Census 2006

[Tom Watts]

Jamon Camisso wrote:
> Tim Writer wrote:
>> "J. Schaap" <jschaap-zC6tqtfhjqE at public.gmane.org> writes:
>>
>>> Bruce Byfield has an article about "Canadian online census 
>>> discriminates against FOSS"
>>> in NewsForge
>>> http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/06/05/04/233250.shtml
>>
>> Perhaps this is an opportunity to raise awareness of these issues. We 
>> could
>> organize a protest. On May 16 (Census day), instead of dutifully 
>> returning
>> our Census forms we could gather outside a federal government office in
>> Toronto (or offices across the country) and toss our census forms into a
>> large blue box.
>>
>> Given that it's an offence under the Statistics Act to refuse to take 
>> part in
>> the Census (punishable by a $500 fine or up to 3 months imprisonment), I
>> suggest this be a symbolic protest only. Throw out the envelopes only 
>> or fill
>> in the Census on-line (using that other OS) and throw out the whole 
>> thing.
>>
>> To get any publicity, we would probably have to organize at least a 
>> couple of
>> hundred people. Anyone interested? Can we do this in time?
> 
> Don't see why not. People also might like to know that Lockheed Martin 
> and IBM have contracts with Statistics Canada to supply hardware, and 
> software.

I agree that something needs to be said/done.  However, I'd bet that 
most of the people on this list have day jobs and are pretty busy people 
so it may be difficult to coax them away for some time.  Perhaps a 
petition or simply encouraging people to voice their complaints would be 
sufficient?

Tom Watts
wattst-dxuVLtCph9gsA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org
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