civil disobedience to stop this contract with the world’s largest war profiteer. Mayor Kiss, after demurring several times said, “Well there’s nothing date certain in it. This is just a letter of intent, it doesn’t have specific benchmarks for specific projects.”

What the Mayor is saying is that the community organizers can shape the outcome by calling and emailing him, by organizing your friends and neighbors, and continually raising the stakes to oppose this. Certainly holding a single public hearing where community members could voice concerns would be a natural place for the Mayor to show his responsiveness to the electorate that put him in power. Community organizers and concerned Burlingtonians could ask for City Council resolutions the critiquing the deal using the community standards and principals Councilor Mulvaney-Stanak calls for.

Mayor Kiss and the Burlington City Council have proven themselves responsive policy makers for Burlingtonians when citizens organize and make demands of them in City Council meetings packed with advocates. Indeed that is exactly how in the past year Burlington passed a resolution to boycott the State of Arizona over its controversial immigration law SB 1070, and how legislation pushed by Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling and downtown business organization The Church Street Marketplace Association to make it a crime to be poor on public sidewalks was stopped cold. If the community continues to organize against Lockheed and if the Mayor is responsive to the grassroots that built his party, then the single page “letter of intent,” with no benchmarks, could be slipped deep into the City’s archives. That is to say, as usual, everything depends on community organizers building a countervailing pressure to the moneyed interests of corporations and the military which is so strong the elected officials have no choice but to do the moral, just and right thing.

Here are the details for contacting the Mayor’s office:

Call: 802-865-7272 (Mayor’s Office)

Email: mayor@ci.burlington.vt.us

– – –  — –  – – – – – – – — –  – –

Partial List of Environmental Lawsuits and Settlements Against Lockheed Martin 

(Links no longer valid)

Source: Federal Contractor Misconduct Database

  • Groundwater Treatment (Burbank, CA)
  • Groundwater Cleanup Violation (at the Burbank area of the San Fernando Valley Superfund Site)
  • Wastewater Discharge
  • Tallevast, Florida Groundwater Toxic Contamination
  • Pantano Wash Hazardous Waste Disposal Settlement
  • Emissions Violations at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory
  • Nuclear Safety Violations (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory)
  • Nuclear Safety Violations (Oak Ridge, TN)
  • Nuclear Waste Storage Violation (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory)
  • Radiation Exposure (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory)
  • Reactor Safety Violations (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
  • Toxic Substances Control Act Violation (PCBs – 2005)
  • Toxic Substances Control Act Violation (PCBs – 1998)
  • Violations of Louisiana Environmental Quality Act
  • Falsification of Testing Records (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory)
  • Radioactive Work Control Deficiencies (Sandia National Laboratories)
  • Radiological Control Deficiencies (Sandia National Laboratories)
  • Violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (Sandia ational Labor

2.      LOCKHEED ‘NOT A PRACTICAL ANSWER’

(Link no longer valid)  http://www.vermontcynic.com/mobile/lockheed-not-a-practical-answer-1.2476166

EXCERPT:

The SGA asks for more transparency from city mayor

By Maura Satti

Published: Monday, February 21, 2011

Updated: Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Lockheed Martin may be coming to Burlington soon, but some students say they aren’t sure about the city’s partnership with the global company.

The Student Government Association passed a resolution on Feb. 8 supporting Burlington citizens’ opposition against Mayor Kiss’ partnership to participate in climate change projects with Lockheed Martin, the resolution stated.    ….

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

3.      EMAILS OF SOLIDARITY WITH PEOPLE IN VERMONT

From: Rob Williams    Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 7:26 PM
To: Sandra Finley
Cc: Jonathan Leavitt; Ian Baldwin; Rick Foley; Gaelan Brown; Ron Miller; cheryl diersch; Robin Lloyd; Matt Cropp; Robert Wagner
Subject: Thanks for VC New Feature Article: Burlington Kisses Lockheed? Just Say No. (FEATURE)

Thanks for your encouraging words, below, and CoeurRage, Sandra.  I copied Jonathan and our editorial board here.

Permission to blog your letter at our web site?

Free Vermont!

Publisher Rob

– – – –  – – – – – – – – – – –

On Feb 23, 2011, at 7:47 PM, Sandra Finley wrote:

http://www.vtcommons.org/journal/2011/02/jonathan-leavitt-burlington-kisses-lockheed-just-say-no-feature

Many thanks to Jonathan Leavitt for the excellent article.

If you can use any of the information at   Lockheed Martin, index  (from http://sandrafinley.ca)  please help yourself.   There is a growing record of successful resistance.   I hope you are agreeable if I further circulate and post Jonathan’s article.

Lockheed Martin is evil incarnate.   We in Canada are working with people in the U.K. to roust them out of our censuses (March and May this year).  They run the American Census, too, as you may know.   I have been on trial because I refused to cooperate with our 2006 census, because of the work out-sourced to LM.   The census boycotts are just one way of refusing to be complicit with the LM agenda.

Unfortunately, with the quislings in Canadian Govt, the Canadian economy is fast moving to one, like yours, that is dependent upon the waging of war.  Fortunately, repressive regimes are being overthrown.  Lockheed Martin will go down the same way, if we share information and work together.

I am also very impressed by your state legislators’ resolution in January to take away the “personhood” status of corporations.

Fight the good fight!

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley

2011-02-22 Korten, David

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Economy / Political Economy, Sustainability  No Responses »
Feb 222011
 

–         David Korten   http://www.davidkorten.org/  “We humans are Creation’s most daring experiment with reflective consciousness. This gift is the source of our distinctive capacity to choose our future as an intentional collective act. For some 5,000 years, we have demonstrated our ability to use this capacity foolishly at an enormous cost to ourselves and to other living beings. We must now take the step to a new level of species maturity and demonstrate our ability to act with collective wisdom and foresight. “

If you only have time for one thing, make it this:   http://essentialsharingdocs.blogspot.com/2010/04/david-korten-agenda-for-new-economy.html

2011-02-20 Lawyers integral in making justice accessible: Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category)  No Responses »
Feb 202011
 

http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201102218262/Headline-News/Lawyers-integral-in-making-justice-accessible-McLachlin

You may want to read the article at the above URL.  The “Comments” from practitioners are worthwhile.

NOTE:  the Chief Justice has been calling on the legal profession for years to address problems with the system.   Her detailed statement, see  2007-03-08  Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin address to the Empire Club, Toronto.

Law Times

Lawyers need to do their bit to stop Canada’s justice system from becoming the preserve of the very richest in society, says the country’s top judge.

Since no one else can provide legal service, the profession must do its bit to ensure justice for all, says Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin told a group of leading lights in the legal world that the profession’s monopoly over the provision of legal services conferred with its special responsibilities.

 

“If you’re the only one that can provide a fundamentally vital social need, from which you benefit, I think it follows that you have to provide it. And I don’t think it’s enough to say we’re providing it for the rich and for corporations.

 

I think you have to find a way to provide it for everybody,” McLachlin said. “No one else can provide this, so the legal profession must.”

 

McLachlin was the keynote speaker at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s Middle Income Access to Civil Justice Colloquium on Feb. 10. It explored the problems middle-income people have in finding adequate legal representation.

McLachlin said full representation is out of the question for many, with average legal fees hovering in the range of $340 per hour. Low legal aid cut-offs have made that option equally unrealistic for the growing group caught between two financial extremes.

 

“Do we have adequate access to justice? I think the answer is no. Among those hardest hit are the middle class and the poor. We have wonderful justice for corporations, and for the wealthy.

 

But the middle class and the poor may not be able, in many situations we have found, to access our justice system,” said McLachlin. “Public confidence in the system of justice is essential. How can there be confidence in a system that shuts people out, that does not give them access.”

 

McLachlin said the situation must change if Canada’s justice system wishes to retain its reputation as one of the best in the world.

 

“We can draft the best rules in the world, we can render the most enlightened decisions, but if people can’t take advantage of that body of law, if they cannot have access to it to resolve their own legal difficulties, then it is for nought,” she said.

 

Ontario’s Attorney General Chris Bentley said his government is working to tackle the problem, but warned the tough economic climate meant very little new resources were available for the cause. In any case, “there is no appetite among middle-income Ontarians, or anyone else, to pay more money for access to justice,” said Bentley.

 

“It would be ironic if we asked them to, because by definition we’re saying they don’t have access to the system of justice that they should have, and that they already pay for,” he said.

 

Instead, Bentley said he has worked with the profession to develop programs that assist low- and middle-income people in the system. He pointed to the recent amendments to the Rules of Civil Procedure, which increased the monetary limit in the cheaper and faster Small Claims Court.

 

In family law, he promoted a pilot that mandates information sessions for all litigants and provides them with upfront access to duty counsel; “triage” lawyers who point them in the most suitable direction for their case. More Small Claims Court forms have gone online, with advice on how to fill them out, alongside an information hotline.

 

“People want information, upfront in an easy to understand way,” said Bentley. “They want a little bit of advice on whether it’s worthwhile proceeding, and better if it’s free. Then they want to get to the decision point as quickly as possible.”

 

But professor Russell Engler, another speaker at the conference, warned the multitude of self-help programs that have sprung up around court systems across the continent can have unwelcome side-effects.

“There is a very real danger that the trade-off is second-class justice for those who can’t pay,” he said.

 

Engler, who is the director of clinical programs at the New England School of Law in Boston, highlighted a study of a self-help legal centre in California, which was very popular among people who used it, and court staff whose lives were made easier by its existence.

 

But the study also found that in landlord-tenant cases, where the power imbalance is often greatest between litigants, tenants who used the self-help centre ended up paying more in back rent than those who went it alone.

 

“We can have a philosophical discussion as to whether it’s a good or bad thing that tenants pay their rent. But if we’re trying to design programs to assist people, I’m going to make a case that they are better off with more money in their pocket than less money,” Engler said.

 

“The theory is that the self-help centre acted as a dispenser of norms, so that tenants had their expectations lowered about what was achievable. Whether we want our assistance programs to be dispensers of norms or whatever we want them to be, that should at least be part of the conversation.”

 

According to Engler, program evaluations must focus on actual outcomes, rather than just customer-service style surveys, which can only tell you about how well people felt they were served by a particular program.

 

“Unless we do that, however well-intentioned we are, I think we’re never going to know whether we actually have expanded and provided equal access to justice, or whether we are providing second-class justice, despite our best intentions,” he said.

= = = = = = = =  = = = = =

EXCERPT:  Interview McLachlin,  The Gauntlet,  2000-05-18

G: What would you say the emerging legal issues are for the next decade?

M: It is hard to predict, but I think that as technology, bio-medicine, science and so on progresses we are going to see a lot of issues associated with those things. Of course, primarily it will be parliament and the legislatures that have to grapple, but the courts will inevitably be involved at some level.

2011-02-19 Our role in Guardian article, “Boycott the UK census over links to Lockheed Martin, protesters say”

 Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Feb 192011
 

Hey  what a blast!    Geoff Meaden from the U.K. wrote:  “So, Sandra if it gets published I should be on the first flight to the John Diefenbaker airport (Saskatoon) where I will publically kiss your feet!!!”      

What’s YOUR opinion?   Do I get my feet kissed?! 

Here’s the story: 

  • The U.K. census is on March 27th.  Ours is in May. 
  • David Sharrock, U.K. journalist,  asked about our experiences with Lockheed Martin in the Canadian census. 
  • I sent him our background material, see the email thread below.  
  • I also sent our material to persons named in the alternate media.  Including Geoff Meaden (will publically kiss (my) feet! – – if the protest over Lockheed gets published in the London Observer).    (Ref:  2011-02-10  UK Census March 27.  Boycotting because of Lockheed Martin Corp.)
  • David Sharrock’s article on the protests in the UK over Lockheed Martin was published in the Guardian on Saturday  (item #1).
  • Question:  do I get my feet kissed?  Maybe there should be a cost-benefit analysis for Geoff Meaden?!  

. . . .    You start to feel in your gut what “solidarity” means.

If the Egyptians and other people can throw off violent regimes,  surely to Goodness, we can throw off Lockheed Martin Corporation!   In solidarity. 

Who do you know in England and in Wales?   They might want to know that we’re engaged in the same battle. 

Very few people in the UK knew that Lockheed was involved in their 2001 census.   They can’t be in solidarity with us against Lockheed and vice versa, if people are “in the dark”.  

It’s small things like connecting with other people that makes it possible to do the impossible.

/Sandra

= = = = = = = = = = = == 

CONTENTS

  1. BOYCOTT THE UK CENSUS OVER LINKS TO LOCKHEED MARTIN,  UK GUARDIAN, FEB 19, 2011
  2. FROM DAVID SHARROCK OF THE LONDON OBSERVER, Feb 16
  3. REPLY TO DAVID –  CANADIAN EXPERIENCE WITH LOCKHEED MARTIN IN CENSUS,  Feb 16 
  4. FROM DAVID, Feb 16 and 17th
  5. EMAIL TO GEOFF MEADEN AND OTHERS INVOLVED IN THE U.K.  PROTEST, FEB 18.    
  6. EXCHANGE WITH GEOFF MEADEN.   FEET KISSED?  And  “We, I believe like you, face a ghastly electoral system which we call “first-past-post” under which it is almost impossible for us to gain electoral success. So we are run by genetically produced Conservatives who stand for little else other than big business, economic growth and development and the maintenance of the status quo.”
  7. GHETTS, THE CENSUS AND GUANTANAMO BAY, THE GUARDIAN, JAN 13

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

1.   BOYCOTT THE UK CENSUS OVER LINKS TO LOCKHEED MARTIN,  UK GUARDIAN, FEB 19, 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/19/census-boycott-lockheed-martin

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

We’re ready to face £1,000 fine, declare anti-war protesters in row over role of US arms firm Lockheed Martin in data gathering

  • David Sharrock and Jamie Doward
  • guardian.co.uk, Saturday 19 February 2011 21.15 GMT
  • Article history
    • f-35 The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35C, in a test flight over the Chesapeake Bay. Photograph: Lockheed Martin/APPeople are being urged to boycott next month’s UK’s census because the US arms manufacturer responsible for Trident is involved in gathering the information.

    Protesters say they are willing to break the law and face a £1,000 fine and a criminal record by refusing to fill in the 32-page questionnaire. Resistance to the decennial census is growing as a coalition of anti-war groups, pacifists, religious organisations and digital activists begin raising public awareness about the role of Lockheed Martin, America’s largest arms manufacturer.

    The company, which makes Trident nuclear missiles, cluster bombs and F-16 fighter jets, won the £150m contract to run the census on behalf of the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

    A spokesman for the Stop the War Coalition said: “We will certainly be calling for a boycott and telling people not co-operate with the warmongers.”

    The Green party has dropped its original opposition to Lockheed Martin’s lead role “because the census is extremely important and needs to be accurate”, but there is grassroots disquiet.

    A campaign to address the issue, bringing together religious groups, peace activists and digital data campaigners opposed to Lockheed Martin, is expected to emerge in the coming days. One of its organisers has told the Observer that a call for a boycott would be one of its major considerations. Siân Berry, a former Green party member who led the party’s 2008 campaign against Lockheed’s bid for the contract, said she was disappointed by the decision to support the census.

    “The really worrying thing is the fact that the information being collected in the next census – including new questions on sources of income and place of birth [to help monitor immigration] – would be ideal fodder for the kind of anti-terror analyses being carried out by Lockheed, and could lead to a faraway database identifying thousands of us as potential ‘threats’.”

    Lockheed Martin – which does 80% of its work for the US defence department – assists more than two dozen American government agencies and is involved in surveillance and data processing for the CIA and FBI. It has controversially provided private contract interrogators to the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. All US-based companies are subject to the Patriot Act, which allows the US government to have access to any data in the company’s possession. Campaigners have warned this could give the US government access to detailed and personal data on the UK’s entire population.

    But a spokesman for the ONS dismissed the fears. “No personal census data will be handled or seen by any American-owned company. No Lockheed Martin employees will see or handle any personal census data. The public can be reassured that their personal details from the census will be kept confidential and will remain so for 100 years,” he said.

    That assurance has failed to convince objectors. According to Geoff Meaden, a peace campaigner and former Green party parliamentary candidate, “we have no legal precedence as to whether, under the pretext of national security, this census information can be acquired by the US government.

    “The Office for National Statistics claims that our data will be safe but the UK government has demonstrated on several occasions that it cannot be trusted with managing digital data containing personal records.”

    Simon Barrow, co-director of the Christian thinktank Ekklesia, which examines the role of religion, ethics and values in public life, said: “There are several reasons for concern over Lockheed Martin’s involvement in the census. The government may have endangered the census by granting the contract to a company whose involvement has triggered a boycott.

    “Many British people are likely to object to aiding the profits of a company that arms oppressive regimes and which has played a heavy role in the unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is understandable that some will conscientiously object to participating in the census and will choose to boycott it.”

    Any boycott of the census could lead to further funding problems for local councils, who already fear they will miss out on hundreds of millions of pounds of funding from central government because hundreds of thousands of people will not be counted.

    The last census in 2001 has been accused of failing to count a million people and this time a number of major councils have expressed fears that lessons have not been learnt, a claim denied by the Office for National Statistics.

    Census statistics are used to allocate public money for local services including education, housing, transport and health. Over £100bn per year of public money is distributed nationally using population estimates.

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

    2.    FROM DAVID SHARROCK OF THE LONDON OBSERVER, Feb 16

    —–Original Message—–
    From: David S    Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 5:25 AM
    To: susan.thompson    at    vivelecanada.ca
    Cc: sabest1   at     sasktel.net
    Subject: lockheed and UK census – from David Sharrock of the London Observer

    Hi there,

    I’m researching an article for my paper about Lockheed and the calls for a boycott of next month’s national UK census because of Lockheed’s involvement and I would love to get your views and experiences.

    Best wishes,

    David

    = = = = = = = =  ==  = = = = = =

    3.    REPLY TO DAVID –  CANADIAN EXPERIENCE WITH LOCKHEED MARTIN IN CENSUS,  Feb 16 

    Good to hear from you David!

    I was in contact by email with a couple of people from the UK,  2-3 years ago when people were speaking out.  I recall a woman with the Green Party. I have intended to get back in touch with them, to see whether the opposition is ramping up, with your census imminent. 

    I am happy to hear that there is a call for boycott in the UK. Will get this news out into Canadian networks.  We are calling for the same here.  Our census is in May.  We have only recently been able to crack the mainstream media’s reluctance to talk about Lockheed Martin’s role in the Canadian, US and UK censuses.  The Americans are probably most in the dark about who is behind their “census bureau” (their census was last year).

    In addition to Vive le Canada’s involvement:

    – Don Rogers from Ontario runs www.countmeout.ca  (In response to the Govt’s “Count Me In” campaign in 2006.)  Don’s blog is up and going for May.

    – www.sandrafinley.ca, my own blog.  To find the Lockheed Martin file, an INDEX to the postings:  go to the “Pages” on top left.  Look for “Lockheed Martin” on the drop-down list.   

    My personal experience:

    –  In 2008 I was charged for failure to comply with the 2006 census.  I didn’t comply because of Lockheed Martin’s involvement.

    –  The trial dragged on, to advantage.  The “guilty” decision followed by an absolute discharge (sentencing) just came out in January 2011.  The focus of media attention was thereby delayed until a few months before the 2011 census.  We have been building awareness since 2003.

    –  The judge’s decision is under appeal.  The legal argument (defence) in Canada, given the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is the Charter Right to privacy of personal information. There is a strong case to be made that the Judge (Provincial Court, a lower court) erred in her decision. 

    Just this week I sent an email to the new Chief Statistician for Canada (responsible for the census).  The link to it is at the top of the INDEX.  You might find it useful (scroll past the introductory remarks regarding the police/military). 

    Please ask if you have any questions I might be able to help you with.  

    Best wishes,

    Sandra Finley

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

    4.  FROM DAVID, Feb 16 and 17th 

    Feb 16th

    this is great Sandra, many thanks – will get stuck into reading it all now!

    Best wishes,

    David

    – – – – – – — – – – – – –

    Feb 17

    Sandra, perhaps you could give me a quote for my piece? Along the lines of telling people thinking of boycotting the census next month but fearful of breaking the law why you think this issue is sufficiently important for you to have taken a stand – and I guess you are going to do the same again with your own census in May?
    Best wishes,
    David

    – – – – – – – – – – –  – – – – —

    Mon 2/21/2011 2:40 PM 

    SORRY DAVID, 

    I missed this in my inbox until today.

    I think it is too late.

    Your piece is already published. 

    Sandra 

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

    5.  EMAIL TO GEOFF MEADEN AND OTHERS INVOLVED IN THE PROTEST OF LOCKHEED MARTIN IN U.K. CENSUS, FEB 18.   

    SENT:  Fri 2/18/2011 2:52 AM     (versions also sent to the Green Party, to the Quakers (“Friends”),  and to a couple of others)

    Dear Geoff Meaden, 

    The Canadian census follows yours by a month.  

    I have posted information related to Lockheed Martin’s involvement in censuses to a blog so it is available to more people.  It’s an issue “our network” has worked on since 2003. 

    North America, including Canada where I am from, is under-going a transformation that is driven by transnational corporate interests.  We are moving closer and closer to a police state.  I encourage people to take a firm stand against Lockheed Martin’s involvement in their census, down to boycotting.  The assembled information makes the case.   There are a number of issues in the wider picture. 

    “IBM and the Holocaust” (2001) by investigative journalist Edwin Black is the fascinating story of the role of mechanized census data in Nazi Europe.   There is a link to a description of the book on www.sandrafinley.ca (Look for “Lockheed Martin .. census” under “Pages”). 

    David Sharrock from the London Observer contacted me.  See the email thread below.   It explains things further. 

    Best wishes,

    – – – – – – – – – – – – –

    Hello people at CAAT,    (Campaign Against Arms Trade)   http://www.caat.org.uk/  

    I wish to express solidarity with you.  And with the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere whose lives and lands are destroyed by the military-industrial complex.  Number one player, Lockheed Martin Corporation. 

    I have been on trial for refusal to comply with the 2006 Canadian census.   There are times when you have to draw your line in the sand.   … ETC.

    = ==  = = == = == = = =

    6.    EXCHANGE WITH GEOFF MEADEN.   FEET KISSED?  And  “We, I believe like you, face a ghastly electoral system which we call “first-past-post” under which it is almost impossible for us to gain electoral success. So we are run by genetically produced Conservatives who stand for little else other than big business, economic growth and development and the maintenance of the status quo.”

    From: Geoff Meaden      Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 6:04 AM
    To: Sandra Finley
    Subject: Re: lockheed and UK census – from David Sharrock of the London Observer 

    Sandra, 

    How absolutely wonderful for you to make contact with me. This Lockheed Martin issue is something I have been following for a couple of years now, i.e. as soon as I heard about this grotesque tie-up between our Office of National Statistics and LM. Like most people I knew nothing about the fact that LM had been involved in our 2001 census. Unfortunately I (like you it seems) am extremely busy in a host of other causes and, though recently retired, am working almost full time for the UN (as a fisheries adviser). So – I do not have a lot of time to push this census thing – but we must do our best.  

    Anyway, as soon as I read your message this morning I got onto David Sharrock by email. He has just phoned me back and it looks like he will be doing a piece for this Sunday’s Observer newspaper. This will be great because it is a major national paper with several million readers. So, Sandra if it gets published I should be on the first flight to the John Diefenbaker airport where I will publically kiss your feet!!! 

    I do hope that your local Green Party is flourishing. We, I believe like you, face a ghastly electoral system which we call “first-past-post” under which it is almost impossible for us to gain electoral success. So we are run by genetically produced Conservatives who stand for little else other than big business, economic growth and development and the maintenance of the status quo. I read in yesterday’s paper that (and I quote) “Mr Fox (our national defence secretary) said that MP’s would not be given a vote on whether to press ahead with ordering the replacements for our fleet of Trident nuclear submarines.” (manufactured of course by LM). Can you imagine living in a country where MP’s are not even allowed to participate in this level of decision because of course they might vote the wrong way! 

    Keep in touch. 

    Geoff

    – – – – – – – – – – – – —  —  – — – – – – –

    FEB 18

    It’s -23 celsius today.  You just added a whole lot of warmth and sunshine Geoff!  And some laughter to lighten up the day.  Many thanks for taking the time. 

    I’d rather have a laugh; otherwise we’d be crying in our beer together.   The script you wrote is transferable to Canada:  We, I believe like you, face a ghastly electoral system which we call “first-past-post” under which it is almost impossible for us to gain electoral success. So we are run by genetically produced Conservatives who stand for little else other than big business, economic growth and development and the maintenance of the status quo. 

    In all the mess, Saskatchewan is in a terrible and strategic situation.  The Alberta tar sands don’t end at the border with next-door Saskatchewan.  It’s as though the climate change issue is going to be decided right here.   We have become a petro-state.  The destruction of the boreal forest, a beautiful land of lakes and trees in the northern half of this province, capable of sustaining the largely First Nations and Metis people that live there, is in the process of going the way of the Niger Delta, the fate of the Ogoni people.  The movie “Avatar” is a perfect description. 

    What you are seeing in the fisheries – – all I can say is Thank Goodness for you and the work you are doing. 

    But Hey!  We are going to get past all this.  As long as I can live long enough. 

    We are looking at upcoming elections, federally (expected anytime soon) and provincially (Nov).   Elizabeth May, our Federal leader is wonderful.  She and the Party are working our buns off –  there’s a real chance of getting her elected, in spite of  f-p-p.  

    Will keep in touch, 

    Have fun!

    Sandra

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

    7.    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/13/ghetts-census-guantanamo-bay-lockheed-martin 

    Ghetts, the census and Guantánamo Bay

    The US arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin is to handle the UK’s census data. Does the grime artist see the sense in that?

  • guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 January 2011 15.30 GMT
    • Ghetts Ghetts’s new track, Invisible, is part of a drive to persuade ethnic minorities to fill in the census. Photograph: www.invisible2011.com”Some don’t know what a census is,” the London grime artist Ghetts begins, “some do but they don’t see the sense in it.” Over a catchy hook and with a flashy video to accompany, his new track, “Invisible”, seems to be part of the government’s drive to persuade young people and ethnic minorities to fill in this year’s national census population survey.

    But there is a small fact they are failing to mention in the promotional material. In December 2008, the government quietly awarded the £150m contract to collect and securely handle the 2011 census data to Lockheed Martin, the second-largest arms manufacturer in the world. It makes bombs, bomber jets and has run most of the US military’s intelligence gathering and interrogation, including at Guantánamo Bay, where it operated through subsidiary companies. Nice people to be doing business with.

    Even if we ignore the fact that Lockheed Martin sits at No 1 on the Pogo Federal Contractor Misconduct database, with more than 50 alleged cases of corruption, fraud, bribery, environmental damage and discrimination, there’s worse to come. As a US-owned company, under the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, Lockheed Martin can be forced to hand over any private data in its possession to the US government and/or the CIA. It doesn’t make the government’s promises to keep our data safe sound quite so reassuring.

    All this raises the question: was Ghetts fully aware of what he was getting himself into? It is difficult to envisage him being talked through the intricacies of the US military machine before the track was made. Surely if Lockheed Martin has been awarded such a huge contract to carry out the census, its name should be plastered across every song, poster and advertisement that encourages people to fill it in?

    Even if we discount the possibility that Lockheed Martin could or would do anything untoward with our personal data, and even if we ignore accusations of the government selling on our census data to third parties in the past, the fact remains that £150m of taxpayers’ money has been directly channelled into a company that profits from and enables war and destruction. That is unacceptable.

    What the Ghetts track makes clear is that young people, those who have never filled in a census before, are the government’s target audience. And the choice has been made clear: fill in the census, or you are breaking the law and could end up in prison. Or, as Ghetts rhymes: “Just remember this, if minorities don’t fill in the form, what’s the point of living in Britain at all?”

    Surely all British citizens have a right to live here, regardless of whether or not they feel like giving Lockheed Martin and the British government their personal data? It would certainly be interesting to get Ghetts’s side of the story: first, how much was he paid to make the song, and second, will he be filling in the part about the “names, sex and birth dates of any overnight guests”? I, for one, will certainly not.

    2011-02-11 Census Lockheed Martin, email to new head of StatsCan, Wayne Smith

     Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
    Feb 122011
     

    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

    1. EMAIL TO WAYNE SMITH,  NEW CHIEF STATISTICIAN
    2. GLOBE & MAIL, FEB 11,  CHIEF STATISTICIAN ASKED TO RE-THINK CENSUS FOR 2016

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

    1. 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

    http://www.alternet.org/story/149620/resolution_calling_to_amend_the_constitution_banning_corporate_personhood_introduced_in_vermont?page=entire )    

    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:

    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.

    MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

    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.”

    MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

    2011-02-10 Respected Canadian negotiator removed from disarmament talks, resigns. Canada can’t serve two masters at the same time, Lockheed Martin manufacturer of cluster munitions and International Humanitarian Law.

     Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials), Peace or Violence  No Responses »
    Feb 102011
     

    http://www.ceasefire.ca/?p=7220&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

    Respected Canadian negotiator removed from disarmament talks, resigns

    Thu, Feb 10, 2011

    Respected Canadian disarmament negotiator Earl Turcotte has been removed from his post following American complaints that his stance on the international Convention on Cluster Munitions was too aggressive. Turcotte has since informed his colleagues that he will be resigning from the Department of Foreign Affairs in order to independently advocate for the Convention, which he helped draft in 2008 (Chris Cobb, “Lead Canadian negotiator dropped from disarmament talks,” Postmedia News, 7 February 2011).

    Cluster bombs are “inaccurate and indiscriminate” weapons that scatter hundreds of bomblets over the area they are detonated. These bomblets can remain live for years, making them extremely dangerous for civilians. Sadly, they have maimed and killed a large number of children. The treaty makes cluster munitions illegal according to international law.

    Canada has signed the treaty, but parliament has been slow to ratify it due to controversy over its Article 21, which pertains to joint military operations between countries that have ratified the treaty and those that refuse to do so, which include the United States:

    Although Canada does not produce, use or stockpile clusters, the sticking point for DND has been its relationship with the United States military and joint operations with U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

    The United States, along with other major manufacturers and users of landmines and cluster munitions, refuses to sign the treaty and under the George W. Bush administration actively discouraged allies from doing so. U.S. diplomats say a better option is to develop a cluster weapon that doesn’t leave a residue of unexploded bomblets.

    Turcotte’s unhappiness with what he calls in the email “Canadian interpretation of one of the critical elements” of the treaty could be an ominous sign for pro-ban advocacy groups because it seems likely he is referring to the controversial Article 21, a clause he and others on the Canadian negotiating team in Dublin fought for against bitter opposition from advocacy groups.

    While the clause was key for countries involved with the United States in Afghanistan and in any future joint operations, it was mutually agreed that any interpretation should be within the spirit of the entire treaty — that joint operations are allowed but only if cluster bombs are not used and are not, in any way, part of the joint military scenario.

    Human rights and pro-ban activists have expressed disappointment in the Canadian government for Turcotte’s removal and subsequent resignation:

    Mary Wareham, a senior arms advocate with Human Rights Watch in Washington, said diplomats and advocates alike will “miss him dearly” and claimed Turcotte’s removal is symptomatic of “Canada’s recent foreign policy setbacks in multilateral diplomacy and the demise of Canada’s strong moral voice on some key international issues.

    “We expect Canada to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions in a strong manner that is consistent with the goal of the convention,” she said. “And that is to eliminate cluster munitions and the harm they cause to civilians. We hope that Canada’s domestic legislation preserves the absolute and comprehensive prohibitions of the treaty, even during joint military operations with its allies that aren’t party to the treaty.”

    – – – – – – – – – – – — – – – –

    I SENT COMMENT TO THE WEBSITE:

    Lockheed Martin Corp (American military-industrial complex) is/has been a manufacturer of land mines and cluster munitions.  They removed most of the evidence of the latter from their website when the International Treaty on Cluster Munitions was signed.  Lockheed Martin is influential in the Pentagon (stating it mildly).  They are increasingly influential in Canada, with more lobbyists in Ottawa than oil and gas.  Through the “Canada First Defence Strategy” (2008) Canadian tax-payers are funding the duplication of the American military-industrial complex in Canada, with Lockheed Martin the key player. We need to extend solidarity and support to Earl Turcotte.  Canadian foreign policy is being dictated by Lockheed Martin Corp. “President of the Americas” for Lockheed Martin (that’s his real title) is Ron Covais. The most recent gift to humanity of Lockheed Martin is unmanned drones.  (Update, 2015:  they were also the number one contract interrogator in the torture at American offshore prisons.)

    2011-02-10 UK Census March 27. Boycotting because of Lockheed Martin Corp.

     Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
    Feb 102011
     
    There are many youtube videos that document the resistance in the U.S. to their 2010 census.
    Some of the videos are newscasts; there’s a large number of home-made videos. 
    Every one of the videos I sampled was motivated by a refusal to supply the amount of personal information the Government was seeking to collect. 
    There is no indication that American citizens are aware of Lockheed Martin’s role in their census. 
    The protests in the U.K., as in Canada, exhibit an awareness of Lockheed Martin’s role. 
    By staff writers
    10 Feb 2011
    The Green Party of England and Wales has opposed a boycott of this year’s UK census, despite support for a boycott from within its own ranks. The contract for co-ordinating the census has been awarded to Lockheed Martin, a US-based multinational arms company.

    Lockheed’s role in the census has triggered calls from peace activists for a boycott. The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) have condemned Lockheed’s involvement. While not calling on all their supporters to boycott the census, CAAT have made clear that they respect those who choose to do so.

    The census, which is conducted in the UK every ten years, will be carried out on 27 March.

    The Green Party were at the forefront of the 2008 campaign against awarding the contract to Lockheed Martin. But a spokesperson for the party told the Friend, an independent weekly Quaker magazine, that they are encouraging participation in the census because “the census is extremely important and needs to be accurate”.

    But the geographer Geoff Meaden, who recently retired from the University of Kent, has strongly urged support for people who refuse to participate in the census. Meaden has twice been a Green Party parliamentary candidate.

    Lockheed are frequently criticised for arming oppressive regimes and for their central role in supplying the US armed forces. Their bid for the census contract arose from their work on intelligence and data collection.

    Meaden said, “There will be a range of ethical reasons why people may not wish to comply, from concerns about the security of their personal data to not wishing to boost the profits of a weapons manufacturer”.

    He rejected assurances from the Office for National Statistics, who insist that there are “stringent operational and contractual processes and safeguards in place to maintain data security and confidentiality”. Meaden said, “We have no legal precedents as to whether, under the pretext of national security, this census information can be acquired by the US government”.

    One activist, Lili Kathleen Bright, told Ekklesia that she had only recently heard about Lockheed’s involvement and has chosen to boycott the census.

    “I don’t want government money, which is the people’s money, to go towards the arms trade,” she explained, “It’s important not to be complicit in supporting the arms trade and I can’t in good conscience participate, knowing what I know”.

    Others are considering protesting about Lockheed without boycotting the census. Quaker activist Simon Beard said “the census is a very important way to help decision-makers obtain the information they need” but he does not want to “assist an arms dealer to make money”.

    He explained, “I think I will fill in the form and make sure that I submit it eventually, but I will not do so at the first time of asking. Instead I shall be deliberately and obviously obstructive”.

    Amongst those who object to Lockheed Martin are some who are also prepared to boycott the census for other reasons. The anarchist pacifist Albert Beale told Ekklesia that he has been boycotting the census since 1981.

    He said he would not object to a basic count of the population but that the census goes beyond this in the questions it asks. “One of the reasons that I would at least refuse to co-operate fully is the race question, which makes me feel as if I’m in apartheid South Africa or Nazi Germany,” he said.

    When asked if collecting information about race would help to develop projects that tackle racism, Beale insisted, “It’s because people classify one another by such an illogical and unscientific category as ‘race’ that we have racism”.

    Completing the census is a legal requirement for people living in the UK on the date in question. In practice, very few people are prosecuted for failing to do so. Some estimates suggest that over a million people went uncounted in the last census in 2001.

    2011-02-09 Data intelligence firms proposed a systematic attack against WikiLeaks

     Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Julian Assange, Wikileaks, Chelsea (Bradley) Manning, Arjen Kamphuis  No Responses »
    Feb 092011
     

    by Steve Ragan – Feb 9 2011, 20:28

    Data intelligence firms proposed a systematic attack against WikiLeaks. (IMG: WikiLeaks)Data intelligence firms proposed a systematic attack against WikiLeaks. (IMG: WikiLeaks)

     

    Note: There were several drafts of the proposal created before the sixth and final version was delivered. The emails released by Anonymous contain each of them. Most of the changes are formatting related and minor corrections.

    The proposal starts with an overview of WikiLeaks, including some history and employee statistics. From there it moves into a profile of Julian Assange and an organizational chart. The chart lists several people, including volunteers and actual staff.

    One of those listed as a volunteer, Salon.com columnist, Glenn Greenwald, was singled out by the proposal. Greenwald, previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York, has been a vocal supporter of Bradley Manning, who is alleged to have given diplomatic cables and other government information to WikiLeaks. He has yet to be charged in the matter.

    Greenwald became a household name in December when he reported on the “inhumane conditions” of Bradley Manning’s confinement at the Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia. Since that report, Greenwald has reported on WikiLeaks and Manning several times.

    “Glenn was critical in the Amazon to OVH transition,” the proposal says, referencing the hosting switch WikiLeaks was forced to make after political pressure caused Amazon to drop their domain.

    [Earlier drafts of the proposal and an email from Aaron Barr used the word “attacked” over “disrupted” when discussing the level of support.]

    The proposal continues by listing the strengths and weaknesses of WikiLeaks. For the strong points, there is the global WikiLeaks following and volunteers. Outlining the weaknesses, the proposal lists financial pressure – due to the companies refusing to process WikiLeaks’ donations at the time – and discord among some of the WikiLeaks members.

    “Despite the publicity, WikiLeaks is NOT in a healthy position right now,” an early draft of the proposal noted. “Their weakness [sic] are causing great stress in the organization which can be capitalized on.”

    Some of the things mentioned as potential proactive tactics include feeding the fuel between the feuding groups, disinformation, creating messages around actions to sabotage or discredit the opposing organization, and submitting fake documents to WikiLeaks and then calling out the error.

    “Create concern over the security of the infrastructure. Create exposure stories. If the process is believed to not be secure they are done. Cyber attacks against the infrastructure to get data on document submitters. This would kill the project. Since the servers are now in Sweden and France putting a team together to get access is more straightforward.”

    After the tactics are discussed, the proposal outlines the highlights for each of the three data intelligence firms. From there, it concludes that in the new age of mass social media, the insider threat represents an ongoing and persistent threat “even if WikiLeaks is shut down.”

    “Traditional responses will fail; we must employ the best investigative team, currently employed by the most sensitive of national security agencies.”

    The emails released by Anonymous make no mention of the proposal’s success or failure. Aside from a single meeting confirmation with Booz Allen Hamilton, and an email that expressed hope that HBGary was going to “close the BOA deal”, there is no other data available.

    2011-02-08 CETA plus Harper signs new security perimeter deal without consultation

     Genetically Modified, Trade Deals, PPPs, Integration Canada-U.S.  No Responses »
    Feb 082011
     

    Remain centred, calm!  Then fight like hell.  CETA (it doesn’t get much worse) and now the perimeter deal.

    Thanks to the Council of Canadians and the National Farmers Union (NFU) for keeping us informed.

    If I say CETA do you know what I’m talking about?  Some of you do, for sure.  But ALL of us should know because of the ramifications for Canadians.  CETA is the Canada-European Union Economic and Trade Agreement.  Maude Barlow does a nice job of explaining it below.

    Terry Boehm, President of the NFU, is just back from Europe where the negotiations are taking place.  The NFU got together with people in Saskatoon tonite to explain CETA.  Terry explains it as  “not a trade agreement”, but as a “template to alter governance”.

    It is an “enclosure of what Government can do.”  They “no longer act for citizens.  Their function is to provide services for corporations.”

    European corporations are “interested in penetrating Canadian society down to the municipal level.”  (In CETA language,  “sub-national governments”).  All sub-national governments will be bound by CETA.   Which I take to mean, for example, that municipal by-laws on pesticide use would not stand.

    When I first read about CETA, a strong and repulsive impression formed that remains in my mind.  Terry validated it.  “European corporations are interested in opening up Government procurement.”  They want access to hospitals, universities, etc.  Maude talks about this below, too.  Local suppliers cannot be favored.

    There are “thresholds”.  People in Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. should be aware that their Governments are in favour of reducing the thresholds “across the board” to $25,000 for CETA criterion for competition in providing goods, services and construction contracts.  The thresholds otherwise are being negotiated at $135,000 for federal level goods and services; and $5 million for construction projects.  The Western Premiers would just like to give it all away.

    WHAT”S IT ALL ABOUT?   A big part of it is biotech agriculture and biotech pharma, no surprise.  The Western premiers’ strategy is to give away everything in exchange for the Europeans opening up their markets to biotech food.   We’ll give them access to Government contracts (procurement) to get them to open up to GMOs.

    Terry told of how he pointed out to European Parliamentarians that Appendix 1B of CETA would nullify European GM (genetically modified) regulations.  Their response was to laugh.  “You don’t know the politics of Europe.  It ain’t going to happen.”   Europeans are too dead set against GM food.  So Canadian negotiators are selling us out completely and for nothing in return.  (Not that we want Europe to open their markets to GM food anyway.)

    CETA would change intellectual property rights (patents on biotech products for example).   You don’t even want to hear this.  There are “precautionary enforcement provisions”.  “The courts are no longer a vehicle of Government.”  They would enforce intellectual property rights for ALLEGED infringement.   Translated:  in the case of alleged infringement of intellectual property rights (think Percy Schmeiser and patent on Monsanto’s GM canola),  there would be “precautionary” potential seizure of bank accounts, land, machinery, by the corporations before even going to court.  Intellectual property rights would supersede all other property rights.

    In addition, any alleged person who assisted in the infringement would also be subject to the “precautionary enforcement provisions”.   There are draconian provisions.  The farmer’s crop can be destroyed before it goes to market if there is alleged infringement of patents (GM crops), also injunctions to prevent the farmer from seeding.   There are no defined levels of contamination (GM plants in a farmer’s crop) to determine infringement of a patent that may be held on GM seeds.

    Terry:  “Bizarre, but with the effect that farmers will comply.  It creates a culture of fear for farmers doing what they have always done.  In the end, there is total control over the food supply.”

    The patenting of drugs is changed to serve the interests of the pharma corporations.  I won’t go into that detail.

    Under CETA neither Canada nor European countries could restrict the import or export of goods.  That’s as with NAFTA.  If we are running out of a resource that we are exporting to the U.S., we cannot cut back on the proportion that we send to the U.S.  So now we would have the same agreement with Europe. As the Council of Canadians and the NFU say, “It’s NAFTA on steroids.”

    You may know that “Chapter 11” in NAFTA is the agreement whereby Canadian tax-payers compensate American corporations if they might suffer a loss of revenue because of our regulations.  CETA has “Chapter 11” provisions that make your hair stand on end.  “In the event of civil strife or war”  we Canadian tax-payers get to compensate European corporations for loss of profits.  Which means that if there is a strike in Canada we will pay the European corporations.

    As Terry concluded, “CETA goes after the heart of our societies.”  Government is solely in service of the large transnational corporations.

    A question was asked about dispute resolution mechanisms.  There would be a tribunal for that, it’s the WTO model, “completely opaque”.  Closed to citizens.

    “Consistently (in CETA) it is the responsibility of Governments to compensate the corporations.  It is not about trade.”

    To date, trade between Canada and Europe has been conducted under minimum tariffs (4%).   “We have always been able to market our non-hormone beef to them”.   Trade arrangements are fine, as they are.

    The Harper Government has been pre-empting the provisions of CETA (slowly, under the radar, already putting the provisions into place).

    March 2010 “thresholds” put in place.   Changes to copyright laws to comply with CETA.

    Terry recommended the Trade Justice Network as another good place to go for information (in addition to the NFU and the C of C).

    I brought home copies of a petition to the Federal Government and will collect signatures.  Please consider downloading a copy and doing the same.  It’s on the homepage at  www.nfu.ca

    You heard that Harper signed the perimeter agreement with the U.S. ?   (see appended from the C of C.)

    It is looking once again, but more likely this time, that a federal election is a month away.   We are from different political parties.  Most of you know that I joined the Green Party in support of Elizabeth May who I came to know in activist circles when she was the Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada.

    The Green Party is grass roots.  We have 3 federal organizers for all of Canada.  Which means that everyone has to pitch in to help put a candidate in every riding.  Is there a candidate in your riding?  Click on  http://greenparty.ca/find-your-riding

    Please get in touch with me if you have questions I might be able to help with.  I am running in Saskatoon-Humboldt.  If  I could just find time for campaigning it would be helpful!

    Many thanks to the Council of Canadians for the appended excellent information.

    Cheers!

    online version –

     

    Harper signs new security perimeter deal without consulting Canadians or Parliament

    Late Friday afternoon, Prime Minster Stephen Harper announced he had unilaterally signed a deal with the United States government that some pundits have said is larger in scope than NAFTA.

    The security perimeter deal, which Harper touted as being needed to further ease trade restrictions between the two countries, states that Canadian and U.S. governments will work “together within, at, and away from the borders of our two countries” to toughen security and promote trade.

    In his comments following the announcement, Prime Minister Harper said the border plan is intended to “keep out terrorists and criminals,” “simplify regulations that hinder trade,” create “consistent inspection measures,” and to have “better management of our border” but not eliminate it.

    The Council of Canadians has spoken out against this deal, which was reportedly negotiated in secret for six months with involvement from business groups, but not Parliament or public interest groups. While concrete details about the deal have been sparse, many concerns have already been raised about the implications of sharing security information with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the loss of sovereignty and trade-offs made to come to this agreement, and the degree to which any of the common measures being discussed will address the so-called “thickening” of the border.

    “We’ve gone down this road before – it was called the Security and Prosperity Partnership – and North Americans rejected it,” said Stuart Trew, Trade Justice Campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “The Harper government must disclose what terms it is negotiating with the Americans and open it to public and parliamentary scrutiny.”

    Take action!

    (Links no longer valid)

    Contact Prime Minister Stephen Harper today and tell him he shouldn’t sign away Canada’s sovereignty by making backroom deals without public debate or scrutiny. The security perimeter deal was signed by Prime Minster Harper without permission from the Canadian public and without approval from Parliament even though it could result in major changes to how our borders are monitored, unfair immigration policies, and the sharing of Canadians’ personal information with U.S. Homeland Security.

    Go here to send your message to Prime Minister Harper today.


    Here’s more about what’s new at the Council of Canadians:

    Support our work – Donate now

    The Council of Canadians is a non-profit organization and does not accept money from corporations or governments. Our work is sustained by the generous donations of concerned Canadians who share our vision and commitment to action. Join Canada’s largest advocacy organization and people who believe that a better Canada – and a better world – is possible.

    Become a member or make a donation today.
    Sign up!
    Want to stay up to date on Council of Canadians’ news, activities and hard-hitting analysis? Enter your e-mail address »Click the ‘Forward’ link to send to a friend »Share with your friends on facebook »

     

     

     I joined the Council of Canadians because I wanted to add my voice to a chorus speaking out on issues important to me, my family, my community and my country. I wanted to be part of a movement of like-minded Canadians, and to empower others to take action.

    – Kathe Rogers, Toronto, ON

    Nuclear Safety Commission approves shipment of radioactive materials through the Great Lakes

    On Friday afternoon the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has given its permission to Bruce Power to ship 16 decommissioned nuclear steam generators from southwestern Ontario, across the Great Lakes, and then onto Sweden for recycling.

    The Council of Canadians has joined Canadian and U.S. groups opposing these transports, arguing the results of a mishap would be ecologically devastating for the lakes. The Great Lakes hold one-fifth of the world’s freshwater and supply one out of three Canadians and one out of seven Americans – 45 million people – with their daily water use.

    “It is unconscionable the commission would approve these shipments, said Emma Lui, National Water Campaigner for the Council of Canadians. “The Great Lakes are a vital source of water for millions. We cannot risk their further contamination.”

    We need a different future for the Great Lakes. This is why the Council of Canadians, as part of a new network of Canadian, American and First Nations communities around the Great Lakes, is determined to have these lakes named a Commons, a public trust and a protected bioregion.

    Add your voice for social justice! Renew your Council of Canadians membership today

    When you join the Council of Canadians you are adding your voice to one of Canada’s largest public advocacy organizations and speaking up for the progressive values and actions that will help build a better Canada and a better world.

    When we band together with a common passion and purpose, we are stronger and better able to fight for and win important victories. As we move into our 26th year of acting for social justice here in Canada and around the world, we will be working hard on the issues that matter to you: protecting our fresh water, strengthening public health care, fighting for climate justice and fair trade deals, as well as the values that make us distinctly Canadian.

    The work we do would simply not be possible without your continued financial support and commitment. As a membership-based organization we rely on generous individuals like you to run our campaigns. We do our work without a penny of corporate or government funding. This financial independence allows us to take on multinational corporations, and the governments that cater to them, to ensure the values we believe in are protected for future generations.

    Contact us at 1-800-387-7177 or click here to renew your membership right now through our website. If you are a member of our monthly giving Canada Plan, your membership will be renewed automatically.

    Thank you for your ongoing support!

    Council speaks out against CETA

    Council of Canadians National Chairperson Maude Barlow spoke to a full auditorium in Guelph, Ontario late last month to tell people about the Canada-European Union Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the threats it poses to democracy, public services and locally-created social and economic policies.

    “It’s a very aggressive trade agreement that most people haven’t heard about,” she said at the event. “It’s a much bigger agreement than even NAFTA because it includes sub-national procurement, which means provinces, municipalities, schools, hospitals, water systems – all of the money that we spend at the lower levels of government. It’s really an agreement that will give the big service corporations in Europe (and then American because under NAFTA you can’t give to one without giving to the other) access to these contracts at the lower levels.”

    CETA’s benefits were also questioned in a recent letter to the editor in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald by Council of Canadians’Atlantic Regional Organizer Angela Giles and CUPE Nova Scotia President Danny Cavanagh. Questioning Canada’s involvement in a trade deal that will limit provincial and municipal opportunities to set their own social and economic policies, they outlined the threats CETA poses to procurement, fisheries, health care, farmers, and democracy. “The EU also wants water utilities and water-treatment services included in the deal, which would put pressure on municipalities to privatize water systems and give favourable treatment to large EU-based private water firms such as Veolia and Suez. Combined with the procurement chapter, it will be impossible for Nova Scotia communities to get the most employment and environmental benefits out of water system upgrades,” they wrote.

     

    Win! Kalahari Bushmen’s right to water recognized by court

    Botswana’s Court of Appeal has quashed a ruling that denied the Kalahari Bushmen access to water on their ancestral lands. This decision is the first major test of the United Nations’ recognition of the human right to water.

    In August 2010 Council of Canadians National Chairperson Maude Barlow condemned the Botswana government’s failure to allow Bushmen to access water. In a media report she stated, “(T)he UN General Assembly declared that everyone, everywhere, has the right to water. But now the world witnesses one of Africa’s most prosperous countries denying its first inhabitants the right to sink a well, while promoting mining and safari camps just a few miles away. It’s hard to imagine a more cruel and inhuman way to treat people. One can only conclude Botswana’s authorities view Bushmen as less important than wildlife. Many people around the world will be horrified.”

    The Bushmen, who returned to their lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve after a previous court victory, were appealing a 2010 High Court ruling that denied their right to access a well in the reserve they had used for decades. Without the well, the Bushmen are forced to make arduous journeys by foot or donkey to get water from outside the reserve and resort to collecting rainwater, melons and roots for drinking water.

    “This is a major victory. It’s the first test case of our right to water resolution at the United Nations. People should not be denied the right to water – it is essential to life.” said Barlow.

    To read our media release on this go here.

    Council Vice-Chair attends World Social Forum

    Council of Canadians Vice-Chair Leo Broderick is in Darkar, Senegal at the World Social Forum on behalf of the Council of Canadians.

    The forum, which has happened yearly since 2001, is “an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action.”

    The World Social Forum runs from February 6-11, 2011.

    Buzz about a Spring election grows louder

    The political posturing continues leading up to the Conservative government’s federal budget release, which is expected in March.

    The Liberal Party has indicated it will vote against the budget, and the NDP and Bloc Québécois have both placed requirements on budget spending and programs in order to earn their approval. If either party votes against the budget, the government will fall and Canadians will once again be heading to the polls.

    The Council of Canadians continues to track election developments. As in past elections, we will raise key issues of concern for our members. Our positioning in the last several elections has been to focus on issues as they relate to our campaigns, and to strongly call for a fairer voting system through proportional representation.

    Join the Council of Canadians

    Founded in 1985 by a handful of citizens including Farley Mowat, Pierre Berton and Margaret Atwood, the Council of Canadians is Canada’s pre-eminent public watchdog organization. By becoming a member of the Council of Canadians your generous support helps give our organization a voice on social, economic and political issues and build a strong, independent and diverse Canada.

    Update your profileClick the “Update Profile” link at the bottom of this E-Newsletter and you will receive a confirmation e-mail with a link to your profile. You can tell us more about yourself, such as your name and where you live, or simply select the topics that most interest you to receive media releases and occasional campaign updates.

     

     

     

    2011-02-08 Lockheed Martin in Schools AND The Twisted Path From Cairo to Burlington by Laurie Essig. We are all fighting the same battle.

     Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
    Feb 082011
     

    Dear Laurie,

    I left a message on your phone.

    I want to thank you for speaking out about Lockheed Martin’s involvement  in your schools, which then was quoted in a superb article by Jonathan Leavitt.   The excerpt about the schools is appended.

    I found your article (also appended) which links

    • what is happening in Egypt to
    • what is happening in Burlington, VT.

    You end with “we increasingly understand we’re fighting the same battle everywhere”.

    If you require any reinforcement for your statement (!?)   I refer you to www.sandrafinley.ca.  Under “pages” you will find “Lockheed Martin” on the drop-down list.   The actions by citizens in Burlington is the most recent addition to the file on Lockheed Martin.  Just prior to that is the people in the U.K.

    I have been on trial because I refused to fill in my 2006 census form; census work was out-sourced to LM.  The recent judge’s decision (guilty) is under appeal.

    And, horror!  Lockheed has moved into my home city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada,  bribing its way through First Nations people, to set up what is most likely training and servicing related to its unmanned aerial vehicles,  subsidized by both the Federal and Provincial Governments (by us).   Familiar story?

    Your efforts to get rid of Lockheed Martin in your City serve as a motivator to us.  Just as the Egyptians are an example for us to follow.  We can make the world a better place.  And yes, we are all fighting the same battle.  Again my thanks – your appended article makes it clear.

    Best wishes to you and the people in Vermont.  (I lived in Nova Scotia for 15 years and have fond memories of visits to Vermont.)

    Sandra Finley

    = = = = = = = = =  = = = = ==

    APPENDED  #1    RE:  LOCKHEED MARTIN IN SCHOOLS

    From    2011-02-23 Greenwashing War: Vermont Mayor Signs Deal With Lockheed Martin  (Climate Change)

    ” . . .  Excerpt from the article by Jonathan Leavitt.  I phoned and talked with one of the ladies quoted:  Meg Brooke, Chair of Chittenden County Progressives.  Just a voice of support and solidarity and to let them know that others are fighting Lockheed, too.

    “  Perhaps even more immediate and inflammatory is the planned interaction between Burlington’s school children and Lockheed Martin engineers.

    “Are We For Bomb Makers?”

    One of the controversial aspects of the deal would allow Lockheed engineers to work inside Burlington schools with schoolchildren. In the past five years Burlington parents’ and students’ outrage boiled over when war profiteer General Dynamics’ program of giving away pencils, bookmarks and books stamped with their corporate logo came to light. When a nine year-old student at Burlington’s Champlain Elementary was faced with going to an assembly during the school day to listen to General Dynamics employees, her mom Laurie Essig says her daughter Willa asked, “‘Are we for bomb-makers? Do we think it’s right to kill people? Her basic question was, ‘Why are we treating these people like heroes?’” Due to a perception on Willa’s teacher’s part, that nine year-old Willa might offend the weapons manufacturers’ employees, the teacher, “brought all the other students down to get their free books and left my daughter sitting alone in the classroom.” Essig says. Longtime Vermont peace activist, Joseph Gainza said, during an interview, “I would hope that the City of Burlington and the Burlington School District wouldn’t let a corporate member of the military industrial complex take credit for solving the climate change problems it helps everyday to perpetuate.”

    Meg Brooke, Chair of Chittenden County Progressives says of Lockheed’s slated involvement with school kids:

    I’ve been trained by the National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors (NISBCO) and given many hours to council students how to avoid war. I’ve fought to remove military recruiters from our schools. I regularly taught classes in non-violent conflict resolution in Vermont high schools. I am deeply concerned by the way we normalize violence and war and desensitize our young to the horror our military perpetrates, especially on the young, women, and the elderly. Welcoming one of the leaders of this military industrial complex into our schools goes against all I, and many others, believe. I do not want young Vermonters to see the Lockheed logo on TV and have a positive thought about what that business might have done in their school.  . . .  ”

    = = = = = =  = = = ==

    APPENDED  #2:   LAURIE ESSIG EXPLAINS “WE ARE ALL FIGHTING THE SAME BATTLE”

    http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/the-twisted-path-from-cairo-to-burlington/31932

    The Twisted Path From Cairo to Burlington

    February 8, 2011, 1:10 pm

    By Laurie Essig

    I know very little about life in Egypt and yet it is increasingly clear that the world is a small place. Coorporate greed and military aggression have created an environmental crisis that could end life as we know it and so the fate of all people is intertwined. Environmental degradation and the military have built a twisted path from a global city like Cairo, Egypt to the provincial town of Burlington, Vermont. Sometimes the path is traversed through social media like Facebook and Twitter and sometimes we must follow the twists and turns of the world’s largest war profiteers.

    In the past 24 hours, the twisted path between Egypt and Vermont became more visible.  On Facebook, a former student sends me a letter written from Cairo. The letter writer sees Mubarak as a complicated figure, neither evil nor good, but one whose police

    responded to (demonstrations) with water cannons, beatings, and more tear gas than most of the international press had ever seen used anywhere.

    The tear gas, as we now know, had “made in the USA” written all over it and was, like all the weapons used against the Egyptian people, approved for sale to Egypt by the Department of Defense.

    In fact, lots and lots of weapons are sold to Egypt with the DoD’s approval. Egypt is the 2nd largest recipient of U.S. military aid (right behind Israel). Tens of billions of dollars are given to Egypt, but then funneled back to U.S. military corporations like General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, a sort of corporate welfare. These taxpayer dollars are not just given to some of the most profitable corporations in the world, but because the weapons—tanks, helicopters, even tear-gas canisters—are being used against the peaceful protesters in Cairo, they are helping to keep Mubarak in power and destroy democracy.

    As Lockheed Martin’s F-16′s flew low over the millions of peaceful citizens in Cairo, making the threat of more violence against them and against Egyptian democracy clear, a much smaller crowd of about 100 gathered in Burlington to stand up against Lockheed Martin and the threat it poses to American democracy. Here in Burlington, Lockheed Martin is trying to place their F-35′s at the local airport. These huge bombers use something like 2,000 to 4,000 gallons of fuel an hour and are therefore an environmental nightmare. Lockheed Martin’s thinking is apparently something like this:

    Gee they have awfully clean air up there in Vermont so if we spew a bunch of pollution in a relatively clean place, it will be better than in other places where the air is already unfit for human consumption.

    Of course there is a lot of local opposition to polluting the air and so Lockheed has been scrambling to calm the people down. But how to calm them down without canisters of tear gas and threatening flyovers from fighter jets? Well, as mule trainers everywhere know, if you can’t beat ‘em with a stick, you better try and lure ‘em with a carrot. The carrot is to provide expertise and funding for environmental sustainability projects, an increasingly necessary carrot in these days of budget deficits and decreasing tax revenues.

    Too bad for Lockheed that the people of Burlington, like the people of Cairo, understand that the needs of the corporations and the military contractors are not the same as the needs of the people. Too bad for the residents of both places that the politicians don’t care about the people, unless you consider Lockheed Martin and other corporations”people” the way the Supreme Court now does.

    Who knows whether democracy will prevail in either place given the odds. But it’s a hopeful sign that with increased communication, we increasingly understand we’re fighting the same battle everywhere.

     Older Entries  Newer Entries