http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/10/03/trial_begins_for_89yearold_who_wont_fill_out_census.html#
Audrey Tobias was joined by about 80 supporters as her lawyer argued for her stand against the census software provided by Lockheed Martin.
By: Liam Casey
An 89-year-old woman believes she won her case for refusing to fill out her census form. But the judge will make his decision next Wednesday. Yet Audrey Tobias expects to lose.
“I think it went quite well and everyone listened to everyone nicely,” Tobias said afterward.
Added her lawyer, Peter Rosenthal: “It went very well, I thought. It’s a tough case, but she was able to express her opinion, so in that way we’ve won.”
At the heart of Tobias’ stand against the census is Lockheed Martin, the American weapons manufacturer who provided Statistics Canada with the software to process millions of forms.
Rosenthal argued that forcing Tobias to fill out the form would be against her Charter rights to freedom of expression and freedom of conscience.
Tobias also expressed concern about the security breaches revealed by Edward Snowden, who has explained how the U.S. National Security Agency used “back doors” to access Americans’ telecommunications.
About 80 of Tobias’s friends packed the courtroom on the second floor of Old City Hall Thursday, many of them retired. The overflowing courtroom had some sitting in the prisoner’s box.
When Crown attorney Maria Gaspar stood up to read the agreed statement of facts, the courtroom erupted.
“Please speak up,” one man shouted.
“Louder,” yelled an older woman.
“There’s a lot of seniors here,” another man said, fiddling with his hearing aid.
Once the microphones were working, Yves Beland — the director of census operations, and the Crown’s only witness — explained the security of StatsCan’s network. The data, he said, is maintained on a secure network with “no connection to the outside world.”
He detailed the minutiae surrounding how people log in to the Internet to fill out the census form. Just as he was about to explain how the paper form and telephone census worked, Justice Ramez Khawly cut him off.
“Do we have to go through this?”
He explained the security of Statistics Canada’s census network.
“There have been no breaches of the 2006 and 2011 census data,” Beland told court, referring to both censuses processed with Lockheed Martin’s software.
The census has a 98 per cent response rate and about 330 refusals, of which 54 are being prosecuted, Beland said.
He said that a few companies bid on the 2006 census, which Lockheed won. The American company was the only company to bid on the 2011 census, primarily because Statistics Canada had such specific requests to update the software Lockheed built for them earlier that they were the only company that even qualified.
On cross-examination, Rosenthal asked if Beland had ever heard of Edward Snowden.
“No,” Beland said.
Beland said Statistics Canada hired hackers to try to break into its own system, but were unable to. He also said it hired companies to monitor the code that Lockheed Martin provided for any suspicious activities, of which, he said, there were none.
“That you know of,” asked Rosenthal.
“Yes,” Beland said.
Then Rosenthal called Tobias to the stand. Everyone clapped, with the odd “Woot!”
“Listen, I run a pretty loose courtroom, but this is not a movie,” Justice Ramez Khawly said with a big grin. Everyone laughed.
Tobias has said she has no problem with the census itself, but takes issue with how the information is processed. She spoke of her lengthy involvement against military action, which dates back to her involvement in the Second World War.
“I would like our country to be peaceful,” Tobias told court. “Giving (the contract) to a military company sends a message that we support military solutions.”
She had the courtroom laughing on several occasions. Rosenthal asked her to explain how she became a peace activist.
“Well, it won’t be brief,” she said.
And, when asked her age: “I’m 89 — I’ve seen better days.”
Rosenthal also called Arcady Genkin, who helps protect the University of Toronto’s networks. The judge and Crown had issues with Genkin, since he wasn’t an official “expert,” which limited his testimony to the university’s network and meant he was not able to give a opinion on Statistics Canada’s.
“It sounds like they are doing what they should be doing, but those are precautionary measures,” Genkin said. “There are no guarantees for any network. They all have vulnerabilities.”
It’s a sentiment that a security expert echoed when speaking with the Star Thursday.
“There is no such thing as a secure network,” said Christian Leuprecht, a professor at Queen’s University and the Royal Military College of Canada. “But you are taking a far greater security risk with your phone than you are with Lockheed Martin or StatsCan.”
Rosenthal said Lockheed Martin could, in theory, build a backdoor and access the census data. Under the U.S. Patriot Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can demand American companies hand over their data, regardless of where it comes from.
But even in the age of NSA snooping on companies like Google and Microsoft, there is simply too much at stake for both Lockheed and the Canadian government.
“For one, if the census data were ever hacked, no one would ever fill out a census again,” Leuprecht said.
Rosenthal also had a lengthy tête-à-tête with the judge about the finer details of freedom of expression.
“The question is, how does this really affect Ms Tobias should it get out?” the judge asked, adding that the short-form census doesn’t have much besides her basic personal information.
“Where do you draw the line?” the judge asked, seemingly leaning toward the Crown’s argument that this doesn’t violate her freedom of expression.
“There isn’t much case law supporting Mr. Rosenthal’s client.”
The judge will give his decision on Oct. 9.
Tobias left the court exhausted, but pleased. And off she went for a late afternoon dinner across the street.