(why do i always want spell census with another 'c'?...)
so as i'm sure most of us canadians out there know may 16, 2006 is census day...the day when you get to put all your personal information on a piece of paper and ship it off to stats canada and they 'count you in'
i used to get really excited about counting myself in during the census. i wanted to be one of the x amount of canadian citizens represented in the stats. fuck, i realise i wanted to be a statistic! eek!
so this year things are a little bit different. for one i look a LOT more critically at what's being asked of me than i did the last i was aware of the census rolling around (when was that?) and two there seems to be a lot more controversy surrounding this year census.
here are the basics as i understand them:
-under NAFTA foreign (ie: american, in this case) companies are allowed to bid on canadian contracts. the winning bidder?
lockheed martin: major american weapon's manufacturer. lockheed martin are the people behind a good chunk of the fire power being deployed in the 'war on terror' in iraq.
uncool right?
right! and canadian were not cool with the fact that stats canada was originally going to give COMPLETE control of the census to lockheed martin so they revamped the original contract and now only stats can employees have access to confidential census data BUT lockheed martin still is in charge of all the hardware and software for date collection.
so i'm torn. there is one side of the coin that calls for a complete boycott of the census. why should we support lockheed martin in any way? by providing lockheed martin with this contract it could be seen as evidence of the canadian government's unwillingness to take a true stand against the privatization and profiting from war. by providing one of the worst corporations in the world with this contract we are effectively supporting the war.
this also calls to the fore the slow but ever present americanization of canada under NAFTA.
by allowing major american corporations access to these contracts we are allowing ourselves to be a victim of american imperialism and this antiquated notion of 'manifest destiny'.
if we don't take a stand against it it's only going to get worse, right?
on the other hand i recognize that census provided invaluable information about demographics that are used to aid discussions about education, social programs, welfare, aid, etc.
but i've come to a decision: i am boycotting the census. i cannot, in good conscience support a government that supports the granting of a contract to a major american weapons manufacturer. for two reasons:
1) i refuse to side with the canadian government in their dealings with a terrorist organization (lockheed martin) that is making money from imperialism and an un-just war
2) i refuse to support a policy (NAFTA) that allows for jobs to be taken away from canadians in favour of an american corporation. the canadian census should be processed by canadian people and the money for services should also go to the canadian people...
that's just my opinion.
i encourage all of you to do some reading and make an informed decision before you fill out that form.
here are some sources that might of interest.
statscan
the dominion: news from the grassroots
resist!ca
straight goods
count me out! (a very interesting website about deep integration and NAFTA and minimum co-operation ith the census.)
check it!
EDIT: after checking out some more sources i am sorta digging this minimum co-operation thing...count me out has some awesome info about that...i am SO torn...
love love
michelle.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment