Census This!!
Okay. Not to sound like a Montana Freeman, or anything, but... I really didn't want to fill out my Census Form. I did - because I'm Canadian, but it really pissed me off to have to do it - especially on the heels of having just done my taxes - gratis (see previous entry) . And do I believe it to be confidential? No. No, I do not. But I'll tell you this - it had better be.
Why?
Because the firm it's been contracted out to is Lockheed Martin - defence contractors r us.
Yup. Canadians were legally obliged - or so the government says - to fill out a Census conducted by Lockheed Martin for Statistics Canada. As a Canadian - that bugs me, not just because it's so... unCanadian, but because it suddenly seems so... American. Sure, as a Canadian I followed the rules and filled it out, but I'm telling ya - our government is one straw form short of breaking this citizen camel's back.
And the threats. Jesus H. Can the government really fine individuals $500 for not filling out the Census form? Or is it a bluff? How does it collect? Does it take individuals to court? Under whose authority? And to whom does the guilty party pay the fine? Laugheed Merkin? It's one thing to hold the Census at all, another to contract it out to what I consider to be an objectionalbe firm, but a third altogether to threaten us with fines and jail terms for declining to provide - gratis - confidential information about ourselves when it really isn't clear why we are being told to do it.
I dunno. Maybe I'm getting old or maybe I'm just getting libertarian, but I don't like it. I don't believe for a minute that the Census is confidential any more than I believe it's even remotely constitutional to threaten taxpayers with fines for not filling out a Census form conducted by a defence contractor for a government outfit like Statistics Canada that serves no vital purpose that I can ascertain.
Canada - turning Canadians against it one form at a time.
