Response To The CCPA Monitor's Articles On The Canadian Census

But we'll look at privacy first. The CCPA neglected to mention in the piece that any changes limiting the scope of the census contract were as a result of the action we ran in 2003. We at Vive were contacted by Ivan Fellegi back then with the news that the census contract had been "limited in scope" and provide all of the information on what has happened and changed on the website. We offer the documents as proof of this fact, including the letter from Fellegi himself (see links below). Frankly any additional security of the census data currently is due to public outcry, as largely raised by Vive le Canada.ca, and it's important to note that the contract was not always so limited. Statistics Canada has since also released a task force report on census security, which concluded that there is no risk to census information. Again, this was due to public outcry largely raised by Vive, which is obvious in the preamble to the report although Vive and the Council of Canadians are not mentioned by name. As to whether the census data is now safe is a judgement call. We remain concerned that if Statistics Canada didn't have the expertise to create the software and hardware, that they would have the expertise to determine if it was secure. We're glad of the extra precautions Statistics Canada is now taking, but frankly the only way to know if security can be breached is if someone breaches it, and then if we actually find out, which of course we wouldn't it they did their job well or if they kept it a secret as the PATRIOT Act demands. On Vive we've listed a number of past, well-reported cases where confidential records were accessed and used by third-party contractors--these include census records in the U.S. used by NASA without people's knowledge as part of a "terrorist screening program" (despite assurances from the US census bureau that the data was safe), airline passenger records used by the U.S. army obtained by several private contractors including Lockheed Martin, and most recently, Bank of Canada customer records being accessed and used as part of identity theft. We've also listed information on Lockheed's customer profile so that Canadians can decide for themselves whether Lockheed is trustworthy and if they feel this is a safe risk to take. Ultimately, however, the gravest omission in the CCPA piece is that the CCPA limits this issue only to one of privacy. Privacy is hardly the only nor the most important issue here. It is certainly the only issue that Statistics Canada has been willing to look at, or respond to in any way, but the truth is the issue is more complex. In the same CCPA Monitor issue that the CCPA advocated people complete the census, they also listed Lockheed Martin as one of the world's ten worst corporations. In a previous issue they published an op-ed by Richard Sanders of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade criticizing the use of mandatory CCP contributions for CCPIB investments in arms companies, specifically listing Lockheed Martin (an issue close to my own heart since I directed the research project on those investments for Richard). As Canadians may or may not already know, Lockheed Martin is leading the development of the ballistic missile defence system. Lockheed directly benefits from the war in Iraq, and at least one well-placed former Lockheed employee in fact advocated for that war. Lockheed builds weapons banned by other countries, including Canada, such as land mines and DU weapons. The company not only lobbies the US government and gets 80% of its contracts from the US administration, but is in fact so entwined into it as to be virtually indistinguishable from the U.S. government, one of the best examples there is of the military industrial complex Eisenhower warned against. Lockheed is also known for bribery, rule-breaking, and corruption, and a prize-winning American journalist has said that without Lockheed anti-bribery laws would not exist. And ultimately, of course, there is the question of why Statistics Canada contracted out the census in the first place--and once it did, why a U.S.-owned company was able to outcompete Canadian companies for it. Privatization, and then more importantly, the same story we've seen under NAFTA for years. A beaver is a lot smaller than an elephant and it's no fair contest between them on the supposedly level playing field of NAFTA. Lockheed is certainly an elephant, described by many as a "one stop killing shop". We have listed all of the above information in more detail, including sources, as part of our census action, and you can read it all at the following links: http://census.vivelecanada.ca and especially at "the Census Issue": http://www.vivelecanada.ca/staticpages/index.php/20060423184107361 The fact is, this issue is not just one of privacy, but an example of the continuing process of integration between our countries and the continuing emergence of giant corporations taking over power from and even the functions of government. It is an issue of giving Canadian tax payer dollars to an American corporation that not only participates in and benefits from U.S. foreign policies Canadians have rightly rejected, but in fact helped set those policies. We would have thought that the CCPA would realize this based on its own past work. However it seems the instinct to respect the census and Statistics Canada is sometimes outweighing people's own knowledge of the larger issues. We hope that the CCPA will address those issues soon with a subsequent report in the Monitor. However, many regular people seem to recognize the issues and have been asking for a boycott all on their own. It was of course its own readers who questioned the CCPA's glowing endorsement of the census in the first place. As a grassroots organization what we are seeing is a broad range of people up in arms about this issue, from long-time peace activists to mainstream, regular people who are shocked that an American company, and especially a military contractor, would have any part in the Canadian census. And as a grassroots organization it's our duty to offer support and a vehicle for protest, which is what we are doing. (There are of course always some people who disagree, and as usual we offer fair space for them and anyone else to debate it as well.) All we ask is that Canadians consider all of the issues carefully and look at the information and research yourself rather than simply accepting CCPA's and Statistics Canada's limited assurances, which ignore anything beyond privacy. At Vive and on CountMeOut.ca and concluded that in good conscience we cannot support paying Lockheed of all companies to do anything on the census, even if "just" the software, hardware, and printing. Therefore, we object, and the only way to object is not to comply with the census.

Note: http://census.vivelecan... http://www.vivelecanada...