(In court at Toronto’s Old City Hall)
Excerpts from the CBC Report, followed by Toronto Star coverage:
. . . Her lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, said their defence will be built around Churnin’s charter rights to protection against unreasonable search and seizure — rights he will argue are threatened by StatsCan’s “negligent” reliance on the U.S. company’s software.
“By allowing Lockheed Martin to have access to that data, it could end up being used for U.S. government purposes, which becomes a violation,’ he said.
. . . Despite her lawyer’s apprehension, Churnin remains upbeat and says she is prepared to accept the sentence if she is convicted.
“If they put me in jail for not signing a form and they don’t put [Mayor] Ford in jail for smoking cocaine, well we’ve got a funny justice system,” she said.
By: Liam Casey GTA, Published on Fri Nov 22 2013
Janet Churnin’s trial for refusing to fill out the 2011 short form census ran several hours behind as a witness from Statistics Canada was in a plane, en route from Ottawa, that couldn’t land at the island airport. So it went back to the capital and then returned later.
“Today was so boring,” Churnin said after court. “It was two guys talking about computers and networks, not the real issue about why I did what I did.”
She refused to fill out the short-form census to protest the loss of the long-form census and for StatsCan’s use of software to process census data provided by the American arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Churnin faces a criminal charge for contravening the Statistics Act that carries with it a potential fine of $500 and/or up three months in jail.
The trial began around noon when Yves Beland , the director of census operations for StatsCan arrived and took the stand.
He told court that the census data is completely secure and “isolated” from the rest of the world. Later he admitted that it wasn’t isolated because it had one entry point from the online world.
Churnin’s defence lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, called Arcady Genkin, a computer scientist who deals with security issues at the University of Toronto, who told court there is no such thing as a completely secure network. He also said a company like Lockheed could build a “back door” into the software it provided StatsCan that could allow them access to that data.
It was déjà vu all over again as the testimony was nearly identical to Audrey Tobias’ case, the 89-year-old who won on a technicality in October.
Rosenthal is arguing that StatsCan’s use of Lockheed Martin’s software to process data will violate her freedom of expression and conscience and an unreasonable seizure of information.
Churnin will take the stand on Dec. 11.