Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The real reason some people objected to the 2006 long form census

Letter to Editor, Lethbridge Herald, August 3, 2010
Editor:
I was pleased to read in The Herald of July 29, 2010 a discussion of objections people had to the long form census in 2006. The 166 complaints from among 13 million households, gives a miniscule complaint ratio of .001% or one in 100,000.  Many of the 166 complaints were about awarding the contract to arms-maker Lockheed-Martin in the data analysis hardware and software, as mentioned in your news article. There’s even a website devoted to this issue http://www.countmeout.ca/.  Of deep concern to these people is that the PATRIOT Act and the Homeland Security Act will allow, even require, that US companies release Canadian census data to US government agencies, an even more serious breach of personal privacy.  All of this has been totally omitted or obscured by Harper’s minions.
Are the Harper Conservatives using complaints about Lockheed-Martin’s involvement to justify the cancellation of the mandatory long-form?  If so,  a simple solution is to contract the software and hardware to Canadian firms, rather than canceling the long form altogether. It’s such an obvious example of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. (Lockheed-Martin, remember, has just received an untendered contract for $9 billion for unnecessary jet fighter planes.)
The jail-time issue has a simple solution suggested by Jack Layton and others: cancel this part of the act.  Why can’t Harper work out simple solutions and easy compromises with the opposition parties?
A glance at the broader picture reveals that this is part of Harper’s “hidden agenda” for Canada: weakened government driven by ideology rather than facts and information. Harper is ignoring vastly diverse groups—provinces, municipalities, hospitals, businesses, NGOs, researchers—all who say they need valid and reliable information to make good decisions.  Instead Harper is saying in essence, Let’s further hamper government by denying it and its citizens good information.
Mark Sandilands