Fallout from 2006 Canadian Census

This was some news to me. I didn't know that the Canadian government privatized and "outsourced" the handling of the 2006 Canadian census to Lockheed Martin, the transnational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology corporation and the the largest arms manufacturer in the world. They are also the world's largest defense contract holders and strategically linked to the American government. As of 2005, 95% of Lockheed Martin's revenues came from the United States Department of Defense, other U.S. federal government agencies, and foreign military customers.

Now, what is the fallout... well, our good old Canadian government is now in the process of charging and prosecuting 63 Canadian citizens for refusing to participate in the 2006 Census on grounds that this information is being collected by Lockheed Martin, brought into the United States and now fully subject to the Patriot Act. If this doesn't curl your hair, it should. It continues to rapid and increasing pace in which Canada is being gobbled up by the despots to the South.

Just today, April 21st Stephen Harper, George Bush and Mexican President Calderon are meeting for the fourth leaders' summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), the biggest threat to Canadian sovereignty that exists today, unless you count Stephen Harper, George Bush, Dick Cheney in there too.

One cannot fail to see the links to what is happening here in BC as well. As scandal after scandal unfolds: ICBC, Ministry of Children & Family Development, Ministry of Employment & Income Assistance contracts to American corporations to the Legislature Raids & "sale" of BC Rail, the sale of our power & rivers. The corruption that seeps out of Victoria reeks of American influence and a diminished regard for our citizens. Gordon Campbell spends a fair amount of time in the States & meeting with American leaders around the world. All of these public policy decisions are not a coincidence. People like Campbell don't do anything for anyone without having a BIG reward somewhere, where is his? It's time for a vote of non-confidence in Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberal government. If they aren't out soon, like the Conservatives, there will be nothing left to call home, whether that is Canada, or BC.

See Murray Dobbin's excellent latest article, Americanize Me? No Thanks in the Tyee for more about it all.

Here's a little excerpt:

Most recently it was a secretively signed agreement called the Civil Assistance Plan, which "allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a civil emergency."

Good government. There is much, much more dire data about where the U.S. ranks on many social and economic scales. The cause of most of it is the catastrophic decline in democratic governance, the virtual abandonment of any serious social or regulatory role for government under George Bush and the Republicans. At no other time in the past century has the U.S. had people in power so dedicated to the dismantling of democratic governance.

When governance is hijacked by the likes of Bush and Brown there is only one possible outcome: massive, intractable, endemic corruption permeates the whole system. Stories following up on the Katrina catastrophe show that nothing has changed. Billions have been wasted, stolen or remain unaccounted for. The tragedy has been used as a useful crisis to dispossess thousands of New Orleans' poorest residents, privatize the education system and ensure that the wealthy get the benefit of public money.