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Count Me Out! |
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| Edmonton - Thursday, April 29, 2004 - by : Mel Hurtig | ||||||
Last year, former Industry Minister Allan Rock awarded U.S. military contractor Lockheed-Martin and its consortium of companies the contract to prepare a 2004 test run of the next Canadian census. Despite intense opposition from Canadians, Lockheed-Martin is still a prime candidate to receive a contract to do the entire Canadian census in 2006, and the census testing is going ahead as planned. The test questionnaires will be delivered starting on April 27. The official census test day is May 11, 2004. |
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For more information on the census testing and a list of test sites, visit the Stats Can web site. |
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| Lockheed-Martin Makes WMDs | ||||||
Lockheed-Martin is the largest weapons contractor in the world. The company manufactures ballistic missiles and other weapons of mass destruction. |
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Lockheed-Martin is also a key contractor for U.S. President George W. Bush's "missile defence" program, aka Star Wars, a program that experts say will lead to a new arms race and the weaponization of space--and a program which Canada is still considering joining. |
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The company was specifically mentioned in Michael Moore's groundbreaking documentary Bowling for Columbine because of it's involvement with the welfare to work program in the U.S. |
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And Lockheed-Martin is known for corruption and breaking the rules. The U.S. Project on Government Oversite reports that: |
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| Privacy Concerns | ||||||
Stat Can says our census information, or the most "complete snapshot" of Canada, is safe with Lockheed-Martin. But past examples should give Canadians pause for thought. |
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The Washington Times has reported that 5 million records from the 1990 U.S. census were used by NASA as part of a study to test terrorist screening, without the knowledge of U.S. citizens and despite assurances from the U.S. census bureau that the data was safe. See "Study used census information for terror profile", by Audrey Hudson, January 19, 2004, and "Inquiry sought into airline's data transfer to NASA", by Audrey Hudson, January 21, 2004. |
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Lockheed-Martin and the other three contractors were hired to test computer algorithms as part of the CAPPS II terrorist screening program. In early April, Wired reported that Lockheed-Martin was one of four government contractors that received confidential passenger records from American Airlines. American Airlines had initially claimed that no information was turned over to Lockheed and the other companies. |
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Should any of the census information end up in the hands of the defence contractor, it's also possible that under the PATRIOT Act U.S. intelligence agencies could request confidential information from Lockheed-Martin without ever disclosing that fact to the public. |
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| Keeping the Census Canadian | ||||||
Stat Can is widely respected for its ability to handle information, and Canada bills itself around the world as an expert in gathering and sorting data. |
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There likely are any number of professionals in Canada who have the expertise to create the software and hardware that Stat Can could use for the 2006 census. |
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But Stat Can says it had to contract out a portion of the census because it didn't have the ability to handle it all itself. Once the decision was made to contract out the census, the bidding process had to be opened up to both Canadian and American companies. |
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But shouldn't Stat Can actually have tried to work on keeping or developing the expertise in data collection it says it has? Why privatise the census? |
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| Our Actions So Far, and Stat Can's Response | ||||||
Vive le Canada.ca has already sent around 3000 of your e-mails to former Industry Minister Rock asking that our census information NOT be given to this giant U.S. military contractor because of concerns about sovereignty, privacy and confidentiality. Although Rock did not reply, the Chief Statistician of Canada assured us our information would be safe. |
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Recently (April 19), Statistics Canada contacted Vive le Canada to say it has changed the contract with Lockheed Martin so that the company will not have access to any information, and will only handle developing software and hardware for the census. |
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While we are happy to see Stat Can starting to respond to the concerns of Canadians, we are still concerned. For one thing, if Lockheed Martin is not going to have access to our information anymore then Stat Can wasn't being honest when they told us we had nothing to worry about when we first launched this action. |
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We would also like to see the specifics of the new agreement to be sure that our information is safe. In the U.S., the U.S. census bureau assured American citizens that their information was safe, but the Washington Times has since reported that 5 million records from the 1990 U.S. census were used by NASA as part of a study to test terrorist screening, without the knowledge of U.S. citizens. |
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Even if Lockheed Martin no longer has any access to our information, that still doesn't address the fact that the census was contracted out in the first place, or that we are still giving such a large, important contract to a U.S. military company that also has so much to do with the proposed "missile defence" system. |
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| The NDP | ||||||
The NDP is the only political party that has called the Canadian government to task over the Lockheed Martin census contract. Bill Blaikie, NDP MP, was the person who first questioned the government about the contract and continued to question the government about it after it was confirmed that the contract was real. |
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Now Dick Proctor, NDP MP for Palliser, has a motion before the House calling on the government to CANCEL the census contract. |
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| Take Action: Boycott the Census Test! | ||||||
If the census testing doesn't go well, Stat Can will have to reconsider giving Lockheed Martin the real contract in 2006. |
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Unlike the real census, the census testing is also completely VOLUNTARY and Canadians DON'T face fines or jail time if they refuse to participate. |
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So it's the perfect time for Canadians to tell Stat Can to count us out and CANCEL the Lockheed Martin census contract. |
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| What You Can Do: | ||||||
1. BOYCOTT THE TESTING |
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If you're in one of the testing areas and Stat Can asks you to fill out a census questionnaire at the end of April, get a red pen, crayon, or marker and write "Vive le Canada", "Count me Out" or "No Blood for Stats" across the form and return it. DON'T FILL IT OUT. |
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For a list of test sites, visit: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/censustest/overview.cfm |
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2. SEND AN EMAIL SUPPORTING THE NDP MOTION |
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You can use our convenient e-mail form to send an email to Prime Minister Paul Martin, Industry Minister Lucienne Robillard, the Chief Statistician of Canada, NDP MPs and Vive le Canada supporting the motion to cancel the Lockheed Martin census contract. |
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3. DOWNLOAD AND POST the Vive le Canada POSTERS |
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Download one of our Count Me Out! posters and put it up in your community. |
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Note that this is the only official poster for this action. Modification is discouraged, as we prefer you post the original version. This poster was designed by Flick Harrison. |
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4. WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
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Take a few moments and write a letter to the editor of your local paper telling them why you're going to boycott the census testing. |
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5. TELL A FRIEND |
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Send an e-mail to your list of friends and contacts encouraging them to join our boycott, or post a link to this page in discussion forums around the web. |
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