With thanks to Patrick.
REGARDING THE CURRENT U.S.A. CENSUS
1) CRITICS CALL THE CENSUS PAGES ‘INVOLUNTARY COLONOSCOPY’
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=129005
(2) PRIVATIZING THE CENSUS WHILE PERVERTING ITS PURPOSES
http://www.rense.com/general90/priv.htm
You may wish to just read the above two articles. The following is correspondence with the American authors, passing along information that may be beneficial to them – it appears that they are unaware of the involvement of Lockheed Martin in their census. The greater the resistance in the U.S., the more likely we are to be successful here.
/Sandra
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
(1) LETTER TO AUTHOR OF “CRITICS CALL THE CENSUS PAGES ‘INVOLUNTARY COLONOSCOPY’”
Dear Mr. Unruh,
Thank-you for your article, “Critics call Census pages ‘involuntary colonoscopy’ http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=129005
Jim Kirwan wrote a related article, “Privatizing The Census While Perverting Its Purposes”. http://www.rense.com/general90/priv.htm
I am currently on trial in Canada because I would not fill in my 2006 census form. I was one of thousands who did not fill in the form, but one of few being prosecuted.
Initially, I objected because part of the work was outsourced to Lockheed Martin Corporation, the main contractor; I equate them with the U.S. Pentagon. IBM is a sub-contractor to Lockheed.
There is a horrific history behind state use of personal data (census information) on its citizens. It is well documented in Edwin Black’s “IBM and the Holocaust”, one example.
What is emerging in my trial is what Jim Kirwan identifies: the commercial value of the census data base and increasing intrusion of corporations into the sphere of census.
From my trial the coercive means being used to obtain the information is also evident. I was repeatedly threatened with jail time (3 months) and/or a fine of up to $500 if I didn’t supply personal information to Statistics Canada (the equivalent of your Census Bureau). Just one example of the information I must supply in order to avoid the punishment: the number of bedrooms in my house.
I received the “long form” to complete and submit. It’s interesting: I see from your article where many of the same questions are on the American census long form.
Lockheed Martin Corporation (the American military-industrial-congressional complex) and IBM are involved in the U.S. and Canadian censuses. They also have census contracts for the United Kingdom.
The same thing is happening in Canada as identified by Jim Kirwan: door-to-door collection of data on individuals OUTSIDE the census period. There have always been “surveys” in between censuses, but this goes beyond that.
I see from your website that you are aware that thousands of census workers in the U.S. have been going building-to-building for the purpose of marrying GPS locator information to your census records. The exercise began early last year, I believe. One news article has a good description of the propaganda used to sell the idea.
In Canada, prior to Lockheed Martin’s involvement, there were no names associated with the individual computerized records on the census data base. The information was input with a reference number. In order to trace back to an actual name you had to go through a manual process of finding the related microfiche record.
The most effective (hopefully!) legal defence in Canada to the charges against me is privacy provisions under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The common law arising out of the Charter says that the Government cannot force citizens to hand over a “biographical core of personal information such as that individuals in a free and democratic society would wish to maintain and control from dissemination to the state.” The wisdom of the Charter arises, of course, out of the critical enabling role of census information for extermination of “enemies of the state” like the Polish people or the Jewish people in Nazi Europe.
The prosecutor will argue (the same argument being used in the U.S.) that the benefits to the country as a whole of the census information are greater than the need for my individual Charter right to privacy of personal information.
I gave evidence and was cross-examined this Tuesday past (March 16th). My trial then resumes September 9th for presentation of argument.
I thought your readers might be interested in my experience. There is creeping militarism that needs to be stopped.
Best wishes,
Sandra Finley
Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = == =
(2) EMAIL EXCHANGE WITH THE AUTHOR OF “PRIVATIZING THE CENSUS WHILE PERVERTING ITS PURPOSES”
Yes Jim, “the basic issue is growing much wider”.
We are perhaps more sensitive to it up here in Canada because we are small and vulnerable, militarily speaking.
As Anita points out, “the misery on the planet earth is due to resource wars”. Alas for Canadians, we have “resources”. Russia had natural resources that Hitler wanted, Sweden had the iron ore needed by the Nazis. Canadians are vulnerable to the American corporate agenda because we are perceived to have resources that have been depleted with abandon in the U.S. (notably water with oil and gas (tar sands) a close second). Not that Canadians are any different — we are intent on the same destruction, the only difference is that we are a few decades behind you in our exploitation.
I am very concerned – the creeping “corporatocracy” has been undermining democratic institutions at least since the early 1980’s. Democracy is the only form of government that can protect “the commons” – that upon which we are all dependent for survival.
I agree with your statement: the really ugly stuff is just beginning.
We are trying our damndest to build a critical mass of aware people as fast as we can, to take things back. And hold things together while we transition off these values that are not ours.
In response to your question:
– Regarding addition of GPS locator information to census records. I was representing myself in the earlier days of my trial. I did cross-examination on January 12th of the Statistics Canada official from Ottawa who was at the head of the census operation.
(I received a phone call last night, March 18th: he (Anil Arora) is no longer with StatsCan, after 21 years. I do not know the reason why he is no longer there. At trial on January 12th there was discussion as to whether he would return in March for the next trial days. There was no indication then that he would no longer be at StatsCan.)
In the cross-examination I questioned him on the GPS locator info, mainly because his description of what StatsCan was doing is almost verbatim a description of what is being done in the U.S. – the census “starts with the buildings” on a block-by-block basis.
He said there are no plans in Canada to use hand-held computerized devices to associate GPS information with census records.
But he lied under oath about some things. For example, he would not budge from the statement that 64 people from all of Canada did not comply with the 2006 census. Even when I submitted newspaper reports to the Court in which he was quoted, for example that 35,000 First Nations people did not submit census forms, he still insisted that only 64 people across the country did not comply with the Statistics Act. That’s just one example. Given the sameness in the description of the building-to-building, “down to the block” activity in the U.S., and given that the same companies (Lockheed Martin & IBM) are involved, I find it hard to believe that StatsCan does not intend to follow the American procedure re GPS coordinates.
There are very close parallels to the lead-up to World War Two.
Canada is being sold out by “quislings” (the Norwegian experience in WW2).
None of it is being done thru Parliament.
– Feb 14, 2008 the “Troop Exchange Agreement” with the U.S. came into being. We found out about it because it was reported in an American newspaper, not in Canadian ones.
– June 2008, the “Canada First Defence Strategy” came into being. According to it we now have “compatible doctrine” and “interoperability” with the American military. A complete loss of sovereignty. Canada did not enter the Iraq War. Had this new “strategy” been in place, we would have had no option.
– The Patriot Act means that any subsidiary of an American company in Canada (Lockheed Martin Canada, the list is long) has to turn over info on Canadian citizens to the Pentagon if asked. And there is no notification to the owners of the data (Canadian Govt) that the data has been turned over.
– This situation is very similar to what happened in Nazi Europe. IBM had subsidiary companies in many European countries; they carried out the bulk of the census work for those countries – their connection to IBM was disguised and hidden. The largest base of IBM operation (under a subsidiary name) was in Germany. In Germany and when the Nazis entered other countries, they already had access, in many cases, to the data that disclosed who and where the Jewish people were. IBM was a darling of the Third Reich and profited handsomely from their census work.
– The “long census form” I received contains a number of questions related to ethnic origins of the family, languages spoken at home, etc. In addition, you are to select from a list to identify whether you are “Chinese, black, .. “ etc. You are also required to supply the name of the company you work for.
In addition to all this, I find this newspaper report disconcerting. There is a very definite time table:
NOV 1, 2008, OTTAWA CITIZEN: “AMERICAN OFFICIALS ARE PRESSURING THE FEDERAL GOVT TO SUPPLY THEM WITH INFORMATION ON CANADIANS. … CANADIAN OFFICIALS HAVE SAID .. WILL MEET THE NEW STANDARD .. BY 2011 .. BUT THERE’LL BE TREMENDOUS PRESSURE (FROM THE U.S.) TO GET THERE FASTER.”
(Link no longer valid) http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=64f59d78-ce97-48dc-b2fd-381859ce6c84
NOTE: always, it’s a matter of “hand over your personal information or there will be inconvenience or costs to you”.
Please – – it is not worth any amount of money to enter into a police state, to repeat the experience of Nazi Europe.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This report from a major Canadian magazine spells out the modus operandi quite clearly:
RON COVAIS, “PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAS FOR LOCKHEED MARTIN” INTERVIEW WITH MACLEANS MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2006. “WE’VE DECIDED NOT TO RECOMMEND ANY THINGS THAT WOULD REQUIRE LEGISLATIVE CHANGES BECAUSE WE WON’T GET ANYWERE. . THE GUIDANCE FROM THE MINISTERS WAS “‘TELL US WHAT WE NEED TO DO AND WE’LL MAKE IT HAPPEN,'” RECALLS COVAIS WHO CHAIRS THE U.S. SECTION OF THE COUNCIL..” THE FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICA .. NOT IN SWEEPING TRADE AGREEMENT ON WHICH ELECTIONS WILL TURN, BUT BY THE ACCRETION OF HUNDREDS OF INCREMENTAL CHANGES IMPLEMENTED BY EXECUTIVE AGENCIES, BUREAUCRACIES, AND REGULATORS.
The article is entitled “Meet NAFTA 2.0”. The full text is at: (Link no longer valid) http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20060911_133202_133202
There are some Americans in my email network. I think it is important that we work together. Otherwise, “the Americans” become the evil ones, as in World War Two it was the Germans and “the Japs”. Propaganda is used to make us into people who deserve to be killed. If we stick together, are known to each other, we are all part of a concerted effort to overthrow the tyrants and their collaborators.
The democracy movement in Canada sprang to life when, on Dec 30th, 2009 Stephen Harper (prime minister) shut down (prorogued) Parliament for damage-control over complicity in the torture of Afghan detainees.
Shortly thereafter, as I view it, the democracy movement in the U.S. sprang into high gear with your Supreme Court decision that corporations can fund political parties.
Further hardships are coming because of the fraud and the failure to regulate in the public interest, in the financial sector. Because of corporatocracy.
I believe we can find strength in our communities to help look after those who are most affected by the greed and power-mongering of the few – those whose policies would deliberately take us to widespread violence and destruction.
By separate email I will send a chronology of the efforts to get George Bush and Company prosecuted for war crimes. I believe there is sufficient momentum now, to achieve success. That will go a long way toward taking back what is ours.
It is my great pleasure to be connected to and working with you.
Cheers!
Sandra Finley
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada
We must be prepared to make the same heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war.
—– Original Message —–
From: “anita sands” (An American)
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 2:59 AM
Subject: Can understanding be the first step for an effective activist
If we are such wimps that we can’t buck them on the census, –if we let
them stick our name, income, personal facts & geographic coordinates in a Washington DC / NSA data bank, if we can’t say ‘get lost’ out of fear for a l00$ penalty…how can we ever hope to buck them? Ever hope to say no to ENDLESS WAR which makes blissful life impossible for us and our children?
WE CAME OUT as a nation against WAR in the 60’s, but many cynics point out that the ANTI-WAR movement had nothing to do with Americans not wishing to genocide Vietnamese civilians. It was really about ‘don’t draft MY butt.’
YOU KNOW in your bones that all the misery on the planet earth is due to resource wars, greed, oligarch CEOS pressing on pol-jugulars to grab
territory, oil, minerals, spending 3 trillion on a permanent wartime
economy. Yet nobody is anti-war! These wars appear at very regular
intervals thru 6,000 years of recorded history. This is a savage, bloody
planet. Put a man in POWER and it goes to his head immediately, it would appear. We cannot have leaders. The leaders turn the entire system into DEATH, GRIEF, and extraction of blood from slaves. Us.
We should study the brass bolts of WAR. UNDERSTAND IT.
http://www.masterjules.net/centurywar.htm
From: Jim Kirwan
Sent: March 19, 2010 1:29 PM
To: Sandra Finley
Subject: Re: Canadian census: Lockheed Martin & IBM, I’m on trial over failure to fill out my form
Thanks Sandra – Your trial in Canada means that the basic issue is growing much wider.
I’ve enclosed an attachment that I just sent out this morning which encompasses the nine articles that culminate in “Asymmetic War Comes to America” – which is attached.
Please let me know if your lawyer finds my latest arguments of any use in your defense? . . .
—– Original Message —–
From: Sandra Finley
To: kirwan
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:09 PM
Subject: Canadian census: Lockheed Martin & IBM, I’m on trial over failure to fill out my form
Dear Jim Kirwan,
Thank-you so much for your article, Privatizing The Census While Perverting Its Purposes. . . .
You might want to check out one thing in your article: IBM is involved in your census, yes. But Lockheed Martin Corporation (the American military-industrial-congressional complex) is also involved. They also have census contracts for the United Kingdom.
(Jim wrote)
[Possibly that missing link as to WHY the census bureau needs to have that foreign component for their logo uses that did not seem clear to a lot of us before this email]
. . . Are the census takers in Canada also taking pictures of the homes for GPS positioning locations?
Your article is valuable to me and to others. I run an activist email network and will circulate it further.
Also, I sent it to (U.S. group) Public Citizen. They went into high gear after your Supreme Court ruling that entrenched the right of corporations to fund political campaigns.
Best wishes,
Sandra Finley